5* review in The Guardian

 ‘… a single-movement, four-section work that also has great beauty and richness. It rings endless changes on a rapturous viola melody, heard at the outset over tremulous violins, and reaches its climax with a dexterous percussion cadenza before bounding towards an exuberant close. Breathtakingly scored, it was superbly played.’
 Guardian (Tim Ashley), 27 April 2010

‘… What makes Matthews’s music lovable is the way it embraces straightforwardly tonal means, with no tricksy post-modern irony or agonised breast-beating. This new symphony goes further in the direction of limpid simplicity. It takes daring to place a guileless melody over a row of major chords, but lending those things a subtle shapeliness and pregnant suggestiveness needs art, too, which this symphony had in abundance.’
Telegraph (Ivan Hewett), 27 April 2010

‘... artfully and beautifully composed... there is a splendid cadenza for timpani which is the grand climax of the work, and also the signal for a slow, shadowy Tenebroso section which moves out of darkness into the boisterous energy of the coda.’ 
The Times (Hilary Finch)