Anna Clyne & The Knights' SHORTHAND Released
SHORTHAND, released on Sony Classical on August 23, features music by Anna Clyne performed by Avi Avital, Colin Jacobsen, Pekka Kuusisto, and Yo-Yo Ma.
Composer Anna Clyne and New York-based ensemble The Knights announce their new Sony Classical album, SHORTHAND, set for release on August 23. SHORTHAND explores the sound of strings through a collection of works that represent and reflect artistic friendships and the power of collaboration and features performances by mandolinist Avi Avital, violinists Colin Jacobsen and Pekka Kuusisto, plus cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
> Listen to the track Three Sisters
The Knights’ Artistic Directors Colin Jacobsen and Eric Jacobsen and composer Anna Clyne note:
SHORTHAND represents over two decades of artistic friendships and collaborations—each of the artists on this album has played an important part in our artistic lives. It has brought together so many creative spirits and it has been an honor to record these works with them all. Over the span of two years, starting at the Clark Art Institute in Massachusetts to Power Station Studios in New York City, we have come together to create this special album that we are excited to share with you.
SHORTHAND brings together a host of internationally acclaimed artists and presents new interpretations of Anna Clyne’s music, including its title track, Shorthand for cello and string orchestra, recorded here with Yo-Yo Ma. Three Sisters is performed by its dedicatee, mandolinist Avi Avital, and Clyne’s double violin concerto Prince of Clouds places violinists Colin Jacobsen and Pekka Kuusisto in the spotlight. With works spanning more than a decade, SHORTHAND presents musical conversations between the soloists and The Knights, and within the ensemble itself. The album was recorded by close collaborator, Grammy Award-winning audio engineer Jody Elff.
SHORTHAND also features Clyne’s most personal work, Within Her Arms, written as a tribute to her late mother. Scored for 15 individual string parts, the music is shaped around a simple motif that grows and moves around the listener throughout the piece. The title is taken from a poem by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist, Thich Nhat Hanh.
Earth will keep you tight within her arms dear one—
So that tomorrow you will be transformed into flowers—
This flower smiling quietly in this morning field—
This morning you will weep no more dear one—
For we have gone through too deep a night.
This morning, yes, this morning, I kneel down on the green grass—
And I notice your presence.
Flowers, that speak to me in silence.
The message of love and understanding has indeed come.
—Thich Nhat Hanh
(From “Message” in Call Me By My True Names, 1999, with permission of Parallax Press)
Poetry, art, and music are reflected throughout the album, with Prince of Clouds drawing on Baudelaire’s poem L’Albatros. Three Sisters reflects on three stars found in the constellation of Orion, while Shorthand muses on Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata and the novella by Tolstoy of the same name. The album also features the premiere recording of Shorthand (Redux), a reimagining of Clyne’s thoughtful work.