Album Notes

1-11
BEGIN AGAIN AGAIN...
for Hypercello Solo (1991)

12-16
SONG OF PENANCE
for Hyperviola, Computer Voice, and 17 Instruments (1992)

17-21
FOREVER AND EVER
for Hyperviolin and Chamber Orchestra (1993)
Track Listing


Oxingale Records is proud to announce the release of composer Tod Machover's Hyperstring Trilogy with Matt Haimovitz on hypercello, Kim Kashkashian on hyperviola, Ani Kavafian on hyperviolin, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, conducted by Gil Rose.

"Hyperstrings" are instruments enhanced with technology, designed "to enable the performer's normal playing technique and interpretive skills to shape and control computer extensions to the instrument, thus combining the warmth and personality of human performance with the precision and clarity of digital technology."

Called "brilliantly gifted" by The New York Times and "America's most wired composer" by the Los Angeles Times, composer Tod Machover breaks traditional musical boundaries, combining richly layered textures with immediate impact, sophisticated orchestration with rock-like rhythms, and offering melodies that are subtly intricate but always memorable.

The 70-minute Hyperstring Trilogy has been recognized as one of Machover's most important works. The three pieces which make up the trilogy, Begin Again Again... for Hypercello Solo (1991), Song of Penance for Hyperviola, Computer Voice, and 17 Instruments (1992) and Forever and Ever for Hyperviolin and Chamber Orchestra (1993) are loosely based on the dramatic and psychological sweep of Dante's Divine Comedy, they explore loss and gain, pain and recovery, despair and hope and, in passing, what is lost and gained by technology.

Writing about Hyperstring Trilogy, Pulitzer Prize winning music critic Lloyd Schwartz says: "What is most exciting about Machover's pieces is how beautiful and moving they are, what lyrical and exotic melismas keep surfacing (and how scintillatingly they contrast with the shattering electronic textures), how dramatically they build, how they haven't a dull moment, and what magnificent opportunities for performers they provide."

Schwartz contributes eloquent liner notes to this eagerly-awaited album, and renowned cyber artist John Maeda's inspired artwork complements the epic score.

REVIEW:
On the Boston performance of the Hyperstring Trilogy in 2001, Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe wrote:

Players Humanize Techno 'Trilogy'
No praise can be too high for conductor Gil Rose and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, for the computer team, for soprano Bennett, and for the thee hypersoloists, cellist Matt Haimovitz, violist Kim Kashkashian, and vioinist Ani Kavafian, in a part of almost unbelievable difficulty.