2023 is my 80th birthday year and it is being celebrated with a number of birthday concerts. On my actual birthday, 9 March, the BBC Philharmonic under John Storgårds played three of my works, Concerto for Orchestra, Nachtgesang and Chaconne, at the BBC studio in Salford, and on 8 May another three works, String Trio No.1, A Song for Emma and A Blackbird Sang, were performed at the Luton Music Club by Emma Halnan and the Eblana String Trio. Other birthday concerts, listed below, will be at the Deal. Presteigne and Little Missenden Festivals, and my friends in Brno have programmed my Piano Quintet there in September. The most exciting event for me this year, however, will be the first performance with orchestra of my opera Anna on 14 July, a concert performance at The Grange Northington, details of which are given here.

I am currently writing an 11th Symphony: no definite performance is scheduled yet, but I hope to finish it by the end of the year.

Pre-concert talk at 2.30pm.

World premiere of an opera with a libretto by Roger Scruton.

Listen to the full recording on Soundcloud.

A new film by Barrie Gavin.

David’s Thirteenth Quartet was recorded in 2018, and will be finally released this year on Toccata Classics, together with the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Quartets. In addition to the customary four string players, the work features four singers and was written in memory of a close friend, Peter Sculthorpe. Musical Opinion (Oct-Dec 2018) described its performance in July by the Kreuzer Quartet, alongside singers Rebecca Lea, Jess Dandy, Will Dawes and James Robinson, as 'A moving tribute to a fellow composer and a searching addition to a genre which David Matthews has made his own.' Paul Conway goes on to call the Thirteenth Quartet a 'tightly written piece that covered a vast spectrum of emotion in a short space of time. There was quirkiness and wit as well as noble tranquillity in a persuasive premiere performance of great warmth and humanity.'

In 2021 David finished an organ piece for the outstanding German organist Hansjorg Albrecht, who is in the process of recording all ten of Bruckner's symphonies (including No.0) together with ten commissioned 'Bruckner Windows', each of which is related to a particular symphony. David was asked to write a companion piece to Symphony No.2, which Bruckner began on his visit to London in 1871, where he gave acclaimed organ recitals. It is called Meditation on the slow movement of Bruckner's Second Symphony; it was recorded in August 2021 on the organ of Westminster Cathedral and the CD released in November 2021. A film of the performance will shortly be available on YouTube.

See full recording details