David Matthews - Symphonies Nos. 2 & 6 (Jac van Steen)

Information

Composer: David Matthews

• (01) Symphony No. 2, Op. 17
• (05) Symphony No. 6, Op. 100

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Jac van Steen, conductor

Date: 2010

Label: Dutton

https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CDLX7234

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Review

Meditations on a hymn tune lend power rather than piety to a recent symphony

It is one thing for Vaughan Williams to have provided a moving meditation on his own hymn tune Down Ampney, as he did (arguably) in the finale of his Fifth Symphony, but the idea, 60 years later, of building an entire 35-minute symphony around the hymn seemed doomed to fail. And yet David Matthews’s Symphony No 6 was widely acclaimed as a remarkable success at its BBC Proms premiere in 2007, and similar accolades should attend this recording by the artists who gave that premiere.

After the very different British symphonic cycles, by Robert Simpson and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, which dominated the later 20th century, David Matthews has emerged as a leading 21st-century exponent of the form. Like his composer-brother Colin, he has acknowledged twin allegiances to Mahler and Britten, but whereas Colin Matthews has responded strongly to the continuation of Mahlerian thinking in (particularly) Berg, David Matthews has ploughed more specifically English furrows. Learning from Tippett, Maw and others that pattern-making must always be purposeful, he shuns rhapsodic rambling and can summon up the kind of creative energy that makes the epic finale of the Second Symphony (completed in 1979) so powerful.

The Sixth Symphony, in keeping with its hymnic source, is more contemplative but no less dramatic, questioning its source (as the agnostic Vaughan Williams would have expected) rather than simply offering a pious pilgrim’s progress to some mythic celestial city. These are admirable performances, not always ideally flexible in their approach to changes of tempo but strongly characterised and recorded with immense sonic presence in BBC Wales’s new Hoddinott Hall.

-- Arnold Whittall, Gramophone

More reviews:
https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/orchestral/david-matthews-symphonies-nos-2-6/

https://www.allmusic.com/album/david-matthews-symphonies-nos-2-6-mw0001991638

https://www.amazon.com/Matthews-Symphonies-No-2-6/dp/B003AR0R26

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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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Jac van Steen (born 1956 in Eindhoven) is a Dutch conductor. He studied music theory and conducting,at the Brabants Conservatory of Music. Since 1992, he has been on the faculty at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. During his career, van Steen has led the Het Nationale Ballet in Amsterdam (1989-94), the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra (1997-2002), the Staatskapelle Weimar (2002-05), the Orchester Musikkollegium Winterthur (2002-08) and the Dortmunder Philharmoniker (2008-13). He was also Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales between 2005 and 2013.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jac_van_Steen

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