David Matthews composer
 
 
 

Work Search

Search by Category

Title Word Search

 

Cantiga, Op.45

Category Vocal
Composed 1987-1988
Duration (approx) 24 minutes
Parts 

Soprano, chamber orchestra: 2(=picc).1.ca.2(II=bcl).2 - 2210 - perc(1/2): timp/sleigh bells/vib/crot/mar/BD/ch.cym/susp.cym - harp - strings

Text Author(s) Maggie Hemingway
Text Language English
Recording(s) Cantiga, September Music, Introit, Symphony No.4
Publisher Faber Music
Commission 

Jill Gomez by the Bournemouth Sinfonietta, with funds provided by Greater London Arts.

First performance 27 July 1988
Venue BBC Promenade Concert, Royal Albert Hall, London
Orchestra / Ensemble Bournemouth Sinfonietta
Conductor Roger Norrington
Soloists / Players Jill Gomez (soprano)
Review Geoffrey Norris, Daily Telegraph, 29 July 1998
  

…a rapturous threnody, a dramatic lament of macabre joy… The gradually and subtly shifting atmosphere of Miss Hemingway’s mellifluous poetry… offers a musical potential to which Matthews has responded with a work of striking power and sensibility. For one thing, his setting of the words is instinctive, felt from within; the moods and inflections are heightened with imaginative precision. Nor is the orchestral writing merely illustrative but rather senses the depth of sentiment in the vocal line and complements it with a score of penetrating insight and immediacy.