Anna Clyne: From the perspective of her collaborators

What makes a good partnership? For business partners communication might be key, for dance partners a pre-show ritual might be non-negotiable, and for partners in a marriage the secret could be as simple as never going to bed angry. But how about musical partnerships? Anna Clyne’s latest album SHORTHAND is a joint effort with Clyne’s long-term creative collaborators The Knights as well as friends across the industry including mandolinist Avi Avital, violinists Colin Jacobsen and Pekka Kuusisto, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Here Clyne sits down with each of the artists she brought together for this project to find out how they approached creative collaboration with the composer – and with each other.

Yo-Yo Ma performs alongside The Knights on SHORTHAND's title track ©The Knights & Great Sky Media

Yo-Yo Ma, cellist

AC: We have known each other now for 14 years and have worked together a few times. Why do you think musical friendship is so important in music-making?

You live and breathe in the magnificent world of imagination. I’ve known you for over 14 years, long before the start of our work together when you were composer in residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. You have a ‘shorthand’ into the world of the inner life, whether it is for the life of birds, for nature, or for human nature. 

Your piece Shorthand is about the inner life of a relationship, you relationship with your husband, Jody Elff, who like you, possesses a vast imagination. His is for the sound world and how it interacts with the natural world through technological means.

AC: What did you enjoy about the recording process?

Having worked before in different ways with you, Jody, and The Knights made the process of interpreting and recording Shorthand hugely enjoyable. There is simply no substitute for the joy of recording music by friends and with friends.

Colin Jacobsen in the studio during the SHORTHAND recording process ©The Knights & Great Sky Media

Colin Jacobsen, violinist, composer and co-founder of The Knights

Anna Clyne: You worked on this album with your brother Eric, who featured as conductor – was it strange to be working together? 

The Knights in general is very much a family affair – Eric and I founded the group around 20 years ago alongside close friends and colleagues and are the artistic directors to this day. I suppose in some fraternal relationships it would be difficult for the older sibling (me) to be conducted by one's younger sibling (Eric). But I think in our duties as artistic directors, in rehearsal, in planning programs, recordings and projects there is a healthy passing back and forth of a more metaphorical ‘baton’.

AC: You also performed with Pekka Kuusisto on the album – did performing in collaboration change the way that you would normally approach a performance?

I've had a musician-crush on Pekka for years, since we were both students at the Ravinia Festival's Steans Institute in Chicago! He's a great improviser as well as classical musician, a rare combination in this day and age, and is always looking for ways for music to be surprising, fresh and alive. Prince of Clouds, the piece of yours that we recorded together, is essentially a concerto grosso, the old baroque form where two or more soloists step to the fore and are in dialogue with each other and the larger whole. Pekka's ability to capture the ethereal feeling of some sections of the music and then change on a dime with the mercurial shifts in mood were a joy to play off.

AC: What makes this album stand out to you?

This album is a portrait of one of today's most compelling composers, with her music performed by some of the greatest soloists and collaborators of our time (Yo-Yo Ma, Avi Avital and Pekka Kuusisto). Your compositional voice is a deeply personal one, perhaps informed by the lush string writing of some of her British predecessors like Ralph Vaughan Williams, but completely contemporary and immediate as well. You juxtaposes some of the most tender writing of our time with explosive outbursts; of strands of melody and harmony that feel like they're from an older world with jagged dissonance. The Knights’s relationship with you, your music and the three collaborators has been built over many years and allows for a very cohesive feel to the performances and album as a whole.

Eric Jacobsen with Anna Clyne during the recording of SHORTHAND ©The Knights & Great Sky Media

Eric Jacobsen, conductor and co-founder of The Knights

AC: As the conductor for SHORTHAND, you immersed yourself in this strings soundworld – what were some of the most interesting outcomes? 

I would say that your use of strings is matchless, having so many individual solo voices that are only slightly different from other parts. You write in such a special way where the listener often hears the shadows of primary sounds surrounding the note itself, so it all builds to this very three-dimensional feeling as if the note that is intended has resonance both before and after it starts and stops. And that is such a beautiful thing to explore – in some ways, a listener must put aside their notion of what sound usually is for symphonic music, where it is typically the beginning and the end of a note. It creates this ethereal nature that is unique to your music and incredibly beautiful.

AC: What is your favourite memory from the recording process? 

This whole process was so much fun and something I will remember forever. It was especially neat to have you in the booth with us for the recordings. I think what is really special about you is that you value finding the music in the exploration of it: you allowed the music to be interpreted as we went along, through our discovery of it. It made it such a collaborative experience which I think really added to the ultimate artistry we found in each piece. 

AC: You conducted your brother Colin alongside Pekka in Prince of Clouds – what did you enjoy about working together?

I think the relationships of the people that are on this album – Pekka, Yo-Yo, and Avi, are relationships that my brother and I have had for so many years and have benefited from and grown with over the last two decades. Getting together with them as a way to unite this album felt so uniquely special. Colin and I both feel so lucky to get to perform your music but we also understand how great it is to get to feature these incredible artists and this amazing music that you wrote for them.

Avi Avital in the studio with The Knights ©The Knights & Great Sky Media

Avi Avital, mandolinist

AC: Not many musicians champion new music for their instruments as much as you do! What does it mean to have a composition dedicated to mandolin on this album?

Throughout the history of classical Western music, the mandolin has often been regarded as more of an amateur instrument, seldom finding its way to the main stage as a solo instrument. As a result, many renowned composers did not write music for it, with only a few exceptions. It has been my lifelong mission to change this narrative, bringing the mandolin to the forefront of classical music and into its canon by encouraging contemporary composers to write for it. Your concerto Three Sisters is an outstanding example of a brilliant composition for the mandolin, which has swiftly become a significant addition to its repertoire. Recording this concerto is meaningful as it will allow many people to discover it and help secure its place in the instrument's history.

AC: This piece was inspired by your dexterity and flexibility when you play mandolin, what did you think when you first played it back in 2017? Do you approach it differently now, seven years on? 

Every new piece is a discovery for me, revealing new perspectives on the mandolin that I had never considered. This continuous unveiling of the mandolin's facets is what excites me most about playing new music. Each piece deepens my understanding of the instrument, and the more I perform a piece in concerts, the better I come to know it. While one can study a new piece endlessly, for me, the true learning happens when playing it for a live audience.

We all agreed that to produce a mature recording of the concerto, I needed to perform it first, allowing it to simmer and sink in, and develop a deep understanding of it. Consequently, between the world premiere and the recording, I performed the concerto many times and with various orchestras and ensembles, refining my interpretation and familiarity with the piece. By the time I entered the recording studio, I felt truly ready to capture its essence.

AC: SHORTHAND focusses on the string sound worlds – what do you think mandolin adds to this sound, and why is it important? 

The sound of the mandolin, like any plucked string instrument, is at once universally familiar and refreshingly novel in the context of classical music. I believe that the mandolin's sound, alongside more familiar instruments like the violin and cello, will contribute to the originality of this recording. It will allow listeners to discover a truly unique sound, not only because the mandolin is rarely heard in such a context but also due to your original, imaginative, and excellent approach to the interplay of mandolin and strings

The Knights record alongsed Yo-Yo Ma for the new album title track, Shorthand ©The Knights & Great Sky Media

SHORTHAND is released on SONY Classical on 23 August