Colin Matthews - Alphabicycle Order, Horn Concerto | Halle CDHLL7515

Colin Matthews - Alphabicycle Order, Horn Concerto

£11.88

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Label: Halle

Cat No: CDHLL7515

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Release Date: 1st October 2008

Contents

Artists

Henry Goodman (narrator)
Members of the Halle Youth Choir
Cantores Roborienses
The Halle
Richard Watkins (horn)

Conductors

Edward Gardner
Sir Mark Elder

Works

Matthews, Colin

Alphabicycle Order
Horn Concerto

Artists

Henry Goodman (narrator)
Members of the Halle Youth Choir
Cantores Roborienses
The Halle
Richard Watkins (horn)

Conductors

Edward Gardner
Sir Mark Elder

About

“Matthews is a composer whose music has always been distinctive and distinctively communicative”. Gig Magazine, July 2007

This disc presents contrasting and striking works from Colin Matthews, Composer-in-Association with the Hallé.  Matthews is internationally commissioned and performed and is equally accomplished writing in a wide variety of styles and for a vast range of forces.  He has been the recipient of major international composition awards and has held a number of high profile positions.  He has recently completed, to great acclaim,  the orchestration of Debussy’s 24 Preludes for the Hallé.

Alphabicycle Order is a setting of wonderfully punning children’s rhymes by Christopher Reid. It shows Matthews writing at it’s most witty, effective and approachable in these settings for orchestra, narrator and children’s chorus. The premiere, at which this recording was made,  was highlight of the inaugural Manchester Festival in July 2007.

“Alphabicycle Order might not be Matthews’s most serious work but it is an extraordinarily accomplished one. Brilliantly diverse in its musical language, sympathetic to the wit and wisdom of Reid’s texts and superbly well set for young voices, Alphabicycle Order is a textbook example of how to write for diverse forces in a meaningful, inclusive yet unmistakably individual way” Gig Magazine editorial (Paul Cutts), 17-30 July 2007.

The Horn Concerto was written in 2001 for Richard Watkins, arguably Britain’s premiere horn soloist,  and has been described as “one of [Matthews’] most striking pieces” (The Guardian).  It is a dream-like piece, with a romantic framework which is haunted by a series of troubled intrusions from soloist and Matthews’ brilliantly written orchestra.

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