Shy and Mighty

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DescriptionExcerpt

On his debut album, pianist-composer Timo Andres offers what the New York Times calls "a richly imaginative 10-movement work for two pianos," performed by Andres and pianist David Kaplan. The New Yorker calls it "the kind of sprawling, brazen work that a young composer should write," achieving "an unhurried grandeur that has rarely been felt in American music since John Adams came on the scene."

Description

Nonesuch releases composer/pianist Timothy (Timo) Andres’s Shy and Mighty on May 18, 2010. Comprising 10 interrelated piano pieces, Shy and Mighty is performed by Andres and pianist David Kaplan. This is the first recording of the work, and also Andres’ label debut.

Andres was an undergraduate at Yale University when critics and fellow composers began to take notice of his skills as both writer and pianist. In 2004, the New Yorker’s Alex Ross said of him: “He is a formidable pianist who has the measure of Charles Ives’s towering Concord Sonata. He is also a composer ... Most notably, his music is beginning to show an individual voice, which is the hardest thing for a composer to achieve.”

Though steeped in the classical canon, Andres has expressed his admiration for a range of artists, like Radiohead, Brian Eno, Múm, Sigur Rós, Wolf Parade, Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, Olivia Tremor Control, and Boards of Canada. His classical influences include John Adams, Charles Ives, György Ligeti, and his former teachers, Ingram Marshall and Martin Bresnick.

While each track stands on its own, Andres conceived of Shy and Mighty as an album-length work. As Andres says in the album’s liner notes: “When I sat down to write Shy and Mighty, this was very clearly my goal for it—that I would write an album for two pianos. I was very focused on the recorded medium—even though this is obviously something that works live, that was somehow secondary. The two albums that really did it for me were Olivia Tremor Control’s Black Foliage and Boards of Canada’s Music Has the Right to Children, both of which are structured in a similar way ... larger set pieces and little transitional things in between. And that’s what I set out to do—I didn’t end up writing too many miniatures, but that was the idea, anyway.”

ProductionCredits

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Produced and Edited by Timothy Andres
Recorded at the Fred Plaut Recording Studios at Yale University School of Music, in Morse Recital Hall, February 11, 2009
Engineer: Eugene Kimball
Mastered by Robert C. Ludwig at Gateway Mastering, Portland, ME

Design by Olly Moss
Photography by Michael Wilson

Nonesuch Selection Number

522413

Number of Discs in Set
1disc
Album Status
Artist Name
Timo Andres
MusicianDetails

MUSICIANS
Timothy Andres, piano
David Kaplan, piano

Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
CD+MP3
UPC
075597943207
Label
MP3
Price
9.00
UPC
075597980271
  • 522413

News & Reviews

  • Congratulations to all of the Nonesuch nominees for the 67th Grammy Awards: The Black Keys for Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song for "Beautiful People (Stay High)," from Ohio Players; Ambrose Akinmusire's Owl Song for Best Jazz Instrumental Album; John Adams's Girls of the Golden West for Best Opera Recording and Best Engineered Album, Classical; Timo Andres's The Blind Banister for Best Engineered Album, Classical; and Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion's Rectangles and Circumstance for Best Chamber Music / Small Ensemble Performance.

  • In celebration of Nonesuch Records' 60th anniversary, the label has partnered with photographer Michael Wilson—who has exquisitely captured dozens of Nonesuch artists over the past quarter-century—to produce Michael Wilson / 25 Years: A Nonesuch Collection, an extremely limited quantity of 100 box sets containing newly created prints from his Nonesuch archive, out now. You can take a quick look inside here. Designed by the Grammy-winning team at SMOG Design, each box comprises twenty 12" x 12" prints, numbered and signed by the photographer. Artists featured are Allen Toussaint, Ambrose Akinmusire, Audra McDonald, Bill Frisell, The Black Keys, Brad Mehldau, David Byrne, Dr. John, Emmylou Harris, Frederic Rzewski, Jeremy Denk, Kronos Quartet, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Manuel Galbán and Ry Cooder, Philip Glass, Randy Newman, Rhiannon Giddens, Stephin Merritt and Lemony Snicket, Steve Reich, and Timo Andres, who wrote a note for the box.

Buy Now

  • About This Album

    Nonesuch releases composer/pianist Timothy (Timo) Andres’s Shy and Mighty on May 18, 2010. Comprising 10 interrelated piano pieces, Shy and Mighty is performed by Andres and pianist David Kaplan. This is the first recording of the work, and also Andres’ label debut.

    Andres was an undergraduate at Yale University when critics and fellow composers began to take notice of his skills as both writer and pianist. In 2004, the New Yorker’s Alex Ross said of him: “He is a formidable pianist who has the measure of Charles Ives’s towering Concord Sonata. He is also a composer ... Most notably, his music is beginning to show an individual voice, which is the hardest thing for a composer to achieve.”

    Though steeped in the classical canon, Andres has expressed his admiration for a range of artists, like Radiohead, Brian Eno, Múm, Sigur Rós, Wolf Parade, Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, Olivia Tremor Control, and Boards of Canada. His classical influences include John Adams, Charles Ives, György Ligeti, and his former teachers, Ingram Marshall and Martin Bresnick.

    While each track stands on its own, Andres conceived of Shy and Mighty as an album-length work. As Andres says in the album’s liner notes: “When I sat down to write Shy and Mighty, this was very clearly my goal for it—that I would write an album for two pianos. I was very focused on the recorded medium—even though this is obviously something that works live, that was somehow secondary. The two albums that really did it for me were Olivia Tremor Control’s Black Foliage and Boards of Canada’s Music Has the Right to Children, both of which are structured in a similar way ... larger set pieces and little transitional things in between. And that’s what I set out to do—I didn’t end up writing too many miniatures, but that was the idea, anyway.”

    Credits

    MUSICIANS
    Timothy Andres, piano
    David Kaplan, piano

    PRODUCTION CREDITS
    Produced and Edited by Timothy Andres
    Recorded at the Fred Plaut Recording Studios at Yale University School of Music, in Morse Recital Hall, February 11, 2009
    Engineer: Eugene Kimball
    Mastered by Robert C. Ludwig at Gateway Mastering, Portland, ME

    Design by Olly Moss
    Photography by Michael Wilson