TT 569: Timo Andres and Aaron Diehl
concert at Zankel Hall
Last night American music leveled up! Pianistic virtuosity, groove rhythm, and long-term structural control aligned in a way that had never quite been previously achieved.
A century ago jazz happened, and for a moment it looked like the American classical composers (Gershwin, Copland, Barber) were going to make blues and ragtime part of the sonata and symphony idiom. But that blend was elbowed out first by disjunct high modernism (Babbitt and Carter) and then straight up and down minimalism (Glass and Reich).
A lot was left on the table, and in the current free-for-all of postmodernism, bright lights such as Derek Bermel and Tania León have been working on bringing back soulful syncopation to formal composition.
But there are two sides to this fusion: Writing the music is one thing, playing it is another. That’s the unprecedented part: Aaron Diehl and Timo Andres can play the beat for real. The concert concluded with my lips from speaking by Julia Wolfe, a long process piece based on a fragment of Aretha Franklin. It’s an intellectual gambit, an atomizing of a riff, a deconstruction of an emotion: part noise, part space. But as the piece evolves, the beat starts coming out. By midpoint, the audience at Zankel was helplessly grooving to the syncopated rhythm.
I have never heard this hall turned into a club before.
Timo Andres How can I live in your world of ideas? One of two movements presented from the youthful Shy and Mighty cycle. A funk riff in C minor is interrupted by quotations rather in the manner of Charles Ives.
Ellington/Strayhorn Tonk Billy Strayhorn wrote this a party piece for his new employer. Their recording is classic, and in the 21st Century the work is proving to be especially valuable for so many trying to find a new middle ground. Diehl is the jazz cat, he swung out when blowing, he was so authoritative it was almost comical. But: Andres improvised as well, and improvised in tempo. A new day.
Francis Poulenc Sonata for piano four-hands Andres joked that this nice pattern of neoclassicism was the shortest sonata in the repertoire.
Timo Andres Pavane (pour un compositeur défunt) A hint of pure gospel in E-flat interfaces with esoteric high decoration. Also from the Shy and Mighty cycle.
J.S. Bach Fugue from Concerto for two harpsichords in C major Wow! As fast as possible! The effect was not unlike Bud Powell blasting out “52nd St Theme” before the set break.
Thelonious Monk Green Chimneys This was Diehl’s arrangement, and the sophisticated rhythmic layering recalled György Ligeti on one hand and Jeff “Tain” Watts on the other.
Andres/Monk Monk Nocturnes Two ballads and a blues—night pieces—were given the full oblique Andres treatment. “Crepuscule With Nellie,” “Misterioso,” and “‘Round Midnight.”
Julia Wolfe my lips from speaking Bang On a Can and associates worldwide were definitely rhythmic in the Post Classical idiom going into the turn of century. Of course they were, and god bless them all for moving the needle. But the composer herself indicated in conversation afterward that this Zankel performance was a new level of realization simply in terms of rhythmic intensity. Due credit to Andres and Diehl for making this work—now 33 years old and not exactly established in the repertoire—the closing epic statement for a revolutionary concert. It was as if a great idea was finally understood.
Encore: Ellington A Single Petal of a Rose played straight by Diehl and transfigured by Andres.
"A Single Petal of a Rose" is one of the most beautiful tunes of the 20th century. Glad that more people are revisiting it.
This is a concert I was very very sad to miss!!! Two giants of our time.