Matthew Martin's fresh and vibrant style has established him as one of today's leading sacred choral composers. Released in March 2015 from Opus Arte, the new disc Jubilate Deo features a selection of Matthew's works, celebrating liturgical music in all its variety and performed by the renowned Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford.

From the reticent carol Dormi, Iesu! and the imposing St John's College Service to settings of the Mass, motets and anthems, including the award-winning In the Year that King Uzziah died, all works featured on the CD are also available as sheet music from Faber Music.

Also featured is the Chester Missa Brevis, which was written for the choir of Chester Cathedral in 2013 and is a tentative homage to Benjamin Britten in his centenary year. The majority of the works appear on the disc as world premiere recordings and critics have praised both Matthew’s composition and the Choir of Magdalen College’s performance.

 

"Matthew Martin has established himself as one of the most gifted choral composers of his generation: this fine recording from his alma mater confirms that status. Equally it showcases the choir and its director to brilliant effect. Most of the works on the CD are very recent; they reveal Martin's penchant for a style that is fundamentally tonal and influenced by figures such as Britten and Stravinsky but also Lennox Berkeley and Kenneth Leighton. Twelve short pieces are included, which include the Chester Missa brevis of 2013, a tribute to Britten in his centenary year and a work that plays homage to Britten's own Missa brevis as well as a superb Festival Anthem, In the Year that King Uzziah died. Hyde's forces are well drilled, their balance, blend and intonation generally without blemish, and they always rise to the drama inherent in Martin's idiom. It is a splendid and nicely varied sequence of pieces."
Philip Reed, Choir & Organ (May/June 2015)

 


Martin's is often a spikily dynamic style of composition. The opening Jubilate Deo is full of thrust and enthusiasm...The Nunc dimittis of the St John's College Service brings the best of both composer and performers, the vocal writing swirling in kaleidoscopic patterns above a vaulting organ obbligato. A word of appreciation too for the gentleness and fragility caught in treble Oliver Doggett's solo contribution to Dormi, Iesu!”
BBC Music Magazine (Awards Issue 2015)



The music of Matthew Martin (b.1976) is haunted by the spirits of British composers who died while he was in his teens...The Magdalen choir certainly make an exceptional sound, and Daniel Hyde's direction is notable for his attention to inner detail and clear sense of architecture.
Gramophone Magazine (May 2015)

 

For more information and to buy sheet music of Matthew's works, visit www.fabermusicstore.com

To buy the CD, visit www.prestoclassical.co.uk