The Blind Banister made it onto three “best albums of 2024” lists (that I’m aware of): The New York Times, NPR, and Gramo­phone. Since few publi­ca­tions review them now, it’s diffi­cult to gauge a new album’s recep­tion until such year-end deluges are tabu­lated. In karmic return, I’ll offer a recom­men­da­tion of my own: Stefan Jackiw and Jeremy Denk’s new record­ing of the Ives violin sonatas, which I don’t think I’ve ever heard played with such under­stand­ing, wit, and—not unimportantly—accuracy.

A couple of my pieces have appeared on friends’ albums over the past few months: most recently Adam Tendler’s sensi­tive reading of An Open Book, which I wrote for him in 2022 for the Inher­i­tances project. Speaking of long-gestat­ing solo piano projects, David Kaplan’s New Dances of the League of David has finally emerged, worth the wait. It contains some stun­ningly daring Schumann playing as well as my own trifle Saccades, written for the project in 2014 (!). More ancient history making recent news: an arrange­ment of Out Of Shape (from 2007’s Shy and Mighty) for two pianos and two electric guitars, recorded by the estimable quartet of Marielle and Katia Labèque, David Chalmin, and Bryce Dessner. I’ve also been working with Bryce recently on a few of his film scores; you can hear my piano playing (and my very own piano) on the sound­tracks of We Live In Time, A Good Person, and She Came To Me (catch it on your next Delta flight).

Other news: the long essay I’ve been writing on and off since 2020 on the complete works of Steve Reich will accom­pany None­such’s 27–CD festschrift, due in March 2025. Think of it as a “listen­er’s guide” from the somewhat partic­u­lar perspec­tive of a fellow composer. Grateful to all who made this happen: Bob Hurwitz for asking me to write it, Karina Beznicki and David Bither for shep­herd­ing the project along over the years, Sidney Chen and Maya Bouvier-Lyons for their edito­r­ial over­sight, to Katharine Andres for being, as always, my primary reader and most merci­less editor, and of course to Steve for sharing his time, insights, and recollections.

I’ve just yester­day finished one last piece for 2024, which is a hefty solo piano work for Jeffrey Kahane called Simple Secrets. It’s a contin­u­ous 25–minute movement with no slow sections; wish him luck! The plan is that we will get to hear it at some point in the 25–26 season; stay tuned.