David Matthews - Orchestral Works (Rumon Gamba)

Information

Composer: David Matthews

• (01) The Music of Dawn, Op. 50
• (08) Concerto in Azzurro, Op. 87
• (12) A Vision and a Journey, Op. 60

Guy Johnston, cello (8-11)

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

Rumon Gamba, conductor

Date: 2021

Label: Chandos

https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%2010487

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Review

A welcome disc shines light on David Matthews’s rhapsodic, fantastic music

Of the three orchestral works by David Matthews on this CD, only one – A Vision and a Journey – is termed a “symphonic fantasy”. Yet The Music of Dawn and Concerto in Azzurro could also be similarly described. They too rely on flexibly organised single-movement structures that display strong and positive links with the great 19th-century tradition of the programme symphony and tone-poem.

The earliest of the three, The Music of Dawn, is a richly scored response to a painting by Cecil Collins that makes no bones about sharing its musical imagery with other representations of sunrise and the sense of new beginnings – by Wagner, Strauss, Ravel, Schoenberg – but in a spirit of homage rather than dependency, creating something distinctive out of the contrasts between dance-like exuberance and soulful lyricism, and always with a personal angle on what in other contexts might be heard as explicit allusions to earlier models.

A Vision and a Journey reinforces the aspirational theme, suggesting a kind of pilgrim’s progress, or hero’s life, as it travels through well defined stages of fervent, at times rhapsodic questing. There are brief hints of Tippett in the string writing, but the heritage represented by such ultra-Romantic composers as Bax and Bantock is not spurned either, in a dramatic and engaging fantasia which is all the more effective for its imaginative way with some very simple basic ideas.

Concerto in Azzurro – “concerto in blue” – is another evocation of light, sky, and an underlying sense of the transcendent. Although its insistent rhythmic and melodic patterns risk earnestness now and again, the concerto builds persuasively to a marvellously understated, touchingly poetic ending. Guy Johnston is a technically immaculate soloist, while Rumon Gamba with the BBC Philharmonic are excellent throughout in first-rate recordings.

-- Arnold Whittall, Gramophone

More reviews:
MusicWeb International  RECORDING OF THE MONTH

https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/orchestral/david-matthews-0/

https://www.thestrad.com/david-matthews-concerto-in-azzurro-the-music-of-dawn-a-vision-and-a-journey/1771.article

https://www.audaud.com/david-matthews-the-music-of-dawn-op-50-concerto-in-azzurro-op-87-a-vision-and-a-journey-op-60-guy-johnston-cello-bbc-philharmonic-rumon-gamba-conductor-chandos/

https://www.amazon.com/David-Matthews-Orchestral-Concerto-2009-02-24/dp/B01MDU8FWD

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David Matthews (born 9 March 1943 in London) is an English composer of mainly orchestral, chamber, vocal and piano works. He read Classics at Nottingham University and afterwards studied composition with Anthony Milner. He was also encouraged by fellow composer Nicholas Maw and was strongly influenced by Michael Tippett. Although he has written a fair amount of vocal music, Matthews's output as a whole is centred on the classical instrumental and orchestral forms. He has written 13 string quartets, 9 symphonies, 2 violin concertos, concertos for cello, for piano, for oboe, and several symphonic poems.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Matthews_(composer)

https://www.david-matthews.co.uk/homepage.asp

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Rumon Gamba (born 24 November 1972), is an English conductor. He studied conducting with Colin Metters, George Hurst and Sir Colin Davis at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Gamba was Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra from 2002 to 2010. In October 2008, he was named the next chief conductor and music director of NorrlandsOperan. In March 2011, Gamba was named chief conductor of the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra. Gamba has conducted a number of recordings for the Chandos Records label, particularly in their Film Music series.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumon_Gamba

http://www.rumongamba.com/

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