David Matthews - Symphony No. 9; etc. (Kenneth Woods)

Information

Composer: David Matthews

• (01) Symphony No. 9, Op. 140
• (06) Variations for Strings, Op. 40
• (16) Double Concerto, Op. 122

Sara Trickey, violin

Sarah-Jane Bradley, viola

English Symphony Orchestra (1-5)

English String Orchestra (6-18)

Kenneth Woods, conductor

Date: 2019

Label: Nimbus Alliance

https://www.wyastone.co.uk/david-matthews-symphony-no-9-variations-for-strings-double-concerto-for-violin-viola.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

Pretty much every major symphonist from Brahms to Maxwell Davies leaves a trace on the Ninth Symphony of David Matthews. The inference drawn, however, need not be of a synthetic assimilation. Some would say the symphony is now a musical outfitters of dead men’s clothes. Matthews contends otherwise in a cycle that has steadily gathered momentum and purpose during the past decade to culminate (for now) in a cogent five-movement structure.

In fact, it’s Haydn who comes to mind – no small compliment – in the initial unfolding of a modest carol melody and its unexpected capacity for symphonic heavy lifting. A motivic fragment of the melody then forms the basis of both a pounding, ostinato scherzo and its slower central episode (in four, not a trio), and it doesn’t require perusal of the score to hear the kinship of the carol with a briefer fourth-movement waltz, more pastorally scored but shadowed in the manner of Max (or Hardy or the Eclogues of Virgil for that matter) by a looming threat to the idyll. Fading out inconclusively over Sibelian pizzicato strings, the conflict is fought afresh and won by a good old-fashioned finale over which the carol melody comes to ring out in a C major happy ending.

That leaves the central slow movement – and indeed the six-minute elegy at the heart of the Ninth doesn’t bear the weight of expectation upon such a structural fulcrum. Echoes of birdsong, of Vaughan Williams and Lutosławski, draw the piece away from the goal of renewal which is the theme of the carol, the symphony and perhaps of Matthews’s symphonic career.

The Ninth Symphony received its first performance at the hands of these performers last year, and at the same time they made this admirable albeit slightly congested recording in St George’s, Bristol. There is more space to the engineering and more finesse to the execution of the two string-orchestra pieces recorded at Great Malvern Priory.

Dating from 1986, a set of eight variations on a troubled Bach chorale deserves a place in the canon of celebrated English string literature from Purcell through to Elgar, Bridge and Tippett. Birdsong returns in the Double Concerto of 2013, which celebrates friendship rather than competition without attaining the sureness of purpose or distinctive profile of its companion works, for all the delicacy and sympathy of the partnership between Sara Trickey and Sarah-Jane Bradley.

-- Peter Quantrill, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://musicweb-international.com/classRev/2019/May/Matthews_sy9_NI6382.htm

https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/david-matthews-symphony-no-9-double-concerto-english-symphony-orchestra-woods/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/David-Matthews-Symphony-Variations-Concerto/dp/B07NRH6Q84

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

***

Kenneth Woods (born 1968) is an American-born, UK-resident conductor, composer and cellist,. Woods studied conducting at the University of Cincinnati with Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman, Jorma Panula and Gerhard Samuel. He was music director of the Grande Ronde Symphony from 1999 to 2002, and the Oregon East Symphony from 2000-9. In 2009, Woods was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestra of the Swan. In 2013, he became the third Principal Conductor of the English Symphony/String Orchestra (the orchestra performs under both names), succeeding Vernon Handley.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Woods
https://kennethwoods.net/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!