Adam Tendler — Inheritances

INHERITANCES

Adam Tendler

On Friday December 06, 2024, Adam Tendler (he/him), the “relentlessly adventurous pianist” (Washington Post) known for his “stark, energetic, and physical” (Sequenza 21) performances releases his new album, Inheritances, via New Amsterdam Records.

After his father’s unexpected death, Tendler used his complete inheritance, an envelope full of cash received in a parking lot, to commission a broad spectrum of today’s most sought after composers—also his friends—to compose piano works exploring the theme of ‘inheritance’ itself. Woven into a single intimate program of “little masterpieces” (New York Times), each reflecting a “melancholy beauty beyond conventions” (Pioneer Press), this “wildly unexpected” (Star Tribune) program tells a universal story of lineage, loss, and place, and has moved audiences internationally. Garnering national media attention since its premiere, Inheritances has become a powerful meditation on confronting our past, and a catalyst for countless listeners to move forward.

Produced by Grammy-winning engineer Judith Sherman, this much-anticipated album features new works by an all-star lineup including Laurie Anderson, Devonté Hynes, Nico Muhly, inti figgis-vizueta, Pamela Z, Ted Hearne, Angélica Negrón, Christopher Cerrone, Marcos Balter, Missy Mazzoli, Darian Donovan Thomas, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Scott Wollschleger, Mary Prescott, Timo Andres, and John Glover.

“January 18, 2020
Hello Friends.
As you may know, in October my father died. It came as a surprise and the circumstances aren’t entirely clear. We had a close relationship in my childhood that, for any number of reasons (loss of love not among them) grew more distant, or at least quieter, over time. I last talked to him on Father’s Day.
He left me cash as my inheritance. He kept cash, so I heard, in case of a revolution. My stepmother gave it to me in a parked car on New Year's Day outside of a Denny's in West Lebanon, NH. To plant that cash in the soil of something that may actually grow and—if you'll forgive me—live on, I have decided to commission piano pieces from composers whom I care about and whose work I admire. You are one of them.
I know how fiendishly busy you all are, and that this will be more a favor than a commission, so I understand if you wish to pass for any reason. If you do accept, though, I trust your instincts in responding to the commission and taking the piece in any direction you choose. I'm also happy to answer every question you may have; personal, musical or otherwise. This music may all one day share a concert program, a recording… but right now it's largely a "we'll see." While the actual platform develops, the only thing I ask is that you let me live with these works until I find them a home, together—somewhere.”
In an appearance on the nationally-syndicated Tamron Hall Show, Tendler described Inheritances as “a vessel for my grief,” an image he also detailed in his widely-read New York Times essay. “The goal for Inheritances, from the start, had been to provide a vessel through which I could connect to my elusive father, process my grief and reconcile with my past. But I also hoped that writing these pieces would provide a similar vessel for the composers, and ultimately that this shared experience would extend to our listeners.”
Some highlights of the album include the “artistic curveball” (Stir, Vancouver) of Laurie Anderson’s “Remember, I Created You”, we hear Anderson’s voice reading a poem addressed to one’s father, interspersed with instructions for the pianist. Tendler explains: “Laurie read dozens of pages of testimony I wrote about my father's and my complex relationship, and collected photographs of him and us as well. She then shaped the piece by feeding these materials into an A-I program she developed with the Machine Learning Institute, Adelaide Australia.”
Mazzoli’s “Forgiveness Machine” is a gnashing toccata to be played, in the composer’s words, “mechanical and heartbreaking” in the extremes of the keyboard. Tendler performed an excerpt of this work on network television, in the Tamron Hall Show.
Pamela Z scoured the internet for interviews of Tendler and chopped them up to create a pseudo spoken word reharmonization of fragments, tightly coordinated with a live piano score. The piece takes inspiration from John Cage. Z explains: “Knowing that Adam has come to be known as quite the Cage interpreter, I felt that he probably “inherited” at least as much from him as he did from his father. I had some fun with intermingling and blurring the lines between those relationships.”
Inti Figgis-Vizueta’s “Hushing” begins a pivot of catharsis on the album with its physically demanding nature and intense chordal pounding. Tendler says, “inti’s piece is very cathartic and visceral. It’s a turning point in the program. The wheels fall off and everything starts to fall apart. It’s a banger, and one of the most demanding and transcendent pieces in my repertoire.”
Nico Muhly’s “Eiris, Sones” is a yearning memory piece with lush harmony. “I wrote a simple chorale,” says Muhly, “and set a piece of text from the book of Proverbs (in the Wycliffe translation, from 1382). The pianist is required to play the chorale and the tune at the same time, only imagining the words: ‘A good man schal leeue aftir him eiris, sones, and the sones of sones; and the catel of a synnere is kept to a just man.’
Angelica Negrón’s bouncing and playful “You Were My Age” explores themes of identity and relationship. Negrón elaborates: “When my grandmother passed away last year, I traveled to Puerto Rico to help my mom clean her home in which my grandmother lived with her. As I was going through old documents I also found old photographs of my mom. At that moment I had a sudden realization: my mother was once my age. This piece seeks to embody the essence of my perception of my mother when she was my age through the lens of a single image captured a long time ago.”
Chris Cerrone’s “Area of Refuge” cascades like a willow as a central polyrhythm spins around itself while contrasting low and high extremes of the piano ring on. In the composer's words, the piece lives “suspended, emotionally unclear, and without resolution.” The feelings are reminiscent of “a small corner waiting area in the hospital where I recently spent the days waiting upon my father during the last days of his life. The space seemed to symbolize a kind of limbo, a place of waiting, pain, but also refuge.”
The last two pieces on the album help us reach an emotional peak and gently close the door on the journey Tendler has taken us on. Tendler calls Darian Donovan Thomas’ “We don’t need to tend this garden. They’re wildflowers“ a “kind of public therapy session.” The false start on the album version of this piece encompasses Tendler’s idea of embracing imperfection and immediacy, as well as the intimacy of the Inheritances recording session, while the spoken word and singing give us a clear insight into Tendler’s relationship with his father.
“Rapturous” (San Francisco Classical Voice) closer “Morning Piece” by Devonté Hynes, “unfolds,” as Tendler remarks, “in three sections, the beginning of each marked by pulsing chords, which indeed appear differently each time. These chords eventually close the piece and fade — though I often use the word “collapse” — into silence.”

Tracklist
1. Remember, I Created You (Laurie Anderson)
2. Forgiveness Machine (Missy Mazzoli)
3. In the City of Shy Hunters (John Glover)
4. Thank You So Much (Pamela Z)
5. Outsider Song (Scott Wollschleger)
6. the plum tree I planted still there (Sarah Kirkland Snider)
7. An Open Book (Timo Andres)
8. hushing (inti figgis-vizueta)
9. Eires Sones (Nico Muhly)
10. False Memories (Marcos Balter)
11. What It Becomes (Mary Prescott)
12. Inheritance (Ted Hearne)
13. You Were My Age (Angélica Negrón)
14. Area of Refuge (Christopher Cerrone)
15. We don't need to tend this garden. They're wildflowers (Darian Donovan Thomas)
16. Morning Piece (Devonté Hynes)
Credits
Executive Producer:
Anthony B Creamer III
Recorded March 2 & 3, 2024, at Oktaven Audio, Mount Vernon, NY
Produced by Judith Sherman
Engineered by Charles Mueller
Engineering and editing assistant: Jeanne Velonis
Additional mixing by Charles Mueller (Wollschleger and Cerrone)
Piano technician: Michael Jurewicz
Mastered by Jeanne Velonis and Judith Sherman
Album Artwork: Brock Lefferts