(New Amsterdam Records, digital)
Adam Tendler is known as one of contemporary classical music’s most intentional and daring pianists. Indeed, the Barre native’s latest project, Inheritances, is an intimate, gratifying endeavor achieved through a remarkable bond with his expanding network of renowned musicians.
Released on New Amsterdam Records in December, it features 16 works for solo piano. Tendler commissioned them from accomplished colleagues to help him mourn his late father and make peace with what had become a distant relationship.
After Tendler’s father died unexpectedly in late 2019, his stepmother asked to meet him at a Denny’s on the Vermont-New Hampshire border, where she handed him a manila envelope full of cash. His inheritance was a surprise, but the amount wouldn’t stretch far in New York City, where Tendler lives, performs and teaches on the New York University piano faculty.
Instead, Tendler used the inheritance to finance a more meaningful way to remember his father – assembling a cast of respected collaborators to create new works for the piano. He received compositions from the likes of Missy Mazzoli, Devonté Hynes and Nico Muhly, the last of whom grew up in Vermont about 30 minutes from Tendler and later befriended him in New York.
When composer Scott Wollschleger inquired with specific questions, Tendler provided elaborate, revealing answers. He shared these thoughts with all of his collaborators, offering up not just memories and stories but also recordings, photos and keepsakes.
The additional input helped inspire the composers as they recalled their own — in some cases, private — experiences with death and what was left behind.
After receiving critical acclaim as a recital, Inheritances is now available in recorded form. It confirms Tendler’s reputation as a bold and instinctive soloist, one whose delicacy matches his intensity.
It also demonstrates his willingness to try fresh concepts, including the opener, “Remember, I Created You,” which uses clips from an AI program developed by its composer, Laurie Anderson. The snippets establish a theme that pairs Tendler’s memories of his dad with his father’s actual words, which are echoed in the recording.
On “Thank You So Much” by Pamela Z, keys imitate jumbled audio recordings of Tendler speaking about experimental composer and music theorist John Cage, but the playful questions sound as if they’re asked of his late father.
Other numbers are more demonstrative of the deep reflection that went into the project, like “The Plum Tree I Planted Still There,” written by New Amsterdam Records cofounder Sarah Kirkland Snider, and “hushing,” a rumbling meditation by composer inti figgis-vizueta.
“Eiris, Sones,” Muhly’s contribution to the project, is one of its most thought-provoking. As Tendler ambles through the music with an arresting delicacy, his sadness and his blurry understanding of his father become universally relatable.
In Darian Donovan Thomas’ adrift “We Don’t Need to Tend This Garden, They’re Wildflowers,” Tendler grapples with his confusion about his father in the wake of his death. It’s a heartrending, symbolic assessment of his and his dad’s relationship that hears Tendler rambling and reminiscing, begging questions that might never be answered. “What’s going on behind that door, Dad?” he repeats and later asks, “Who are you, Dad? Where are you going, Dad? What are you doing, Dad?”
The album closer, “Morning Piece” by Devonté Hynes, is yet another work that benefits from Tendler’s supple touch. With it he bids a quiet, fitting farewell to his father.
Inheritances is available on all major streaming platforms and can be purchased on CD at adamtendler.bandcamp.com.
This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 4, 2025.
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