Colin Matthews: Chamber works
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Colin Matthews
Magazine Review Date: 6/1986
Media Format: Vinyl
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: AUC1007
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Divertimento for double string quartet |
Colin Matthews, Composer
Colin Matthews, Composer Divertimenti Ensemble Oliver Knussen, Conductor |
Oboe Quartet |
Colin Matthews, Composer
Colin Matthews, Composer Divertimenti Ensemble Oliver Knussen, Conductor |
Triptych Inventions |
Colin Matthews, Composer
Colin Matthews, Composer Divertimenti Ensemble Oliver Knussen, Conductor |
Author:
This is an auspicious debut for Colin Matthews on record. It can be welcomed not just for the intrinsic merits of his music, which are considerable, but also as a demonstration of why neo-romanticism is such a force to be reckoned with in Britain today.
Now rising 40, Colin Matthews served an extended, and enviable, musical apprenticeship, notably as amanuensis to Britten, as collaborator on Deryck Cooke's performing version of Mahler's Tenth Symphony, as orchestrator, editor and teacher. Of course, it is one thing to draw on, as Matthew does, an intimate acquaintance with the music of Mahler, Scriabin, Berg, Bartok, Britten, Maw, Ligeti, Reich and others, but it is quite another to find a comparable individuality of voice. Matthew's concerns might appear to be uncomfortably close to the opportunistic New Conservatism recently emerging from various European and transatlantic closets.
What places him above the more self-conscious eclectics is partly the sheer strength of his musical gifts, and partly the fact that so much of his music, and notably the Divertimento recorded here, is, in a word, inspired—not, I think, invariably (the end of the Divertimento, for instance, strikes me as contrived), but in sufficient measure to make rehearing a pleasure and questions of style and aesthetic irrelevant.
This three-movement work starts out from the rich triadic harmony of Richard Strauss's Metamorphosen, with all the freshness and confidence of one who need not fear the comparison, and moves skilfully from this to a shimmering world of post-Britten polytonality, the first of many beautifully handled transitions. According to the composer the music takes ''a rather wayward path, without too many conscious restrictions''. No harm in that, though I do wonder whether the lyrical impulsive is sufficiently counterbalanced by more active material—nocturnal scurryings provide the only real structural contrast. Still, let me emphasize that the overriding impression of this score is of its beauty and richness of invention. This original version for double string quartet sounds slightly constricted beside Matthews's arrangement of it for full string orchestra, and there is a lovely Forest Murmurs passage in the first movement which is not too well synchronized on this record. Otherwise the performance directed by Oliver Knussen is an admirable one.
I think perhaps I might have chosen Matthews's First String Quartet as a coupling in preference to the Oboe Quartet and Triptych for piano quintet. Not that these pieces are ever less than fascinating and elegantly crafted, further confirming their composer's fine ear for harmony and texture (performances and recording are again excellent). As yet, however, their real motivation is less clear to me than that of the Divertimento, and I am tempted to conclude that their more elaborate structural plans are to some extent standing in for invention rather than releasing it. More tactful, though, to suppose that the message will become clear on more leisurely acquaintance; certainly this is a record I expect to return to frequently and with delight.'
Now rising 40, Colin Matthews served an extended, and enviable, musical apprenticeship, notably as amanuensis to Britten, as collaborator on Deryck Cooke's performing version of Mahler's Tenth Symphony, as orchestrator, editor and teacher. Of course, it is one thing to draw on, as Matthew does, an intimate acquaintance with the music of Mahler, Scriabin, Berg, Bartok, Britten, Maw, Ligeti, Reich and others, but it is quite another to find a comparable individuality of voice. Matthew's concerns might appear to be uncomfortably close to the opportunistic New Conservatism recently emerging from various European and transatlantic closets.
What places him above the more self-conscious eclectics is partly the sheer strength of his musical gifts, and partly the fact that so much of his music, and notably the Divertimento recorded here, is, in a word, inspired—not, I think, invariably (the end of the Divertimento, for instance, strikes me as contrived), but in sufficient measure to make rehearing a pleasure and questions of style and aesthetic irrelevant.
This three-movement work starts out from the rich triadic harmony of Richard Strauss's Metamorphosen, with all the freshness and confidence of one who need not fear the comparison, and moves skilfully from this to a shimmering world of post-Britten polytonality, the first of many beautifully handled transitions. According to the composer the music takes ''a rather wayward path, without too many conscious restrictions''. No harm in that, though I do wonder whether the lyrical impulsive is sufficiently counterbalanced by more active material—nocturnal scurryings provide the only real structural contrast. Still, let me emphasize that the overriding impression of this score is of its beauty and richness of invention. This original version for double string quartet sounds slightly constricted beside Matthews's arrangement of it for full string orchestra, and there is a lovely Forest Murmurs passage in the first movement which is not too well synchronized on this record. Otherwise the performance directed by Oliver Knussen is an admirable one.
I think perhaps I might have chosen Matthews's First String Quartet as a coupling in preference to the Oboe Quartet and Triptych for piano quintet. Not that these pieces are ever less than fascinating and elegantly crafted, further confirming their composer's fine ear for harmony and texture (performances and recording are again excellent). As yet, however, their real motivation is less clear to me than that of the Divertimento, and I am tempted to conclude that their more elaborate structural plans are to some extent standing in for invention rather than releasing it. More tactful, though, to suppose that the message will become clear on more leisurely acquaintance; certainly this is a record I expect to return to frequently and with delight.'
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