Given the extensive
commitment that Colin Matthews has given
to NMC both administratively and in
his role as executive producer, it seems
entirely fitting that this latest release
in the already valuable mid-price Ancora
series, should be of his own orchestral
music. The double disc set draws together
recordings previously available on Unicorn-Kanchana
in the case of the Sonata No. 5
and Cello Concerto No.1, with
the other pieces having been on the
much lamented Collins Classics label.
What we get is a fascinating
contrast between the Matthews of the
expansive orchestral canvasses, the
master of large-scale formal architecture
and the writer of more concentrated
works. The route of Matthews’ development
has been a journey through compositional
diversities embracing his responses
to the stylistic issues evolving around
him in the wider contemporary music
world. On the face of it all this is
a far cry from his, and his brother
David’s, early involvement with Imogen
Holst and Benjamin Britten; not to mention
his work, as close collaborator with
Deryck Cooke, on the realisation of
Mahler’s sketches for the Tenth Symphony.
For a period during
this journey the impact of minimalism
found its way into his psyche. In reality
the influence is refracted through his
own musical intellect and can often
be realised with devilishly ingenious
results. The execution is always strictly
controlled, leaving no doubt that Matthews
is in complete charge of his material
and direction. Hidden Variables
was written in its original 1989 version
for the chamber forces of the Birmingham
Contemporary Music Group with Matthews
subsequently revising the piece in 1992
for large orchestra as heard here. In
his excellent booklet notes Andrew Clements
aptly comments that the music "careers
off into wicked little vignettes of
a number of the leading minimalist composers".
Matthews rightly points out that the
minimalist ideas are his own and not
quotes; yet the allusions are clear.
Steve Reich and John Adams are amongst
the more obvious "victims"
with Matthews weaving his ideas into
a showpiece that is not only great fun
but also highly virtuosic.
The contrast with Memorial
could hardly be starker. Matthews wrote
the work in the wake of a visit to northern
France to see the grave of his grandfather
who died on the Somme. Appropriately
perhaps it was also a commission for
Mstislav Rostropovich and his festival
of the music of Benjamin Britten in
1993. Britten would surely have approved
of its powerful expression of the futility
of war. This is Matthews at his most
personal and the five contrasting movements,
by turns turbulent, clangorous and unsettling
are summed up in a concluding processional
of considerable cumulative power.
Quatrain, like
Hidden Variables, takes us back
to the Matthews of the virtuosic showpiece
and is as concentrated as Landscape
is expansive. Scored for wind, brass
and percussion, the bright and brilliant
sound-world is superbly captured by
the players of the London Symphony Orchestra
with the four continuous, fleeting movements
each exploiting timbres and textures
in an almost mesmerising parade of instrumental
detail and activity.
Although it bears the
hallmarks of Matthews’ interest in minimalism
once again, Machines and Dreams
proceeds along an utterly different
musical path to Hidden Variables.
Conceived as a piece to include children,
the odd numbered movements (there are
five in all) are the "machines"
in which the children participate with
a wide array of percussion instruments.
The even numbered "dreams"
are reserved for the orchestra alone
and are more representative of the composer’s
mature style. The second is a dream-like
nightscape and the fourth a fleeting,
mercurial scherzo that occasionally
brings to mind the music of Oliver Knussen,
a close friend and staunch champion
of the Matthews. Take a listen to the
third movement Andante uccelloso, a
wonderful Messiaen-like birdscape with
all manner of bird calls from the children’s
exotic instruments. The arcade games
and football chants of the final movement
are proof that Matthews has a finely
honed sense of musical humour!
Sonata No. 5 Landscape
and the Cello Concerto No. 1 quite
rightly share a disc of their own, being
two of the composer’s most impressive
musical structures. Few British composers
that immediately leap to mind (Nicholas
Maw being one of the possible exceptions)
could sustain a single musical span
of over thirty minutes duration with
the logic and cohesion that Matthews
demonstrates here. It is an ability
that in no short measure stems from
his early immersion in the music of
Mahler. Interestingly, one of the composer’s
other major works available on NMC is
entitled "The Great Journey"
although it is for somewhat different
reasons that a sense of journey inhabits
Landscape, albeit one with "three
starts and several false arrivals"
as Matthews points out. The rigorous
structure was conceived before the notes,
the idea stemming from three journeys
progressing from darkness to light.
Hence each section grows out of the
shadows of its opening in a series of
strongly contrasting orchestral soundscapes,
the "landscapes" of the title.
The Cello Concerto
is no less structured but this time
falls into two distinct movements, each
of which can be broken down into a number
of sub-sections. In the first movement
these take the form of a succession
of fleeting scherzos and trios that
fly by at a mesmerising pace, the tempo
nearly always fast. The magically atmospheric
second movement is predominantly slow
and ensures a sense of balance to the
overall plan before the music of the
first movement makes reappearance shortly
before the close. Both works are here
given fine performances, the former
with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
under the experienced direction of John
Carewe. However, the eloquence of Alexander
Baillie’s playing in the Cello Concerto
marks it out as a particularly notable
achievement.
This two-disc set could
not better reflect the sheer range and
ingenuity of Colin Matthews’s music
and having these works back in the catalogue
is to be applauded in every way. I only
hope that a similar credit can be paid
to his brother David, whose vastly differing
output is somewhat underrated in comparison.
As was the original
conception of NMC, the intention with
Ancora is to keep music permanently
in the catalogue, thereby avoiding the
curse of deletions that continues to
be ongoing, particularly in the field
of contemporary music. The quantity
of British music that deserves to benefit
from such an enterprise is daunting
and consequently it is unrealistic to
expect too much too soon. However, the
early signs from discs already released
are that this series could well go from
strength to strength and with so much
valuable recorded material available
it will be a pleasure to see the label
develop.
Christopher Thomas
Alexander Baillie (cello)