Claire Booth and Ensemble 360 will perform David Matthews’ arrangement of Dvořák’s Love Songs at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, on 7 November. Sung in Czech, the 18-minute work is scored for string quintet and high voice. It comprises eight songs for voice and piano composed in 1888, set to poetry by Gustav Pfleger-Moravský. Dvořák himself reworked the material for string quartet and drew on several of its themes for other works
Highlights include the agitated urgency of the opening song ‘Oh, that longed-for happiness does not bloom for our love (Ó naší lásce nekvete to vytoužené štěstí)’, with the voice urged towards an agonised climax with galloping triplets; the folksy, lilting dance of ‘Around the house now I stagger (Kol domu se teď potácím)’; and the shimmering arpeggios, spiccato, and harmonics of the penultimate song ‘In that sweet power of your eyes’ (V té sladké moci očí tvých).
The version for high voice premiered with Rebecca Evans and the Welsh National Opera Chamber Ensemble at the Penarth Chamber Music Festival in 2018. The version for medium voice and string orchestra premiered at the Royal Academy of Music in 2009, and in 2012 toured with Manchester Camerata and Anna Stéphany, directed by Gábor Takács-Nagy; in 2014 it toured with Scottish Ensemble and Sophie Harmsen. Its arrangement for voice and string quintet premiered with Renata Pokupic and Nash Ensemble at Wigmore Hall in 2013 and has also been taken up by the group and Christianne Stotijn.
On 31 October Matthews’ longstanding champions the Kreutzer Quartet premiered a new version of After Sunrise (2001) for clarinet quintet with Linda Merrick at St John on Bethnal Green. Merrick previously gave the world premiere of Matthews’ Sonatina for clarinet, viola, and piano in 2016 at the William Alwyn Festival. After Sunrise is a 9-minute piece originally for chamber orchestra that serves as a companion work to Matthews’ Aubade, picking up where the pre-dawn atmosphere of the latter leaves off. It draws especially on the song of the dove, with a lively dance at its centre.