Colin Matthews: Orchestral Works

Featuring

John Carewe
Alexander Baillie
Michael Tilson Thomas
Max Baillie
Martina Baillie
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin

London Sinfonietta
London Symphony Orchestra
Colin Matthews

Did you know?

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Composition History

The works on Disc 2 were all written for the London Symphony Orchestra during Colin Matthews's tenure as the orchestra's Associate Composer.

Compositional Technique

Machines and Dreams, an updated 'Toy Symphony', involves children as performers and features mechanical instruments like toy pianos, bird calls, and electronic arcade sounds.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Colin Matthews's music demonstrates a consistent ability to build large-scale formal structures with originality and an organic conception.

Compositional Technique

In his work Hidden Variables, Colin Matthews incorporates allusions to minimalist composers, which he describes as his own ideas and not direct quotations, reflecting his ambivalent feelings about them.

Composition History

Memorial was commissioned for Mstislav Rostropovich's 1993 festival of Benjamin Britten's music at the Barbican Centre in London.

Compositional Technique

The title Hidden Variables refers to a quantum physics theory suggesting an undiscovered layer of regular relationships beneath the uncertain behavior of particles.

Composer Biography

Colin Matthews, the composer, worked on the manuscript of Mahler's Tenth Symphony and served as an amanuensis to Benjamin Britten in Britten's final years.