Brindisi Quartet, Schubert Ensemble, Haffner Wind Ensemble & Divertimenti Ensemble, Oliver Knussen
Divertimento was commissioned by and dedicated to Peter Pears for the 1982 Aldeburgh Festival.
Colin Matthews is active as administrator of the Holst Foundation, chair of the Britten Estate, and trustee of the Britten-Pears Foundation. He is also founder and Executive Producer of NMC Recordings.
NMC’s Ancora series is devoted to the reissue of important recordings of contemporary British works which have been deleted by other record labels.
The Brindisi Quartet’s recording of Matthews’ String Quartet No.2 is previously unreleased.
Colin Matthews worked with Benjamin Britten in Aldeburgh in the 1970s.
Colin is currently writing a violin concerto for Leila Josefowicz and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
“These reissues from other labels, plus a first release, make permanently available five of Matthews’s works from the 1980s. The Divertimento for Double String Quartet, performed by Divertimenti Ensemble under Oliver Knussen, intriguingly takes off from the opening chords of Strauss’s Metamorphosen. The brief Triptych, for piano quintet (Schubert Ensemble), exploits the double bass’s always slightly eerie melodic capacity and ends most unexpectedly. Melinda Maxwell is an eloquent soloist with Divertimenti in the one-movement Oboe Quartet No 1. The new release is of the brilliant, scurrying, elusive String Quartet No 2, in a 1996 recording of the revised version by the Brindisi Quartet.” Sunday Times, 22nd June 2008 ***
“In this collection of Colin Matthews' chamber music from the 1980s, the most important item is the newcomer, a 1996 recording of Matthews' Second String Quartet. Completed in 1989, it's a taut, compelling piece that brings together all the ingredients of Matthews' musical language at the time and weaves them into a rigorous discourse that has an almost Elliott Carter-like energy and intensity.” The Guardian, 4th July 2008 ****
“The performances are exemplary - most of them from the ensembles involved in the works' creation - and although some of the earlier recordings have had to be transferred from LP rather than master tape, the sound is clean and focused throughout.” The Telegraph, 26th July 2008
