David Matthews (b. 1943)
Complete String Quartets Volume 5
Kreutzer Quartet
Rebecca Lea (soprano), Jess Dandy (contralto), James Robinson (tenor), Will Dawes (baritone)
rec. 2017-2021, St. John the Baptist, Aldbury; St. Michael’s Highgate, London; St. George’s Headstone, Harrow, UK
TOCCATA CLASSICS TOCC0554 [63]
It seems we may be up to date with David Matthews and his quartet writing, but we cannot assume that he will not go on writing in a medium he quite obviously loves. He might have stopped at fifteen quartets, like Robert Simpson or Shostakovich (no mean influence on some of his work), or do one more like Beethoven, or go on into the twenties like Vagn Holmboe. A number sixteen may indeed be on its way. (Matthews’s long-standing friend Peter Schulthorpe composed eighteen, but more of him later.) The point is that he still has something new to say in each quartet, and so they are worthy of our study. Like Holmboe’s and indeed Elizabeth Maconchy’s, Matthews’s quartets are, generally, getting shorter, or should I say more compact.
But there is more. The disc is topped off with various miniatures, mainly beautifully idiomatic arrangements for string quartet of pieces which Matthews finds particularly interesting, as he explains in his booklet essay, or written for friends or for special occasions.
It was after a memorial concert for Peter Schulthorpe that Matthews felt he wanted to compose a work for the Kreutzer Quartet, and also fulfil a separate commission. He then encountered Beethoven’s Elegischer Gesang for four voices and strings, and the String Quartet No 13 came into being.
The first of five movements is an intensely beautiful setting of Green by one of Sculthorpe’s favourite poets, D. H. Lawrence. Matthews had set it for Sculthorpe’s sixtieth birthday, and here he enlarged it. We have a few scraps of bird song included, the sort of thing Schulthorpe did throughout his life. Next, we have the first bird interlude, Woollahra Magpies. I heard these noisy critters when I was in Sydney for a few weeks. Matthews noted down their calls and produced a lively movement, rhythmically very reminiscent of Schulthorpe who very often included such sounds in his own works. The middle movement, a setting of Lawrence’s Sun in Me, is a reminder that Sculthorpe’s autobiography is named Sun Music, a title he also gave to some orchestral pieces. The Song Thrush comes next, a deliberately English folk-dance, using the song Matthews noted in his own back garden which Schulthorpe had enjoyed on a visit to the Matthews house in London. The finale, quite appropriately sets the words Lux aeterna luceat eis from the Requiem Mass in direct memory of Schulthorpe. The four voices sing passionately and blend wonderfully. This unique work makes a very considerable impression.
As noted, David Matthews – just as Peter Schulthorpe – likes inserting bird calls into his music. The String Quartet No 14 includes, near the beginning, the calls of the tawny owl, and duetting blackbirds in its final section. There is a reason: his love of the natural world. It was viewing a sunset across the sea at Deal in Kent which was the inspiration. The three sections of the work are played without a break. We begin mysteriously with Night which builds into Sunrise culminating in a wondrous climax at the end of its five minutes. It then breaks into Day marked Molto vivace con gioia. The composer explains that there are four little sections in this finale, including a joyous ending in D major. So, this condensed and direct work is beautifully structured and clear in its intentions.
It was not the first time that was Matthews paying homage to the natural world and to landscape. The Quartet brought to my mind his fine orchestral tone poem In the Dark Time from 1984-1985. It too is in several sections played without a brea,k and also rises to a climax of light and joy in something approaching D major.
Very often composers compile new works from older material, either because they think it to be of especial use or because it might be the only way of ever hearing the music. The String Quartet No 15 does just that in each of its four movements, and again it reminds me that Peter Schulthorpe does so similarly in his quartets. The rather austere opening fugue and other contrapuntal sections are arrangements of fugues written, for example, for Michael Bertram and Barrie Gavin as heard for instance, in the brief first-movement Allegro. The finale, a Moderato over a plucked bass, uses a fugue which was a fiftieth birthday present for composer James Francis Brown. Matthews also uses material from his yet unperformed opera Anna as in the ‘giocoso’ third movement. The longest, second movement, marked Molto Adagio, also uses material from the opera which was completed in 2020. I find this work unsatisfactory, and its ideas short-winded and largely uninteresting.
Even so, if you have been collecting David Matthews quartets on this wonderfully enterprising label, then you will wish to snap up this one. If you are new to his music, I suggest that Volume 3, with the first three Quartets, would be a good starting point. One cannot find fault with the four singers or with the Kreutzer Quartet who clearly understand the composer’s requirements and communicate them lucidly and intelligently. It would be fascinating, though, if another group were to take on at least some of these works. I am sure new perspectives would open out, as with all fine music.
There is little or no difference in the acoustic and atmosphere of the recordings made at varying venues. The sound is consistent and always transparent.
Gary Higginson
Contents
String Quartet No 14 Op 145 (2016-2017) [12:39]
String Quartet No 15 Op 159 (2021) [14:50]
String Quartet No 13 (2014-2015) [18:16]
Elgar arr. Matthews Sospiri (2018) [3:56]
Mozart arr. Matthews Minuet k355 (2014) [2:34]
Mozart arr. Matthews Gigue k574 (2014) [2:19]
Beethoven arr. Matthews Bagatelle Wo56 (2014) [2:16]
Franz Xaver Gruber arr. Matthews Stille Nacht [1:50]
Robert Schumann Im wunderschönen Monat Mai (2004) [1:37]
David Matthews Canon for Michael Tippett (1974) [0:55]
David Matthews Canon for Michael Berkeley (1998) [0:57]
Published: November 21, 2022
