On 26 and 27 January HK Gruber conducts Colin Matthews’ orchestration of Debussy’s Feux d’artifice with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Mainz.
Feux d’artifice concludes Debussy’s second book of piano Préludes. Matthews’ 5-minute orchestration begins with a veiled combination of alto flute, clarinets, and muted violas, with delicate colouring from celesta. As the display grows increasingly extravagant Matthews’ textures become commensurately more vivid, culminating in a virtuosic cadenza for celesta – recalling Debussy’s own sparkling keyboard writing – before and explosive climax that suddenly dissipates into darkness. Closing echoes of phrases from ‘La Marseillaise’ on oboe and horn suggest the celebrations of Bastille Day.
In 2015/16 Gruber conducted Feux d’artifice with the Bamberg Symphony and the Dresden Philharmonic. Matthews’ orchestration has been performed over 70 times since its premiere in 2001 from Mark Elder and the Hallé, who subsequently recorded it; it has also been recorded by Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. Other exponents have included Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, David Zinman and the Zürich Tonhalle, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (with Ilan Volkov and Hannu Lintu) and Vladimir Jurowski with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Matthews’ creative finesse is remarkable: the pieces aren’t simply dressed in orchestral clothes, rather sensitively re-imagined for an expanded palette of refined colours by a gifted contemporary composer.
The Times (Geoff Brown), 17 July 2010
Matthews describes his approach to orchestrating Debussy in an interview here; he has also created orchestral versions of the composer’s Images for piano, recorded by the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and Gustavo Gimeno, as well as Elder and the Hallé. Spring 2024 sees further performances of Matthews’ versions of the Preludes from Donald Runnicles and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Four concerts in March at the Sydney Opera House will feature Minstrels, La Puerta del Vino, Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir and ''Général Lavine'' – eccentric.