Colin Matthews’s Sonata No. 5 ‘Landscape’ was composed between 1977 and 1981 and created a sensation at its premiere, with critics praising its vast ambition and vivid orchestral colourings. Conceived as a journey from darkness to light in a sequence of three great waves of sound, this imposing thirty-minute symphonic movement moves forward with an impressive sense of breadth and near-inexorable momentum. In the words of its composer, it is ‘a journey through a landscape that one sees from many different angles, sometimes in detail, sometimes blurred, in daylight, at night.’
‘A half-hour symphonic movement of massive weight and constantly increasing tension, it includes a wealth of images: a dense but luminous dream chorale, a magma in the bass, and beautiful moments from solo string groups.’
The Times (Paul Griffiths), 15 November 1986