CONDUCTOR’S COMPOSER’S A VISION OF THE SEA INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION DAVID MATTHEWS It has been a great privilege and pleasure to Of the four pieces on this disc, only one is a study, rehearse and finally perform David’s numbered symphony, but three of them at least symphonic music in a variety of programmes, have a strong relation with the symphonic idea, 1 Toward Sunrise, Op. 117: Lento e quieto [9.42] not least because working on his music means which has obsessed me since I started composing working with David in person: exchanging at the age of sixteen (my first piece was a Symphony No. 8, Op. 131 thoughts on his orchestration, dynamics, tempi large-scale symphony, and I wrote several others 2 I. Andante – Allegro energico [8.59] and orchestral colours …The sound world he before my ‘official’ No. 1). Hans Keller defined creates provides a conductor with the possibility the symphony as “the large-scale integration of 3 II. Adagio, con molto sentimento [10.35] to show the full capacities of a good contrasts”, and this concise definition has been 4 III. Allegretto giocoso [9.13] shining for the maximum! as much my aim in the five works I have called symphonic poems as in my nine symphonies. 5 Sinfonia, Op. 67: Andante – Allegro [8.18] I will never forget David’s own words in his The difference is that while symphonies for me “Thank You” to the members of the BBC have been purely abstract pieces, symphonic A Vision of the Sea, Op. 125 Philharmonic orchestra: “I try to write music poems like A Vision of the Sea have in addition 6 Poco lento e calmo [5.27] which you simply enjoy playing”. That is a great a programmatic aspect. I am here in agreement 7 Vivacissimo [6.12] challenge in itself – demanding to play but with Sibelius, who made a similar distinction 8 Maestoso [4.22] utterly rewarding. between symphony and symphonic poem. Toward 9 Lento [4.54] Sunrise is too short to be a symphonic poem; I Jac van Steen, June 2020 suppose ‘tone poem’ would be the appropriate Total timings: [67.47] name for it, if I had to give one.

I have a deep regard for the BBC Philharmonic: it has given performances of eleven of my works, BBC PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA five of which it has commissioned, including the JAC VAN STEEN CONDUCTOR Eighth Symphony and A Vision of the Sea. Jac van Steen has previously recorded four of my pieces, www.signumrecords.com - 3 - and I cannot praise him highly enough as an built up to a climax. The piece ends with this premiered in 2015 at the Bridgewater Hall in a lover of music, and a Mancunian, who died interpreter of my music. And I would also like to lowest possible B (the basses with their C string , conducted by H. K. Gruber, to whom while I was writing it. The central section is a thank all the members of the BBC Philharmonic tuned down), sounding together with the highest it is dedicated. The Seventh Symphony had fugue for strings before a powerful return of for their magnificent playing, and the orchestra’s possible B on string harmonics. been the culmination of my four attempts at a the opening section and a quiet, lamenting chief producer Mike George for the superb sound single-movement form. For the Eighth I returned coda. In complete contrast, the finale opens in he has created for this CD. I had seen the films that Barrie Gavin has to the three-movement form of my Sixth, but a carefree G major. It consists of four dance made to accompany George Benjamin’s A Mind with the second and third movements slow/ sections, each lasting just over a minute, all of of Winter and Toru Takemitsu’s How Slow the fast instead of fast/slow. The first movement them exuberant in tone. At the end of the fourth Wind with landscape imagery from Wales and has an Andante introduction, beginning with dance, a waltz, there is an interlude with a viola The starting point of Toward Sunrise, which I Scotland. I decided to write a piece of my own a descending phrase which is used in a varied theme accompanied by downward glissandi on wrote between 2011 and 2012, was hearing the that Barrie could accompany with film, and form in all three movements, followed by a the violins, which was inspired by vapour trails sound of the sun, as recorded by scientists at I was delighted when he agreed to this. He concise Allegro energico. A number of ideas in the sky over Deal on the Kent coast. The four Sheffield University and used as the coda to sent me a lot of footage of landscape imagery rapidly lead to a more extended theme on the dance sections then reappear in reverse order, the last episode of Neil MacGregor’s radio series – much of it of mountains – which acted as in a bright D major. This reaches the first three abbreviated and the last extended A History of the World in 100 Objects. As reported inspiration. I imagined the piece as starting in a brief climax before a development section into a coda. At the very end, the theme of the first by Richard Grey, science correspondent of The late afternoon and proceeding through dusk and during which the theme tries but fails to restate movement’s introduction is heard again, now free Daily Telegraph, these are “musical harmonies a short episode of night to a dawn at the end. itself in the movement’s opening tonality of G. of tension, and in the last three bars the opening produced by the magnetic field in the outer In form it is a set of variations on the opening A big crescendo over a pedal D seems to be of the theme is played by a , atmosphere of the sun. [The scientists] found that phrase, which incorporates the rising fifth. leading to the re-establishment of G; instead quietly affirming the G major it had always been huge magnetic loops that have been observed There is some birdsong, as in many of my recent the trumpet theme reappears as a ghost of itself searching for. coiling away from the outer layer of the sun’s pieces, including a curlew in the quiet section on piccolo, beginning in C sharp minor and atmosphere, known as coronal loops, vibrate like before the concluding sunrise. Toward Sunrise is wandering through various keys until the return While I no longer feel the need to defend my use strings on a musical instrument.” The recording dedicated to Barrie Gavin for his 80th birthday of the Andante introduction, now extended into of tonality, since it seems obvious now that non- I heard had the interval of a rising fourth, C-F, in 2015, when the piece was first performed at a coda, and ending on the chord with which the tonal music has not replaced it, perhaps I should against a sustained harmony of these two notes. the Lichfield Festival by the City of Birmingham movement began. say something about my light-hearted finale, with It seemed uncannily appropriate – an Urmotiv – Orchestra conducted by Lahav Shani. its use of melodic ideas that some might think and I transferred these sounds to low strings, with The second, slow movement is clearly in G minor naïve. Of course I’m aware that I’m going very a playing the almost inaudible My Eighth Symphony was commissioned by and its tone is elegiac. It became a memorial much against the zeitgeist, and that most major low B underneath the C-F harmony, and gradually the BBC Philharmonic, composed in 2014, and piece for my friend Norman Worrall, a composer, art today is pessimistic in tone – which, given

- 4 - - 5 - the state of the world, is hardly surprising. Yet prominent timpani) is contrasted with more lyrical The herring gull calls heard at the start are The last section of the piece begins with a portrait shouldn’t it still be possible to express feelings of music (for the strings) and this juxtaposition pervasive throughout the piece: as I was of a pre-dawn, calm seascape, ruffled only by delight, love of life, elation? They will inevitably provokes an energetic development and a composing I could almost always hear them. And herring gull cries. It leads to an evocation of be mingled with other, darker moods. But if we modified recapitulation. There is a coda in a more the view of the sea from Deal looks towards the sunrise, which, because Deal faces east, I have cannot contrast one with the other, then surely we flamboyantly lyrical style, andSinfonia ends with Goodwin Sands, a notorious place for wrecks. often observed on clear mornings. The sunrise is are not fully human. the bitonal chord on which it began. the same one as in Toward Sunrise, but with an A Vision of the Sea began with a small piano expanded orchestration. I wrote the original version of Sinfonia in I dedicated this new version to my brother Colin piece I wrote in 2012 called Cap Gris-Nez after 1995 for the English Chamber Orchestra, who on his 70th birthday, with love and admiration. the highest point of the French cliffs, often A Vision of the Sea is dedicated to Sally Cavender, commissioned it to mark their 35th anniversary, visible from Deal. I was also thinking of Debussy Performance Music Director of my publisher, and it was premiered by them at the Barbican A Vision of the Sea was commissioned by the finishingLa mer in the Grand Hotel, Eastbourne Faber Music, in gratitude for her many years of Hall in in 1996. At the time I was BBC Philharmonic for the 2013 BBC Proms, and looking across the Channel towards France. dedicated promotion of my music, and friendship, dissatisfied with the piece, but apart from a few where it was conducted by . I wrote I decided to open my symphonic poem with a and also because, as a native of Whitstable, minor revisions I did nothing with it until the it partly in London and partly in Deal, where I transcription of the opening of Cap Gris-Nez, where the Thames Estuary meets the English summer of 2015 when I decided to rewrite it; in compose much of my music. My house there is which evokes a calm sea and the sound of herring Channel, she knows this sea as intimately as I do. doing so I cut out over two minutes of music, and within sound of the sea, and I daily observed its gulls. After this, the first main section suggests a also made considerable alterations to the musical changing moods and colours. A Vision of the Sea gently moving sea, its initial violin theme growing David Matthews texture, including the addition of an extra pair of is the third piece I have written influenced by this out of the descending four-note phrase heard horns to the orchestra. particular part of the English Channel. The title on high violins at the start of the introduction. derives from an unfinished poem by Shelley, This is followed by a substantial scherzo, which When I was asked to compose the piece, my which describes a violent storm. There is no develops the material heard so far, and perhaps original intention was to write an overture. actual storm in my piece, but I liked the title, and conjures the spirit of ‘Jeux de vagues’ from Concert overtures, however, normally have some chose two lines from the poem as an epigraph: La mer without encroaching too much on Debussy’s programmatic content, which this piece does inimitable sound-world. The scherzo overflows not. So I decided on ‘Sinfonia’, which implies a Round sea-birds and wrecks, paved with into a brief but forceful recapitulation of the first relation with classical sonata form. The piece Heaven’s azure smile, section: the sea demonstrating its full power. The begins with a substantial introduction, featuring The wide world of waters is vibrating. stern chaconne that follows is also a metaphor for many of the instruments as soloists. In the the power of the sea. It reaches a climactic chord main Allegro, purely rhythmic material (with and subsides into stillness.

- 6 - - 7 - DAVID MATTHEWS the BBC has made for years’. The orchestra maintains strong relationships with the Finnish David Matthews was born in London in 1943. He conductor and violinist John Storgårds, its Chief learned the piano at an early age but did not start Guest Conductor, and the former BBC Young composing until the age of sixteen when, hearing Based in , and having Musician of the Year Mark Simpson, its Composer Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for the first time, he earned worldwide recognition as one of the most in Association. Making bold moves to re-imagine decided to write a symphony himself. As there was adventurous, innovative, and versatile the orchestral experience, the BBC Philharmonic no music at his school, he read Classics at the in Europe, the BBC Philharmonic brings a rich enthusiastically explores new ways of making University of Nottingham – which has made him and diverse variety of classical music to the classical music accessible to the widest an Honorary Doctor of Music – while all the time broadest range of listeners. While performing audiences. Working with the BBC’s Salford-based intending to pursue a career as a composer. In his more than 100 concerts a year for broadcast Research and Development team, it records many twenties he studied composition privately with on BBC Radio 3, it undertakes its flagship of its concerts in Binaural Sound - creating high Anthony Milner, and was also much helped by the season at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall every quality three-dimensional audio for headphone advice and encouragement of Nicholas Maw, and year from September to June - a residency that listeners - and has brought new technology into later by Peter Sculthorpe. He spent four years as features world and UK premieres alongside the the concert hall through its Notes web-app, an assistant to Benjamin Britten at Aldeburgh in performance of landmark classics and little- which beams free digital programme notes to the late 1960s. He was Music Advisor to the ECO His music includes nine symphonies (all of which heard repertoire rarities. One of the BBC’s six smartphones during concerts. in the 1980s and 1990s and Artistic Director have now been recorded), five symphonic poems, orchestras and choirs, it also appears annually www..co.uk/philharmonic of the Deal Festival from 1989 until 2003. He seven concertos and fourteen string quartets at the BBC Proms, performs across the North of has largely avoided teaching, but to support (which are being recorded on Toccata Classics by , tours frequently to Europe and beyond, The BBC Philharmonic has an exclusive contract his composing career has done editorial work the Kreutzer Quartet). His vocal music includes and records regularly for Chandos, its catalogue with Chandos Records and appears on this (he collaborated with Deryck Cooke on the a large-scale Vespers, recorded by the Bach now extending to more than 250 recordings and release with their permission. performing version of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony Choir and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra more than one million albums sold. In October and is currently editing major works by Vaughan under David Hill on Dutton Epoch. His numerous 2018 the orchestra appointed the Israel-born Williams), orchestration of film music and chamber works include seven commissions for Omer Meir Wellber, internationally recognised arranging. He has also written books on Tippett the Nash Ensemble, most of them recorded for as one of the most exciting young conductors and Britten and articles and reviews for various CD. He is currently finishing an opera,Anna , to working today, as its new Chief Conductor - a journals. His music is widely played in Britain and a libretto by the late Sir Roger Scruton. move that Richard Morrison (The Times) hailed as around the world, and is frequently broadcast. www.david-matthews.co.uk ‘arguably the most inspired musical appointment

- 8 - - 9 - Violin 1 Melody Prophet Abigail Hayward * Trumpet Harp Yuri Torchinsky Leader Matthew Watson Abi Hyde-Smith † Jennifer Galloway Principal Jamie Prophet Principal * Clifford Lantaff Principal Midori Sugiyama Assistant Leader Alyson Zuntz * Peggy Nolan * Kenny Sturgeon † Chris Evans Associate Principal Thomas Bangbala Sub Leader Sian Goodwin Jessica Schaefer Matthew Jones * Gary Farr Sub Principal † Piano Alison Fletcher Principal Oliver Morris Miriam Skinner Peter Athans * Paul Janes † Kevin Flynn Sub Principal Natalie Purton † Elise Wild Tim Barber † James Keefe * Lucy Baker * Willemijn Steenbakkers † Lucy Arch * Gillian Callow Richard Cowen † Martin Clark Ana Vale * Laura Wilson * Celeste Clare Dixon † Double Bass Paul Janes † John Bradbury Principal Julian Gregory Viola Ronan Dunne Principal Fraser Langton † Austeja Juskaiyte * Steven Burnard Principal Daniel Whibley Sub Principal † Richard Brown Principal * † = 7th November 2017 only Matthew Dunn * Karen Mainwaring † Kimi Makino Assistant Principal Alice Durrant Gary MacPhee * = 6th December 2017 only * † Catherine Mandelbaum Bernadette Anguige Sub Principal Ivor Hodgson Bass Clarinet Robert Burtenshaw Frances Pye Kathryn Anstey Miriam Shaftoe Colin Pownall Robert Wild * Matthew Compton Peter Willmott Bass Trombone Philip Brett † Fiona Dunkley David Burndrett * Bassoon Russell Taylor † Ian Flower Alexandra Fletcher Damian Gonzalez Roberto Giaccaglia Principal * * † Austeja Juskaiyte Nicholas Howson James Goode Gretha Tuls Guest Principal † Sarah Percy Rachel Janes Marianne Schofield* Simon Durnford Harry Cunningham * Elizabeth Rossi * Cheryl Law † Mhairi Simpson * Richard Evans † Dorin Tuca † Ruth Montgomery Contra Bassoon Alison Williams Roisin Ni Dhuill Bill Anderson Timpani Martin Wallington Joshua Batty Guest Principal † Paul Turner Principal † Horn Violin 2 Cheryl Law Victoria Daniel Sub Principal Stephen Craigen Guest Principal † Lisa Obert Principal Fiona Slominska * Percussion Alex Wide Guest Principal * Glen Perry Assistant Principal Cello Paul Patrick Principal Rebecca Hill Associate Principal * Gemma Bass Peter Dixon Principal † Piccolo Geraint Daniel Phillip Stoker Lucy Flynn Maria Zacharaidou Assistant Principal Jennifer Hutchinson † Rob Lea Mark Wood Sophie Hudgell † Steven Callow Sub Principal Holly Melia * Elizabeth Gilliver * † Nigel Jay Rebecca Aldersea Jenny Cox Harry Percy * * Rebecca Mathews Melissa Edwards Tom Kane † Rachel Porteous † Elinor Gow † Chris Pointon

- 10 - - 11 - JAC VAN STEEN the 2018-19 season he made his debut at the Oslo Opera with two Puccini productions. Jac Jac van Steen was born in The Netherlands and van Steen visits the UK regularly with the British studied orchestra and choir conducting at the orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, Brabant Conservatory of Music. the CBSO, Royal Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra and made his debut in Tokyo with the New Japan Since participating in the BBC Conductors Philharmonic and the Malaysian Philharmonic Seminar in 1985, he enjoys a very busy career Orchestra. Jac van Steen participates in numerous and conducts the best orchestras in Europe, recordings for the BBC, as well as live broadcasts which included holding the posts of Music of his concerts. There are a substantial number of Director and Chief Conductor of the National CD recordings of his work with various orchestras. Ballet of The Netherlands, the orchestras of Bochum, Nürenberg, the Staatskapelle Weimar, Besides his activities as conductor, he is The Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra of dedicated to teaching and is Professor of Dortmund, Musikkollegium Winterthur and Conducting at the Royal Conservatory of Music Principal Guest conductor at the BBC National in The Hague. He also regularly works with the Orchestra of Wales. At present he is Principal Royal Northern College of Music and Chetham Guest conductor of the Ulster Orchestra and the School of Music (Manchester) as well as the Prague Symphony Orchestra. Royal Academy and Royal College of Music (London). In May-June 2018 he led the Jette He made his debut with Opera North in 2013, Parker Young Artists showcase as organised by as well as with the Volksoper in Vienna. In 2015 the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, London. he has made a very successful debut at the Garsington Opera. He returned to Opera North for several productions and developed a yearly relationship with the Volksoper Vienna and bi-yearly appearances for Garsington Opera such as with Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande in 2017 and Smetana’s The Bartered Bride in 2019. In © Simon van Boxtel

- 12 - - 13 - All the music on this disc is published by Faber Music Ltd.

A BBC Recording

Produced in association with BBC Radio 3 and the BBC Philharmonic.

Recorded at BBC MediaCityUK, Salford, UK on 7th November and 6th December 2017. Producer & Editor – Mike George Recording Engineer – Stephen Rinker Recording Assistants – Chris Hardman (7th), Mike Smith (6th)

Cover Image – © David Matthews Design and Artwork – Woven Design www.wovendesign.co.uk

P 2021 The copyright in this sound recording is owned by the BBC © 2021 The copyright in this CD booklet, notes and design is owned by Signum Records Ltd

The BBC word mark and logo are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and used under licence. BBC Logo © 2011

Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording of Signum Compact Discs constitutes an infringement of copyright and will render the infringer liable to an action by law. Licences for public performances or broadcasting may be obtained from Phonographic Performance Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this booklet may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Signum Records Ltd.

SignumClassics, Signum Records Ltd., Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road, Perivale, Middlesex, UB6 7LQ, UK. Excerpt from the first page of ‘A Vision of the Sea’. Reprinted by kind permission of Faber Music. +44 (0) 20 8997 4000 E-mail: [email protected] www.signumrecords.com

- 14 - - 15 - ALSO AVAILABLE on signumclassics

Ludwig van Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 1-3 Gabriel ProkofievConcerto for Turntables No. 1, Cello Concerto Gerald Barry Beethoven, Piano Concerto Mr. Switch turntables, Boris Andrianov cello Nicolas Hodges piano, Mark Stone bass The Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, Alexey Bogorad Britten Sinfonia, Thomas Adès SIGCD628 SIGCD616

“Quirky and touching in equal measure, Barry’s setting of “From lyrical swoops to edgy syncopations and off-kilter Beethoven’s letter to his ‘Immortal Beloved’ has a similar pounding, sound itself is the key… It shouldn’t need saying that madcap energy to the writing for Lady Bracknell (also written the bass drum is a multifaceted instrument capable of great for low male voice) in the Irish composer’s marvellous chamber- subtly and Prokofiev & Burgess prove it.” opera The Importance of Being Earnest...Adès’s Beethoven, BBC Music Magazine particularly the lightly-sprung Eroica, sounds fresh-minted without being self-consciously radical, and is the most striking orchestral contribution to this year’s anniversary celebrations that’s come my way.” Presto Classical

Available through most record stores and at www.signumrecords.com For more information call +44 (0) 20 8997 4000

- 20 -