Search Results for "david matthews"
David Matthews: Complete String Quartets, Volume Five
The American critic Robert Reilly described the music on Volume One of this cycle of the complete string quartets of David Matthews (b. 1943) as ‘some of the most concentrated, penetrating writing for this medium in the past 30 years or more. It is musical thinking of the highest order and quartet writing in the great tradition of Beethoven, Bartók, Britten, and Tippett’. Matthews’ three most recent quartets call in a wide range of references. Birdsong – heard in Nos. 13 and 14 – is a standard Matthews topos; and the fugal No. 15 seems to find a middle ground between late Beethoven and folk-music. No. 13 presents the biggest surprise: it introduces four solo voices, siting the work somewhere between Berg’s Lyric Suite and Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music. Some touching arrangements and two canons for two Michaels – Tippett and Berkeley – complete the programme.
Rebecca Lea, soprano 8
Jess Dandy, contralto 8
James Robinson, tenor 8
Will Dawes, baritone 8
Kreutzer Quartet
Peter Sheppard Skærved and Mihailo Trandafilovski, violins
Clifton Harrison, viola
Neil Heyde, cello
David Matthews: Complete String Quartets, Volume Six
The American critic Robert Reilly described the music on Volume One of this cycle of the complete string quartets of David Matthews (b. 1943) as ‘some of the most concentrated, penetrating writing for this medium in the past 30 years or more. It is musical thinking of the highest order and quartet writing in the great tradition of Beethoven, Bartók, Britten, and Tippett’. The three works in this sixth volume of Matthews’ string quartets cover a quarter of a century but share the same basic features, not least a mastery of counterpoint, an impassioned lyricism, a sublimated hint of folksong and occasionally a sly sense of humour, all deployed to touch something essential in the listener. Matthews begins his booklet note with this release by saluting ‘my now nearly 30-year relationship with the Kreutzer Quartet, which has been as invaluable to me as Shostakovich’s with the Beethoven Quartet, or Beethoven’s with the Schuppanzigh Quartet’.
Kreutzer Quartet
David Matthews: Complete Piano Trios
One reviewer described David Matthews’ string quartets as ‘musical thinking of the highest order and quartet writing in the great tradition of Beethoven, Bartók, Britten, and Tippett’ – influences Matthews readily acknowledges. These three piano trios evoke two other masters, since they have something of the drama of Shostakovich and the lyrical intensity of Vaughan Williams – all elements drawn together in Matthews’ own voice to make these works some of the most moving chamber music of recent years.
Leonore Piano Trio (Tracks 1-10)
Gemma Rosefield, cello (Tracks 11-13)
David Matthews: Music For Solo Violin, Volume Two
David Matthews and Peter Sheppard Skærved have been collaborating on a series of works for violin for many years now, with Matthews setting Sheppard Skærved formidable technical challenges, and Sheppard Skærved surprising Matthews by finding a way to overcome the difficulties in his path. And behind all the pyrotechnics, this collaboration is generating one of the largest, and most musically rewarding, body of compositions for solo violin by any living composer.
Peter Sheppard Skærved, violin
David Matthews: Complete String Quartets, Volume Three
The American critic Robert Reilly described the music on Volume One of this cycle of the complete string quartets of David Matthews (b. 1943) as 'some of the most concentrated, penetrating writing for this medium in the past 30 years or more. It is musical thinking of the highest order and quartet writing in the great tradition of Beethoven, Bartok, Britten, and Tippett'. This third CD in the series presents the first three works in the cycle — the Second influenced by The Who and Velvet Underground — together with an early contrapuntal study and the first of Matthews' arrangements for string quartet.
Kreutzer Quartet, string quartet
Peter Sheppard Skærved, violin
Mihailo Trandafilovski, violin
Morgan Goff, viola
Neil Heyde, cello
David MATTHEWS: Complete String Quartets, Volume Four
The American critic Robert Reilly described the music on Volume One of this cycle of the complete string quartets of David Matthews (b. 1943) as ‘some of the most concentrated, penetrating writing for this medium in the past 30 years or more. It is musical thinking of the highest order and quartet writing in the great tradition of Beethoven, Bartók, Britten, and Tippett’. This fourth CD in the series presents Matthews’ String Quartet No. 11, a set of variations on the eighth of Beethoven’s Op. 119 Bagatelles, as well as his own contribution to the ‘Diabelli’ Variations and his complete Beethoven transcriptions for string quartet.
Kreutzer Quartet
David Matthews: Complete String Quartets, Volume One
To date David Matthews (b. 1943) has written seven symphonies and eleven string quartets. 'I have continued’, he explains, 'along a path similar to that taken by Tippett and Britten: one rooted in the Viennese Classics – Beethoven above all – and also in Mahler, Sibelius and the early twentieth-century modernists. I have always been a tonal composer, attempting to integrate the musical language of the present with the past, and to explore the rich traditional forms.’ This first volume of his complete string quartets presents works written between 1981 and 2001.
Kreutzer Quartet, string quartet
Peter Sheppard Skærved, violin
Mihailo Trandafilovski, violin
Morgan Goff, viola
Neil Heyde, cello
David Matthews: Complete String Quartets, Volume Two
The American critic Robert Reilly described the music on Volume One of this cycle of the complete string quartets of David Matthews (b. 1943) as 'some of the most concentrated, penetrating writing for this medium in the past 30 years or more. It is musical thinking of the highest order and quartet writing in the great tradition of Beethoven, Bartok, Britten, and Tippett’. This second CD in the series presents the Fifth Quartet (1984) and the most recent, Quartet No. 12 (2009–10).
Kreutzer Quartet, string quartet
Peter Sheppard Skærved, violin
Mihailo Trandafilovski, violin
Morgan Goff, viola
Neil Heyde, cello
David Matthews: Music for Piano
In his piano music, as in his symphonies and string quartets, the English composer David Matthews (b. 1943) marries the idiom of classical tradition with that of his own day. His 2009 Piano Concerto, Mozartian in spirit, contains both a tango and a blues; his Piano Sonata of 1989 includes jazz elements, and his 1997 Variations feature both blues and a homage to Beethoven. The moods range from contemplative introspection to fiery, rhythmic energy, captured here in feisty performances by the Finnish pianist Laura Mikkola, whom the composer describes as 'a marvellous exponent of my music'.
Laura Mikkola, piano
Orchestra Nova, orchestra
George Vass, conductor
David Matthews: Music for Solo Violin, Volume One
David Matthews' Fifteen Fugues for solo violin, composed over four years between 1998 and 2002, not only constitute what is probably the largest set of violin fugues by a living composer; they also form an extended essay in musical portraiture, with each fugue 'depicting' its dedicatee. Like the Three Studies (1985) and Winter Journey (1982-83), a tone-poem for solo violin inspired by Schubert's Winterreise, they pose extraordinary technical challenges to the performer.
Peter Sheppard Skærved, violin
Music For My Love, Volume Two
When Yodit Tekle was diagnosed with stomach cancer in late 2014, her partner, Martin Anderson, who runs Toccata Classics, asked a few composer friends to write some music for strings to bring her comfort in her illness. As her life slipped away, he had the idea that she might be remembered in music and so he began to commission other pieces for string orchestra in her memory. To his surprise, almost everyone he asked generously agreed, and so the project snowballed: there are now over 100 composers who have written or agreed to write for it – in an undertaking that is probably unique in the history of music. This second volume presents twelve more pieces in an initiative which, in effect, transforms love into something you can hear.
Ukranian Festival Orchestra
Paul Mann, conductor
May 2017 Bundle
Included in this bundle:
- Jerome de Bromhead: Orchestral Music
- Jerzy Bauer: Music For Cello
- George Frideric Handel: The Complete ‘Amen, Alleluia’ Arias
- David Matthews: Music for Solo Violin, Volume Two
*No HDWAV for TOCC0385
