Two New Works by Timo Andres

by Ted Gordon on Nov. 18, 2015, 10:02 a.m.

It's hard to claim a real achievement in the month of November. For many, surviving the transition to colder weather, the pressures of the work week, and the onslaught of holiday advertising is enough. But PSNY composer Timo Andres is different: on top of his performing career, which saw him perform Christopher Cerrone's Sonata for Violin and Piano with Tim Fain at LPR earlier this month, he'll also see two new compositions premiered by the Takács Quartet and Jonathan Biss with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. 

Andres' new string quartet Strong Language premiered on November 15th at Shriver Hall. The Baltimore Sun praised Andres' piece for creating "fascinating little journeys" in a "clear, vivid, and commanding" performance by the Takács Quartet. On November 19th, the piece will be performed again at Carnegie Hall, which co-commissioned the work. With three movements lasting roughly 23 minutes, Strong Language is a concise exploration of three musical ideas, one per movement. Get a taste with an excerpt from Andres's earlier string quartet, Thrive on Routine:

As Andres describes, The Blind Banister, his new piano concerto for Jonathan Biss and the SPCO, is a kind of "fraternal twin" to Strong Language; the pieces were written back-to-back, and share a 3-movement structure. However, Andres' piano concerto sees him writing for much larger forces— including, for the first time, timpani. In the meantime (and if you can't make it to Saint Paul for the premiere), check out a sample of Andres's recent completion of the Mozart "Coronation" Concerto:

Hannah Lash Premieres Two Works with ACO and Ensemble Intercontemporain

by Ted Gordon on Oct. 20, 2015, 11:48 a.m.

In the next two months, two new works by PSNY composer Hannah Lash will be heard by audiences in New York and Washington, D.C. On October 23rd, Lash premieres her new Concerto for Harp and Chamber Orchestra with the American Composers Orchestra, as a part of their SONiC Festival, at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. George Manahan conducts, with Lash herself as soloist. For the concerto, Lash was concerned with taking on "all the ramifications of our perception of this instrument's character," creating a work that is "mysterious and beautiful and at the same time fearful, aggresive, lonely."

To get a sense of what some call her "avant-garde post-romantic" style, check out this in-depth interview produced by Harvard Magazine: 

Some weeks later, Lash will see a second world-premiere of a brand-new work by Ensemble Intercontemporain, led by Matthias Pintscher. Commissioned by the McKim Fund in the Library of Congress, Lash's Two Movements for Violin and Piano premieres at the Library of Congress on November 13th. This new work will be heard alongside works by Berg, Varèse, Ligeti, and the U.S. Premiere of Now I & II from Profiles of Light by Matthias Pintscher.  

New Works by Timo Andres on PSNY

by Ted Gordon on Oct. 6, 2015, 12:30 p.m.

Timo Andres: modern troubadour. No, he doesn't wander the French countryside singing Occitan poetry. But like a troubadour, Andres has been performing and composing across the country, commissioned by modern patrons such as Carnegie Hall and the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival for fellow performers such as yMusic, eighth blackbird, and pianists Bruce Levingston and Kristin Elgersma. We're proud to offer a batch of Andres' latest works for direct download on PSNY. 

To begin, consider two new works for solo piano: Clear and Cold, and Heavy Sleep. Both highlight Timo's nuanced take on composers of the past—Ravel and Chopin, respectively—and offer new interpretations on the terrors and pleasures of melancholy and somnambulation. Check out this excerpt from Heavy Sleep: 

Andres' new works for chamber ensembles expand his palette to include many more hands and instruments than his own two at the piano. Andres describes Safe Travels, composed for yMusic, as "a short, peripatetic piece built on a constantly-shifting harmonic pattern"; these shifts remind the listener of the experience of travel, with its endless, shifting patterns, traversing the gamut of harmonic possibilities.

Checkered Shade, written for eighth blackbird, takes the pen-and-ink drawings of Astrid Bowlby as its metaphorical inspiration. The piece mirrors the experience of seeing Bowlby's work: an intense attention to detail, slowly followed by the realization that the small pattern also constitutes a much more complex whole.