News

 

PRESS:

 

‘That first Nash commission was a clarinet quartet, which still seems as shapely and structurally fresh as the new work, A Blackbird Sang, for flute and string trio. That weaves a set of interlocking episodes out of an unexpectedly diatonic fragment of dawn birdsong that Matthews heard in his garden; it's modest, charming and beautifully written for the Nash's flautist Philippa Davies.

The Sleeping Lord, from 1992, sets the final stanzas of David Jones's poem of the same name, following a brooding presentation of the text with a powerfully wrought instrumental commentary upon them… As so often with Matthews, the music's straightforwardness and apparent directness are deceptive.’

 

 

‘Over several decades, David Matthews has amassed one of the most consistent outputs of any British composer in the post-war era… Speaking before the concert, Matthews expressed surprise at the distance travelled from the Clarinet Quartet (1984) that was his first Nash commission. Yet if the content here is appreciably more chromatic than his recent work, the fastidious motivic writing and thematic coherence across the whole is audibly his…

After the interval, a Matthews premiere in the guise of A Blackbird Sang (2012). Its inspiration might be obvious enough, though not the exquisitely poised formal trajectory in which the songster-inspired material alternates with subtly contrasted ideas in a palindromic sequence of the deftest eloquence... it was the revival of The Sleeping Lord (1992) that proved to be the highlight. Throughout his career Matthews has been astute in his setting of a wide variety of writings and never more so than in the present work, which takes an extract from the eponymous poem by artist and author David Jones in a scena that, having traversed its text within the first half, explores its thematic elements via a combination of instrumental dialogue and vocal melisma of ethereal beauty. Gillian Keith… [brought] this intelligently conceived and impressively executed concert to a spellbinding close.’

 

 

‘…this was an evening filled with some beautiful compositions. The three works of Matthews’ which were played were the Clarinet Quartet, The Sleeping Lord, and the new work A Blackbird Sang, here receiving its première. All demonstrated his considerable gift for writing elegant, attractive chamber music in an approachable style.

A Blackbird Sang is based around a four-note song which awoke Matthews from his garden one morning. He writes in the programme note that he was struck by how unusually tonal the blackbird’s short melody was, and his piece perhaps follows suit, gently elaborating on and around the song with a spring in its step which eventually becomes a waltz… The Clarinet Quintet, which opened the concert, was similar in tone, though subtle hints of something darker cut through the gentle closing stages of the second movement.

The Sleeping Lord was the most substantial of the three Matthews pieces on the bill… It’s a curious, almost mystic passage of text, and it drew the most elusive music from the composer, beginning with a series of finely drawn, almost expressionistic chords. The vocal writing, in contrast, was clear and melodic...

The amiability of all the music in the programme tonight was ample proof that new classical music is not always revolutionary, dissonant or upsetting in nature. It tends to be those pieces and composers that are that make the headlines, for what I suppose are obvious reasons, but if what you want is a milder contemporary music, then this can most certainly also be found.’