Timo Andres: Tiny Desk Concert

Timo Andres: Tiny Desk Concert with tags npr, npr music, national public radio, live, performance, tiny desk, tiny desk concert, tony desk, tiny concert

Tom Huizenga | February 7, 2024

It's a longstanding tradition for musicians to leave a small something-or-other on the thoroughly disorganized wall of "stuff" that backdrops our Tiny Desk. My favorite is the Johann Sebastian Bach bobblehead.

But now, move over Bach. Here comes Philip Glass.

When Timo Andres arrived at our office to play a pair of etudes by Philip Glass, the director of Glass' publishing house, Adrienne White, tagged along and generously donated the only remaining Philip Glass bobblehead to NPR — an appropriate gesture to mark the composer's 87th birthday on Jan. 31.

The wiggly statue depicts Glass standing at one of his trusty Farfisa organs, an instrument associated with the early days of his career when he played intricate patterns over and over in his SoHo loft, as fans and fellow musicians, like Laurie Anderson, laid on the floor and let the music wash over them.

Much of Glass' music can have that transforming, mesmerizing effect, including these two etudes. They are opposite twins from a set of 20, pieces Glass wrote over a two-decade span, beginning in the early 1990s. Andres knows the music intimately — he helped edit and design a gorgeous new folio facsimile of the sheet music.

With Etude No. 6, Andres combines sewing machine precision with a deep feeling for Glass' melodies, stitching together delicate arpeggios and thundering chords. Etude No. 5 is, by contrast, a meditation in slow motion. A see-sawing rhythmic idea sets the foundation for a journey wherein time seems to stand almost still while the spaces between the notes speak volumes.

SET LIST

Philip Glass: Etude No. 6

Philip Glass: Etude No. 5

MUSICIANS

Timo Andres: piano

TINY DESK TEAM

Producer: Tom Huizenga

Director/Editor: Maia Stern

Audio Technical Director: Neil Tevault

Series Producer: Bobby Carter

Videographers: Maia Stern, Kara Frame

Audio Engineer: Phil Edfors

Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer

Photographer: Elizabeth Gillis

Tiny Desk Team: Joshua Bryant, Hazel Cills

Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed

Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson

VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins

#nprmusic #tinydesk #timoandres #philipglass