William Mathias (1934-92)

[Albion]

Impressive list!  I look forward to hearing the Concerto for Orchestra this evening.  Can I also get these:

This Worlde's Joie, Op.67 (1974)
Janet Price, sop; Kenneth Bowen, ten; Michael Rippon, bar/ Dyfed Choir/ Fishguard Secondary School Choir/ BBC Welsh SO/ William Mathias (1/7/1987, br. 24/8/1987)

Organ Concerto, Op.91 (1984)
Gillian Weir, organ/ BBC Welsh SO/ Erich Bergel (br. 12/9/1984)

In Arcadia (1991)
BBC NOW/ Tadaaki Otaka (br. 30/5/1992)

Violin Concerto (1991)
Gyorgy Pauk, violin/ Hallé O/ Charles Groves (16/1/1992)

Flute Concerto (1992)
William Bennett, flute/ Guildhall String Ensemble

Thanks!

Just sent to you by PM, let me know if you got them...

 

[Symphonic Addict]

His Sinfonietta, Op. 34 is a most wonderful piece. In its short duration (not more than 13 minutes long), it packs some energetic and memorable music. The slow movement struck me like the highlight of the work, there's something magical and special that captivates the ear. On hearing this work I realize and confirm that he was a deft orchestrator, and his sense of rhythm is catchy. My only quibble is the very ending, which could be more elaborate.

[Albion]

I simply can't understand why such wonderful Welsh music is now completely ignored: Grace Williams, Daniel Jones, William Matthias, Alun Hoddinott...

 

[Peter Power Pop]

His Sinfonietta, Op. 34 is a most wonderful piece. In its short duration (not more than 13 minutes long), it packs some energetic and memorable music. The slow movement struck me like the highlight of the work, there's something magical and special that captivates the ear. On hearing this work I realize and confirm that he was a deft orchestrator, and his sense of rhythm is catchy. My only quibble is the very ending, which could be more elaborate.

[Roasted Swan]

Good shout - Mathias gets the occasional positive mention on this forum but in the wider world the sense is he's an all but forgotten composer and in this world of ticking boxes I can't see that status mchanging any time soon sadly

EDIT:  just spent this morning's dog walk listening to;



prompted by Peter Power Pop above.  An excellent disc - typically vibrant Lyritya engineering and good playing from the various orchestras involved.  Mathias definitely deserves to be heard.  The "problem" is that he belongs to that group of British composers who stayed tonally centred and relatively traditional at a time when "new music" meant squeaky gate.  There's a whole raft of them who were (and remain) marginalised for no good reason other than the fact that they were not ever cutting-edge (whatever that might mean).  Additionally, although now his music might be rehabilitated on compositional grounds other non-musical criteria militate against him.

[DaveF]

Good shout - Mathias gets the occasional positive mention on this forum but in the wider world the sense is he's an all but forgotten composer and in this world of ticking boxes I can't see that status changing any time soon sadly

I suspect, sadly, that he's ignored in the wider world because he's also ignored in Wales.  I have complained, from time to time, that the BBCNOW is more adventurous on disc than in the concert hall - thinking of the recorded Rubbra, Leighton and Berkeley series, for example - but that's probably the same for any orchestra.  In fact, we get some quite unusual repertoire in Cardiff concerts - in recent months I've heard, or am going to hear, Ligeti, BA Zimmermann, Szymanowski, Martinů, Thierry Pécou, but these are all noticeably non-Welsh.

Likewise, we've had an impressive range of chief conductors over the decades - Thomas Søndergård, Thierry Fischer, Richard Hickox, Mark Wigglesworth, Tadaaki Otaka - but again these are musicians with an international outlook rather than with a specifically Welsh agenda to promote.

It was not always thus - the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra, as it was then, premiered most of Hoddinott's symphonies, but that was a cycle that didn't make it onto disc.  Good music should of course be supra-national, but I suspect that if a nation's musical heritage is not promoted at home, then it will struggle in the wider world.

[Roasted Swan]

I suspect, sadly, that he's ignored in the wider world because he's also ignored in Wales.  I have complained, from time to time, that the BBCNOW is more adventurous on disc than in the concert hall - thinking of the recorded Rubbra, Leighton and Berkeley series, for example - but that's probably the same for any orchestra.  In fact, we get some quite unusual repertoire in Cardiff concerts - in recent months I've heard, or am going to hear, Ligeti, BA Zimmermann, Szymanowski, Martinů, Thierry Pécou, but these are all noticeably non-Welsh.

Likewise, we've had an impressive range of chief conductors over the decades - Thomas Søndergård, Thierry Fischer, Richard Hickox, Mark Wigglesworth, Tadaaki Otaka - but again these are musicians with an international outlook rather than with a specifically Welsh agenda to promote.

It was not always thus - the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra, as it was then, premiered most of Hoddinott's symphonies, but that was a cycle that didn't make it onto disc.  Good music should of course be supra-national, but I suspect that if a nation's musical heritage is not promoted at home, then it will struggle in the wider world.

Spot-on - notable that all (most?) the Lyrita/Daniel Jones releases date from the era of BBC Welsh SO too - another very fine symphonist.

[Roasted Swan]

I simply can't understand why such wonderful Welsh music is now completely ignored: Grace Williams, Daniel Jones, William Matthias, Alun Hoddinott...

 

Fun (true!) fact of the day.  NO symphony by Mathias, Hoddinott or Williams has EVER been performed at the BBC Proms.  Daniel Jones has had 2 performed - the most recent in 1959............

[Maestro267]

Classical music is struggling to stay afloat even with the popular warhorses so any performances of neglected music is even more unlikely in this day and age. Rough seas out there for us.

[Albion]

Classical music is struggling to stay afloat even with the popular warhorses so any performances of neglected music is even more unlikely in this day and age. Rough seas out there for us.

Indeed. I've got tons of broadcasts by all these composers which should be commercially released and these are works that should be regularly PLAYED IN CONCERT. The Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff does absolutely nothing to promote the composer that it was named after, they might as well have called it "Cardiff Concert Hall" for all that it promotes Welsh music...

  

[Maestro267]

As long as they're recorded that's all that matters. Although to be recorded they usually have to be performed in concert at least once as that's how recordings are done these days.

Speaking from Mathias as that's the thread we're in and discussions of other composers should go in their respective threads, we did get a Proms performances of the Violin Concerto way back in 2014 that absolutely should be commercially released.

[Maestro267]

Fun (true!) fact of the day.  NO symphony by Mathias, Hoddinott or Williams has EVER been performed at the BBC Proms.  Daniel Jones has had 2 performed - the most recent in 1959............

Not quite a symphony but we do have Grace Williams' Violin Concerto at this years Proms, announced today. Ask and ye shall receive, maybe?