C MATTHEWS Aftertones. No Man's Land
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Roderick Williams, Colin Matthews
Genre:
Orchestral
Label: Hallé
Magazine Review Date: 01/2015
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 60
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CDHLL7538
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Aftertones |
Colin Matthews, Composer
Colin Matthews, Composer Hallé Choir Hallé Orchestra Nicholas Collon, Conductor Roderick Williams, Composer |
Crossing the Alps |
Colin Matthews, Composer
Colin Matthews, Composer Hallé Youth Choir Richard Wilberforce, Conductor |
No Man's Land |
Colin Matthews, Composer
Colin Matthews, Composer Hallé Orchestra Ian Bostridge, Tenor Nicholas Collon, Conductor Roderick Williams, Composer |
Author: Richard Whitehouse
Matthews’s choral writing is heard to greater advantage in Crossing the Alps (2009). Its text, drawing on Wordsworth’s The Prelude, deals with the liberation of the imagination in an eight-part texture which lucidly conveys the piece’s essentially humanist message (complementing that of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony with which it was coupled at its first performance). Much the most distinctive work here, however, is No Man’s Land (2011) – less a song-cycle than a vocal scena in which tenor and baritone assume the roles of Captain and Sergeant, as their bodies lie rotting on barbed wire. Christopher Reid’s text takes in elements of dialogue as well as arias that incorporate songs and marches from the First World War, while extracts from recordings made a century ago add a discreet veneer of authenticity to proceedings.
Ian Bostridge and Roderick Williams are sensitive exponents of this unlikely yet thought-provoking piece, while Nicholas Collon secures a committed response in both of the large-scale works. The composer’s own notes succinctly and informatively fill out the context.
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