Like almost everyone else, I have had relatively few public performances since Covid took hold, but 2022 will, I hope, see the premieres of most of the pieces I have written during this disquieting time. After three years work on it, I finally completed my opera Anna in November 2021. There are no plans yet for a production, but there was a performance with piano accompaniment at the National Opera Studio in London on 31 January.

For me the outstanding event of 2021 was the wonderful performance of my new arrangement of Berlioz's Nuits d'été for baritone and string sextet by Christian Gerhaher, who had commissioned it, and an incomparable group of string players. Altogether, they gave nine performances all round Europe. I was also delighted to hear my orchestration of Scriabin's late piano piece Vers la flamme premiered after 35 years - it had been a present for my brother Colin's 40th birthday, and Colin was there to hear a fine performance by the enterprising Ealing Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Gibbons.

Part of the Three Choirs Festival.

Part of the Presteigne Festival.

Part of the Presteigne Festival.

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David’s Thirteenth Quartet was recorded in 2018, and will be finally released this year on Toccata Classics, together with the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Quartets. In addition to the customary four string players, the work features four singers and was written in memory of a close friend, Peter Sculthorpe. Musical Opinion (Oct-Dec 2018) described its performance in July by the Kreuzer Quartet, alongside singers Rebecca Lea, Jess Dandy, Will Dawes and James Robinson, as 'A moving tribute to a fellow composer and a searching addition to a genre which David Matthews has made his own.' Paul Conway goes on to call the Thirteenth Quartet a 'tightly written piece that covered a vast spectrum of emotion in a short space of time. There was quirkiness and wit as well as noble tranquillity in a persuasive premiere performance of great warmth and humanity.'

In 2021 David finished an organ piece for the outstanding German organist Hansjorg Albrecht, who is in the process of recording all ten of Bruckner's symphonies (including No.0) together with ten commissioned 'Bruckner Windows', each of which is related to a particular symphony. David was asked to write a companion piece to Symphony No.2, which Bruckner began on his visit to London in 1871, where he gave acclaimed organ recitals. It is called Meditation on the slow movement of Bruckner's Second Symphony; it was recorded in August 2021 on the organ of Westminster Cathedral and the CD released in November 2021. A film of the performance will shortly be available on YouTube.

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