David Matthews: Symphony No. 7 & Vespers

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Non-doctrinal yet celebrating the religious sense as such, this is a work both of great beauty and genuine spiritual force...I was moved and rather awed by the mastery of large forces to such... — BBC Music Magazine, April 2014, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 9th Dec 2013
Catalogue No: CDLX7305
Label: Dutton
Series: Epoch
Length: 68 minutes

Matthews, D: Vespers, Op. 66

Work length46:48

Album only

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
David Hill

I. The Light Shouts in Your Tree-Top

Track length6:27

$1.00

$1.40

II. Alma Redemptoris Mater

Track length15:24

Album only

III. If Only There Were Stillness

Track length4:14

$1.00

$1.40

VI. Laudate pueri

Track length6:39

$1.00

$1.40

V. Pulchra Es

Track length6:14

$1.00

$1.40

VI. Magnificat

Track length2:59

$1.00

$1.40

VII. All Will Grow Great and Powerful Again

Track length4:51

$1.00

$1.40

Matthews, D: Symphony No. 7, Op. 109: Allegro moderato - Meno mosso - Allegro moderato

Work length21:42

Album only

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
John Carewe

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World premiere recordings, recorded at Lighthouse, Poole, Dorset, 19 July 2011 [Symphony] & 27-28 July 2013 [Vespers]

Unlike many contemporary composers, David Matthews has been much concerned with working in the great, inherited forms of the past – symphony, string quartet, oratorio – and finding new ways of renewing them. In a similar spirit, he has never shied away from tonality, from a musical language that is clear and direct, and from a joyous spirit of dance; “If only music could dance once again!” he reflected upon listening to Monteverdi’s Vespers. This is the work that inspired his own Vespers, a grand oratorio masterfully combining a sense of solemnity and exhilaration, and which makes an important addition to the great tradition of amateur choral music. The same feeling of boisterous energy is felt in Matthews’ seventh, and most recent, symphony. Once again, Matthews is unafraid of connections with great composers of the past and the model of Sibelius’s Seventh Symphony – a one-movement work that subtly transitions from slow to fast and back again – provides a template from which Matthews creates a piece of exquisitely scored beauty and richness.

Reviews

April 2014

Non-doctrinal yet celebrating the religious sense as such, this is a work both of great beauty and genuine spiritual force...I was moved and rather awed by the mastery of large forces to such humane, celebratory goals...Blazingly committed performances do full justice to, yes, one of our greatest living composers.

March 2014

magnificent singing from the Bach Choir, with David Hill securing a powerful response from the Bournemouth Symphony...This is an important addition to Matthew's ever-increasing discography.

24th August 2014

This world-premiere recording, which came out earlier in the summer, confirms David Matthews(b.1943) as a natural composer for voices – here, the full-bodied, occasionally untamed Bach Choir – as well as a richly gifted orchestral colourist happy to find invention in tonality and tradition.

David Matthews: Symphony No. 7 & Vespers

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