I Still Play

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I Still Play is eleven new solo piano compositions by artists who have recorded for Nonesuch Records, written in honor of the label’s longtime President Bob Hurwitz on the occasion of his 2017 shift into the Chairman Emeritus role. The album features works by John Adams, Laurie Anderson, Timo Andres, Louis Andriessen, Donnacha Dennehy, Philip Glass, Nico Muhly, Brad Mehldau, Steve Reich, Pat Metheny, and Randy Newman, performed by Andres, Mehldau, Newman, and Jeremy Denk.

Description

Nonesuch Records released I Still Play, an album comprising eleven new solo piano compositions written by artists who have recorded for the label, on May 22, 2020. The pieces were written in honor of the label's longtime President Bob Hurwitz on the occasion of his 2017 shift into the Chairman Emeritus role after running the label for thirty-two years. I Still Play features works by John Adams, Laurie Anderson, Timo Andres, Louis Andriessen, Donnacha Dennehy, Philip Glass, Nico Muhly, Brad Mehldau, Steve Reich, Pat Metheny, and Randy Newman. The pieces have been recorded by Andres and fellow Nonesuch artist Jeremy Denk, as well as by Mehldau and Newman themselves.

The pieces were first performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in 2017, at a concert celebrating Hurwitz's tenure at the label. His longtime friend and colleague, current Nonesuch President David Bither, says, "Bob's great friend John Adams deserves credit for the idea at the core of this recording. I enlisted his help in thinking of how we might honor Bob. A few weeks later he suggested that we ask the composers who had worked so closely with Bob to each write him a new piece of music. An honorable suggestion, but with a twist.

"Bob is a pianist and since he was a child has played virtually every day of his life," Bither continues. "He has said many times that this practice has had a profound influence on how he listens to music. John's suggestion was that each composer write something that was not a concert piece but that an accomplished pianist like Bob might play."

Timo Andres, who recorded the majority of the compositions for this record, says in his liner note, "Each of these eleven tributes to Bob Hurwitz was written for an audience of one, on a particular Steinway in a specific Upper West Side living room. Each distills an aspect of its author's voice to a concentrated miniature. The prevailing tone is conversational rather than declamatory, though it's a wide-ranging conversation. Large questions are posed but rarely answered in full." He adds, "If the listener has the odd feeling of having stumbled into an exchange between two friends and missing an inside joke or shared reference here and there—that's not far from the truth."

ProductionCredits

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Tracks 1-3, 5, 6, 8, 10
Produced and engineered by Adam Abeshouse
Recorded April 1, 2019 at Westchester Studios, Westchester, NY

Track 4
Produced and engineered by Adam Abeshouse
Recorded March 23, 2017 at Westchester Studios, Westchester, NY

Tracks 7 & 9
Produced by Brad Mehldau
Engineered by Ryan Streber
Recorded July 27, 2019 at Oktaven Audio, Mt. Vernon, NY

Track 11
Produced by Mitchell Froom
Engineered by David Boucher
Recorded May 31, 2019 at Area A, Los Angeles, CA

Album mastered by Robert C. Ludwig at Gateway Mastering, Portland, ME

Design by Barbara de Wilde
Cover and booklet photographs by Michael Wilson
Photograph of Robert Hurwitz by Chad Batka

Executive Producer: David Bither

ns_album_releasedate
Album Status
Artist Name
Timo Andres
Jeremy Denk
Brad Mehldau
Randy Newman
MusicianDetails

MUSICIANS
Timo Andres, piano
Jeremy Denk, piano
Brad Mehldau, piano
Randy Newman, piano

reissues?
new-release
Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
CD+MP3
Price
13.00
UPC
075597920826
Label
FLAC
Price
10.00
UPC
075597920840
Label
MP3
Price
9.00
UPC
075597920857

News & Reviews

  • Brad Mehldau’s After Bach II and Après Fauré are due May 10 on Nonesuch Records. The Bach album comprises four preludes and one fugue from the Well-Tempered Clavier, as well as the Allemande from the fourth Partita, interspersed with seven compositions or improvisations by Mehldau inspired by the complementary works of Bach—including Mehldau’s Variations on Bach’s Goldberg Theme. On Après Fauré, Mehldau performs four nocturnes, from a thirty-seven-year span of Gabriel Fauré’s career, as well as a reduction of an excerpt from the Adagio movement of his Piano Quartet in G Minor. Here Mehldau’s four compositions that Fauré inspired are presented in a group, bookended by two sections featuring the French composer’s works.

  • The 2024 Big Ears Festival is next week, taking place in venues throughout downtown Knoxville, TN, March 21–24, with more than a dozen Nonesuch artists past, present, and future performing as part of the label's 60th anniversary celebrations. In addition to all of the music and film offerings, Big Ears also hosts a number of artist conversations with music journalists Ann Powers and Nate Chinen, including talks with Sam Amidon, Laurie Anderson, Darcy James Argue, Rhiannon Giddens, Mary Halvorson, Robin Holcomb, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Brad Mehldau, Davóne Tines, and Yasmin Williams.

  • About This Album

    Nonesuch Records released I Still Play, an album comprising eleven new solo piano compositions written by artists who have recorded for the label, on May 22, 2020. The pieces were written in honor of the label's longtime President Bob Hurwitz on the occasion of his 2017 shift into the Chairman Emeritus role after running the label for thirty-two years. I Still Play features works by John Adams, Laurie Anderson, Timo Andres, Louis Andriessen, Donnacha Dennehy, Philip Glass, Nico Muhly, Brad Mehldau, Steve Reich, Pat Metheny, and Randy Newman. The pieces have been recorded by Andres and fellow Nonesuch artist Jeremy Denk, as well as by Mehldau and Newman themselves.

    The pieces were first performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in 2017, at a concert celebrating Hurwitz's tenure at the label. His longtime friend and colleague, current Nonesuch President David Bither, says, "Bob's great friend John Adams deserves credit for the idea at the core of this recording. I enlisted his help in thinking of how we might honor Bob. A few weeks later he suggested that we ask the composers who had worked so closely with Bob to each write him a new piece of music. An honorable suggestion, but with a twist.

    "Bob is a pianist and since he was a child has played virtually every day of his life," Bither continues. "He has said many times that this practice has had a profound influence on how he listens to music. John's suggestion was that each composer write something that was not a concert piece but that an accomplished pianist like Bob might play."

    Timo Andres, who recorded the majority of the compositions for this record, says in his liner note, "Each of these eleven tributes to Bob Hurwitz was written for an audience of one, on a particular Steinway in a specific Upper West Side living room. Each distills an aspect of its author's voice to a concentrated miniature. The prevailing tone is conversational rather than declamatory, though it's a wide-ranging conversation. Large questions are posed but rarely answered in full." He adds, "If the listener has the odd feeling of having stumbled into an exchange between two friends and missing an inside joke or shared reference here and there—that's not far from the truth."

    Credits

    MUSICIANS
    Timo Andres, piano
    Jeremy Denk, piano
    Brad Mehldau, piano
    Randy Newman, piano

    PRODUCTION CREDITS
    Tracks 1-3, 5, 6, 8, 10
    Produced and engineered by Adam Abeshouse
    Recorded April 1, 2019 at Westchester Studios, Westchester, NY

    Track 4
    Produced and engineered by Adam Abeshouse
    Recorded March 23, 2017 at Westchester Studios, Westchester, NY

    Tracks 7 & 9
    Produced by Brad Mehldau
    Engineered by Ryan Streber
    Recorded July 27, 2019 at Oktaven Audio, Mt. Vernon, NY

    Track 11
    Produced by Mitchell Froom
    Engineered by David Boucher
    Recorded May 31, 2019 at Area A, Los Angeles, CA

    Album mastered by Robert C. Ludwig at Gateway Mastering, Portland, ME

    Design by Barbara de Wilde
    Cover and booklet photographs by Michael Wilson
    Photograph of Robert Hurwitz by Chad Batka

    Executive Producer: David Bither

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