David Matthews composer
 
 
   

In July 1990 I was staying at the conductor Norman Del Mar's house in Millook on the north coast of Cornwall, finishing my large orchestral piece The Music of Dawn. Each evening there were spectacular sunsets, and I used to go up on the cliff to paint them in watercolours.

The Music of Dawn is concerned with the sun in all its aspects, and I am sure that these paintings assisted the compositional process: the one above was painted on 15th July, and next morning I wrote the music you can see and hear, in its final orchestral form, on the website introduction page.

 
 

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Recent and Forthcoming Performances

25/04/2013  --  From Sea to Sky

Michael Downes | St Andrews Chamber Orchestra

Work details: Op.59 - From Sea to Sky

25/04/2013  --  Three Birds and a Farewell

Michael Downes | St Andrews Chamber Orchestra

Work details: Op.118 - Three Birds and a Farewell

28/04/2013, 11am  --  Piano Trio No.2

The Grier Trio | Blackheath Concert Halls, London

Work details: Op.61 - Piano Trio No.2

27/05/2013, 7.30pm  --  White Nights

English Music Festival, Dorchester Abbey

Rupert Marshall-Luck (violin) | Ben Palmer (conductor) | Orchestra of St Paul's

Work details: Op.26 - White Nights (violin, small orchestra)

31/05/2013, 7.30pm  --  Skies are now Skies

Spring Sounds: Spring Seas

Simon Wall (tenor) | The Orchestra of the Swan

Work details: Op.64 - Skies now are Skies (String Quartet No.7)

07/06/2013, 7.30pm  --  Britten Quartet No.2 - arrangement (world premiere)

Quartets Squared

The Scottish Ensemble | The Music Hall, Aberdeen

14/06/2013, 7.30pm  --  Four Portraits for Piano

A 70th Birthday Celebration for William Howard

William Howard (piano) | Spitalfields Music Festival, London

14/06/2013, 7.30pm  --  The Shorter Ring

A 70th Birthday Celebration for William Howard

William Howard (piano) | Spitalfields Music Festival, London

Work details: The Shorter Ring (Richard Wagner)

27/06/2013  --  The Flaying of Marsyas (arrangement)

City of London Festival

Nicholas Daniel (oboe) | Britten Sinfonia

Work details: Op.42 - The Flaying of Marsyas

29/06/2013, 7.30pm  --  Romanza for Violin and Strings

Madeleine Mitchell (violin) | George Vass (conductor) | Orchestra Nova | Proms at St Jude's | Hampstead Garden Suburb

Work details: Op.119 - Romanza for Violin and Strings

30/06/2013  --  Psalm 23 (The Lord is my Shepherd)

David Wordsworth | Addison Singers | Ramsey Festival, Cambridgeshire

Work details: Op.90 - Psalm 23 (The Lord is my Shepherd)

03/07/2013, 1pm  --  Four Portraits for Piano

Pamela Lane Memorial Concert

William Howard (piano) | Deal Music Festival, Kent

04/07/2013  --  String Quartet No.12

Lycka Festival, Sweden

Work details: Op.114 - String Quartet No.12

05/07/2013  --  Four Portraits for Piano

Schumann, Faure and the Matthews Brothers

William Howard (piano) | Cheltenham Music Festival

07/07/2013  --  Concerto for Violin and Viola (world premiere)

Mark Eager | The Welsh Sinfonia | Cheltenham Music Festival

08/07/2013, 7.30pm  --  String Quartet No.10

Beethoven Begins 'Bagatelles and Variations'

The Kreutzer Quartet with Diana Matthews (viola) | Wilton's Music Hall, London

Work details: Op.84 - String Quartet No.10

16/07/2013  --  A Vision of the Sea (world premiere)

BBC Proms - Prom 6: David Matthews, Rachmaninov and Nielsen

Juan Jose Mena | BBC Philharmonic Orchestra | Royal Albert Hall

Other news

18/04/2012  --  Forthcoming CD release: David Matthews - Complete String Quartets, Volume Two

The second volume of David's complete string quartets, recorded by the Kreutzer Quartet on the Toccatta Classics label, was released on 3 May at Kings Place prior to the Kreutzer's 'Voces Intimae' concert.

The Kreutzers recorded David's First Quartet on 11 April and this work will appear together with The Flaying of Marsyas in the third volume which should be released in 2013.

18/04/2012  --  Recording of Dark Pastoral

Dark Pastoral will be recorded for Dutton Epoch on 29th May by Guy Johnston (cello) and The Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Martin Yates.

29/09/2012  --  A Vision of the Sea

Full news item details

Between 26 July and 13 August I was at my house in Deal, working on my orchestral piece for next year's BBC Proms, which is provisionally titled A Vision of the Sea. From before dawn until dusk I was surrounded by the constant calls of Herring Gulls, and they have got into the piece; in fact have been transformed into one of its main motivic ideas. At the same time, almost every day I made watercolour paintings of the sea and the sky, the majority in the early morning, which I felt helped me to compose. The weather during this time was a mixture of sunshine and cloud, and some of the skies were spectacular.
View the sequence of nineteen paintings.

07/11/2012  --  CD out now: English Violin Duos

Performed by Retorica. Availble on the NMC record label.

Full recording details

Work details: Op.79 - Eight Duos

 
 
 

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