Emma Halnan flute
Jac Van Steen conductor
Ulster Orchestra
SOMMCD 0710
David Matthews has written so much music – 11 symphonies, 20 string quartets, and hundreds of other works – that it is hard to get a handle on his achievement. However, he has only written one opera – and Anna, which opens this disc, is drawn from that.
Listening ‘blind’ to the (somewhat dry and close) recording, at first I found the music diffuse and rambling, although sensing there must be a hidden narrative. Apart from a brief ear-tickling tango it is overwhelmingly slow, even lugubrious, and sometimes actually just stops. With some brief clues to the characters and plot on hand, I could discern more shape to the music, and the worlds it was evoking; yet after several hearings I still fear that without much more background detail as a guide, at over 32 minutes of mostly slow music, Anna struggles as a stand-alone work.
I have heard most of Matthews’ symphonies, and my response has often been one of cool admiration at their polish and skill. Would his latest evoke the same response? Well, yes and no.
‘That strain again; it had a dying fall’. The symphony starts with some distinct – if plangent – themes which recur throughout, knotting the work together and (theoretically) making it easy to unpack. Yet much of what follows is some of the most laconic symphonic writing I know: not so much reaching out to the listener as waiting for him/her to come to it.
While neither the musical language nor procedures are in any way ‘difficult’, and while never reaching Brian-ic levels of compression, this is a more distilled and concentrated symphonic thinking than before. Even with the given literary references the internal intent of the music somehow still eludes me. However, this time I sense that matters of import are being discussed, and I am sufficiently fascinated to keep listening – which at under 20 minutes is no hardship.
There are no such problems with the Flute Concerto, which is open-hearted (mostly), cheerful and completely approachable. If the melodic material is not massively memorable, nevertheless it is lively and diverting, and Emma Halnan relishes every opportunity for song, reflection and display.
Recommended – especially for a knotty but definitely rewarding new symphony.
Review by Kevin Mandry