Very nice review in the May 2012 issue of Gramophone, the venerable UK music magazine. The review notes that Tod's technological innovations, such as Hyperinstruments and Hyperorchestra, are not just "gimmicks", but "have crucial and winning impacts on the expressive possibilities of Machover's music, as can be heard on this absorbing disc." About the title string quartet piece, the review says "Lovely themes emerge from seeming disorder and the narrative is a tantalising blend of tranquility and turmoil." "Sparkler" and "Jeux Deux" the two large orchestral pieces that bookend the CD, are "blockbusters". Yay!!

Here the full text of the review: https://www.exacteditions.com/read/gramophone/may-2012-30894/15/3?dps=

Thank you so much for supporting this CD!! Oh yeah, if you want to recommend it to friends and acquaintances, here's the Bridge Records online store link:
http://www.bridgerecords.com/catpage.php?call=9346

Spread the word!!

We were excited to learn earlier this week that Tod's opera "Death and the Powers" was a finalist for this year's Pulitzer Prize for music. The opera has been recorded in the studio with the original cast and Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Now we just need to figure out how to get it mixed and mastered. (Hmm, maybe time for a new Kickstarter campaign...?)

In the meantime, here's another review of "...but not simpler..." in New Music Connoisseur, by Andrew Violette: “Sparkler (2007) sparkles. There’s a wealth of color-drenched details: virtuosic wind passages juxtaposed with high string sonorities and untuned metallic percussion… '...but not simpler' (2005) is a stringent 15 minute work for string quartet. lt stylistically veers toward the Peter Maxwell Davies Naxos Quartets. But Machover’s writing is more gesturally nuanced and harmonically colorful…What impresses are those non-glamorous, essential and not easily acquired skills which are rarely discussed in The New York Times but which Mr. Machover possesses in abundance: skills such as the ability to create resonant sonorities; a seasoned sense of the long line and the long form; a knowing use of economy of means; and a firm grip on Fux counterpoint.”

Speaking of reviews, if you enjoyed "...but not simpler..." don't be shy about posting a comment on Amazon. Word of mouth goes a long way in today's networked world! Thanks!

by Phil Muse for Atlanta Audio Video Club, reproduced here with permission

“…but not simpler,” music of Tod Machover
The iO String quartet; Michael Chertock, hyperpiano
Paul Mann, Odense Symphony Orchestra
Bridge Records

I know I’m getting along in years when I start encountering composers that I’m old enough to beat up. In the case of Tod Machover...I’m afraid I will have to spare the rod. Not that he isn’t already spoiled enough as it is by an evident delight in strange, rare and beautiful sounds and musical colors worthy of the early years of childhood. But in these newer works, all composed 2001-2011, he shows a mature awareness of form and design that makes them all memorable experiences – and makes us realize that great new music didn’t come to an end just because composers stopped wearing long, shaggy beards!

Of course, Machover is still himself in his never-ending quest for ways to make musical colors ever more fetching and stunning. But the controversial figure who was once described in print as America’s “most wired composer” has tempered the electronics in these new compositions in favor of the natural timbres of the instruments themselves, tastefully enhanced by an electronic element that creates a vibrant halo illuminating the natural instrumental sounds. Or conversely, as Machover describes what he does in his 2001 work Sparkler, the sounds of the orchestra “push, pull, twist, and morph” with their electronic extensions. At the same time, Machover’s controlled venturesomeness in terms of rhythm, tempo, and dynamics makes the music so scintillating that “Fireworks” would have been a likelier title for this work.

Machover’s exquisite attention to line and form is most evident in the trio of splendid short works for string quartet that he created between 2004 and 2011, largely at the urging of the Ying String Quartet. Indeed, he nods handsomely to the ethnic background of the Ying family themselves in the title “Three Hyper-Dim-Suns.” As with the eponymously-named tray of delicacies that tempt the palette of the patron in a Chinese restaurant, these dim sun are bite-sized and flavorful. The subtitles of the three short movements, “Glade,” “Winding Line,” and “Punchy,” aptly describe their predominant affect. In Interlude I (2006), we have a Beethoven-like sense of the layering of sounds within the quartet medium in addition to its strong linear thrust. In Interlude 2 (2011), subtitled “After Byrd,” the noble polyphony of the Agnus Deifrom the Renaissance composer’s Mass in Four Voices serves as a springboard for Machover’s febrile imagination.

As they did in the previous trio of works, the New York-based iO String Quartet play with total conviction in Machover’s first full-scale work to date for the medium, “…but not simpler.” They pay full justice to a solid work whose enigmatic title the composer explains as a reference  to modern life itself as filled with “glimpses of equilibrium that feel straightforward and well-earned, but hopefully not simplistic.” Finally, Paul Mann and the excellent Odense Symphony Orchestra, augmented by an expanded battery of percussion, return in Jeux Deux for Hyperpiano and Orchestra. The title pays homage to the Jeux of Debussy, a work that it resembles in its sense of play and propulsion, though the steady pulse underlying Ravel’s La Valse might seem a likelier inspiration. Here, Machover utilizes his “hyperpiano” concept, in which the grand piano, played with consummate sensitivity by Paul Chertock, interacts with the Yamaha Disklavier in a way that augments, transforms and splinters the music, sometimes releasing a volley of pre-composed notes in greater profusion and rapidity than a live pianist could possibly play them. The result is an absolutely stunning experience for performer and listener alike.

We just shipped out the last of the signed CDs and scores. Phew!! Please let us know if you are expecting one and haven't received it by this weekend. We're also looking at dates for listening parties. This has been a busy month, so please bear with us as we figure this out.

In the meantime, we'd like to let you know that "...but not simpler..." is now available on Amazon. Here's the link: http://dld.bz/ayhmC

We'd love it if you'd post comments about the music. Thank you!

We've been busy packing up the incentive awards to send out early next week. It's so rewarding to know we have your support on this project. We just created a digital version of Richard Dyer's liner notes for the CD. These notes will come with the physical CD, but we wanted to make sure those of you who received the download version can enjoy the notes as well. Dyer was for many years the chief classical music critic for the Boston Globe and is deeply knowledgeable about Tod's music. It's an honor to have him provide these notes. Enjoy!

http://web.media.mit.edu/~tod/media/pdfs/Machover-BNS_Dyer-Note.pdf