David Matthews (b.1943)
Orchestral Works
Anna: Symphonic Diptych Op 171
Symphony No 11 (2022)
Flute Concerto Op166 (2021)
Emma Halnan (flute)
Ulster Orchestra /Jac Van Steen
rec. 2024, Townsend Street Presbyterian Church, Belfast
SOMM Recordings SOMMCD0710 [75]
If you have been collecting David Matthews’ symphonies you have found them on the Dutton label, other works, such as the String quartets being with Toccata Classics. Now Somm have stepped up with these magnificent performances.
Although not the longest work on the disc, the Symphony No 11 may first attract your attention. It is in one movement but just allotted one track. The First and Third Symphonies, which are of about the same length, are both also in a single span (Dutton CDLX7222), but whereas the First, now fifty years old, is a little diffuse and sometimes wild, Matthews has now confined his considerable musical imagination in one, varied structure in which his material, finely crafted, economical, with no gimmicks and with strong lyrical threads, exerts a satisfying and often strong emotional pull.
In his pithy booklet notes, the composer tells us that the first idea came to him after hearing a performance at the Presteigne Festival which featured a trumpet solo. This theme is prefaced by an allegro ‘beginning on violas and moving into first violins’. A set of variations begins, and two scherzo sections are included. There is a shortish slow section and a recurring chaconne. The work ends quietly in D major, the key, along with D minor, of the opening. The final impression is of springtime and burgeoning growth – in fact, a truly English symphony.
The three-movement Flute Concerto is a charming and generally tuneful work of twenty-three minutes. The flute is often criticised for its limited dynamic range, but Matthews gets round this by using a ‘Haydnesque’ orchestra but including the harp which, as he says, is the flute’s natural companion, and a tambourine which comes into its own in the compound time central section of the middle movement, otherwise marked Lento. This movement begins with an oboe intoning an almost Irish-sounding tune and another melody that Matthews composed for his wife which he admits ‘has something of an Irish character’. It’s good he employs it here, as the melodic material otherwise is not especially memorable. I also have to say that the first movement, which ‘searches for a key’, never seems to really take off, although its full of display and energy. One is impressed by Emma Halnan’s virtuosity and often strong tone quality, and the recording helps her greatly as it is close (which is not to everyone’s taste) but also beautifully spaced.
It would be fair to say that Matthews has spent so much of his prolific composing life writing string quartets and symphonies that it’s hardly surprising that opera has not much featured. His Anna: Symphonique Diptych transforms his only opera into a thirty-minute symphony (unnumbered) and was made at the suggestion of Jac Van Steen after the opera’s premiere in July 2023. Ultimately a tragic story, it circles round the love between Anna, represented by a solo oboe who falls in love with Miro, represented by a solo trumpet, and her brother Peter, and is set during a time of revolution. Roger Scruton wrote the libretto. Anna and Peter’s father had been arrested for helping dissidents and died in prison. It transpires that it was evidence given by Miro that convicted him. Peter cannot forgive Miro but in a tussle between the two men Anna is accidently shot and they are all too late reconciled.
You have two ways of enjoying this, which I would term as a post-Romantic score and I do both: you might listen to it straight through without knowing anything of the plot so that it becomes an abstract post-Romantic symphony or you can follow it reading the concise resume given in the booklet. Ultimately, I preferred the former plan. This is largely an elegiac work especially the very beautiful and moving final section ‘Lament for Anna’ but the first movement (Anna in Love) which begins aggressively, is also emotional and often plaintive. The orchestration can be a little crowded at times, but Matthews does use a large orchestra, especially brass, because he has to transfer the vocal lines into the already created orchestral textures.
The recorded quality is detailed and very well-spaced. Jac Van Steen clearly knows the music perfectly and the Ulster orchestra respond to him, and to the score, with seeming passion and commitment. This is well worth exploring.
Gary Higginson
Previous review: John Quinn (November 2025)
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