TT 266: Timo Andres, the Rhythm Man

Composer and Pianist of the New and Now

American concert music is refreshed by dance and diaspora.

In the liner notes to his first album Home Stretch, Timo Andres said something that caught my eye:

“It’s particularly interesting to me when I hear a pianist who has great rhythmic control, and great control of dynamics. They’re not the things you think of when you think of a virtuoso pianist, but they’re things that can support a virtuoso performance in a really compelling way.”

Great rhythmic control! Very good point. All too often the discussion of classical music is light on rhythm.

Andres plays as well as composes, where he walks the walk as well as talks the talk. The first page of his wonderful “Honest Labor” would be impossible to render without great time. As the piece evolves from modest beginnings, the harmonies become more and more abstract, yet the beat never falters. This kind of process music is not wildly uncommon from composers of the recent two decades, but Andres’s sophisticated ear and performance practice is unique.

Andres has played Beethoven, Mozart, and Chopin in recital; he also has performed living composers as diverse as Christopher Cerrone and Thomas Adès. For the Sono Fest! series at Soapbox Gallery next week, Andres is giving a window into his rhythmic sensibility: Joplin rags and Chopin Mazurkas, framed by contemporary pieces by Robin Holcomb (another practitioner of sophisticated rhythm) and the pianist himself (including “Honest Labor”).

Robin Holcomb Wherein Lies the Good

Frédéric Chopin Mazurka Op. 24 no. 2

Scott Joplin Magnetic Rag

Chopin Mazurka Op. 17 no. 1

Joplin Gladiolus Rag

Chopin Mazurka Op. 59 no. 3

Joplin A Breeze From Alabama

Chopin Mazurka Op. 24, no. 4

Joplin Euphonic Sounds

Chopin Mazurka Op. 56 no. 1

Joplin Paragon Rag

Timo Andres Wise Words

Andres Honest Labor

In the Joplin, Andres might be swinging the eighths and decorating with improvised ornamentation. In terms of the mazurkas, Andres is intrigued by how richly detailed the composer’s scores are, and points out that Chopin broke new ground in the history of piano notation.

Andres also mentioned that one can listen to Ignaz Friedman play Chopin and James P. Johnson play Joplin! (This comment is very much to this curator’s taste.) Those records were made around the same time in the first part of the last century…

Ok, so who is going to commission Andres to write his own rags and mazurkas?

Many significant American composers start from an American first principle: To make your way in the culture, one must understand varied and far-flung idioms. Timo Andres offers a perfect model of this process.

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Coda: Timo’s program prompted me to go back and re-listen to Robin Holcomb, her second album, released 1990 on Elektra Records. I had this in high school and played it a lot. In retrospect it seems ahead of its time.

I bought the CD because Bill Frisell was in the band, and just looked up the excellent Danny Frankel: he was Lou Reed's drummer, but his self-proclaimed primary influence was Paul Motian.

At some point I will have to make time to do a survey of Robin Holcomb…