David Matthews’s Fifteen Fugues for solo violin, composed over four years between 1998 and 2002, not only constitute what is probably the largest set of violin fugues by a living composer; they also form an extended essay in musical portraiture, with each fugue ‘depicting’ its dedicatee. These Fugues form the basis of a new CD – just released on Toccata Classics – in which violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved delves into Matthews’s highly-regarded solo violin repertoire. The rest of the disc includes Matthews’s Three Studies (1985) and Winter Journey (1982-83), a tone-poem for solo violin inspired by Schubert’s Winterreise.
 
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