Dutton Epoch’s second volume of David Matthews’s symphonies presents the second and sixth, among the most engaging symphonies of our time. “A glorious sixth,” said The Times after the Prom premiere in 2007, which all at Dutton Epoch can echo now that we have made its premiere recording. Incorporating Vaughan Williams’s hymn tune Down Ampney, it continues the British tradition in memorable and lyrical style. As the Sunday Times critic wrote, “It is indubitably a work to listen to again.” It is coupled with the involving Second Symphony, a large-scale single movement whose lyricism – a critic commented on “a finely wrought melody for bassoon which is also its most personal and memorable invention” – contrasts with the exciting writing for percussion in an exuberant central episode.
Matthews: Symphony No. 6, Op.100 -3. Molto Moderato - Adagio
27th March 2010
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“You can’t stop David Matthews writing symphonies (his Seventh has its premiere next month), and please don’t try...Jac van Steen and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales give persuasive performances: the Second’s journey from innocence to experience is especially thrilling.”
July 2010
*****
“David Matthews's music is full of paradoxes - all of them positive. Its expressive manner and intellectual matter seem easy enough to grasp at first hearing but the openness is deceptive. There's plenty more beneath the surface that awaits discovery...The performances are wonderfully warm and insightful.”
25th June 2010
“The performers work hard to clarify the dense textures, and they play
the intense white-hot ending as if their lives depended on it...The performances by the Nash Ensemble could hardly be bettered.”
September 2010
“These are admirable performances...strongly characterised and recorded with immense sonic presence in BBC Wales's new Hoddinott Hall.”
Matthews: Symphony No. 2, Op.17 -1. Lento E Calmo
