Boosey & Hawkes

Boston Pops premiere Machover's Jeux Deux

(June 2005)

When one thinks of the Boston Pops, high technology is not necessarily the first thing that comes to mind. But the venerable orchestra has taken a giant leap into the 21st century by commissioning Jeux Deux, a new concerto by Tod Machover for HyperPiano and orchestra.

Keith Lockhart conducts the Boston Pops in the work’s world premiere in a gala concert on June 1 at Symphony Hall in Boston, with performances to follow on June 2, 22, and 23. Michael Chertok is the soloist, playing a Yamaha Disklavier that runs Hyperinstrument software developed at MIT’s Media Lab, where Machover is Professor of Music and Media. Moreover, Marc Downie - a rapidly rising interactive artist from the Media Lab - has created video projections that respond to the pianist's touch and the musicians' sound, providing stunning counterpoint to Machover's score.

Says Machover, “The title is a playful reference to Debussy’s Jeux, which is a spiritual antecedent of the new piece, as well as being (almost) French for ‘2-person game,’ reflecting the work’s back-and-forth dialogue between piano and orchestra and between soloist and hyperized piano.” In at least one respect, Jeux Deux represents a departure from his earlier Hyperinstrument pieces, such as his acclaimed Hyperstring Trilogy. In those works, the hybrid instruments trigger various electronic sounds in real time, which are amplified and sent through speakers around the hall.

In Jeux Deux, both piano and orchestra are purely acoustic with no amplification or electronic enhancement. The solo instrument is a Yamaha Disklavier Grand, which, although it records and plays back predetermined or interactive material with great accuracy, is a concert-quality instrument that produces its sounds by the traditional felt-hammer and steel-string mechanism found in a standard instrument. Notes Machover, “With the addition of hyperinstrument software, the Disklavier can also augment, transform, or splinter music played by the soloist. This HyperPiano thus becomes a formidable foil, at times weaving intricate contrapuntal embellishments, at others creating cascading textures that seem to envelop the entire orchestra.

“Jeux Deux is composed of three compact movements played without break. The first movement is like a rapidly flowing mountain stream, quiet and slightly mysterious; the second movement is slow and melodic, with suggestions of gentle birdsong; in the final movement, these ‘birds’ break into a jaunty, faintly Gallic melody, with piano and orchestra building together to a wild finale.”

In March, Machover’s Hyperinstruments turned up in a rather unusual setting: the Marshall Fields department store’s annual Flower Show. Machover designed an interactive "Music Garden" in collaboration with landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy for the Marshall Fields Flower Show in Minneapolis. Some 210,000 visitors were able to morph and customize music played on an array of automated Yamaha Disklavier pianos, to shape nature sounds using specially built, soft and squeezy "Flower Shapers", and to mix together a special piece combining "notes-and-nature," all in a sumptuous surrounding of plantings that simulate ocean, shore and sky.

Upcoming Machover projects include a new string quartet for the Ying Quartet. It will premiere October 5 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, with tour performances to follow throughout the season.

Webb Chappell

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