William Mathias (1934 - 92)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

A lot of notes not saying very much - I still preferred it to yesterday's student piece. But Mathias wrote much better stuff than this. I'm getting worried that I'll end up at the end of the week with less regard & affection for his work that I started with!

[BBMmk2]

Thanks for the correction, Ferney & SA, I will miss today's programme, so i'll catch up later,althopugh I did hear the organ work, but didn't like much.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

William Mathias, is a composer I know, hardly anything about. Certainly the programme has shown me more of his music, especially his PC2!

William Mathias was the man under whom I studied composition. The fact that I failed miserably as a composer in no way reflects upon his teaching, which was always encouraging and good-humoured.

[Pulcinella]

Erm ... not actually amongst the works being broadcast, Bbm: Nos 1 (yesterday) and 3 (today - played by much-missed Forumista Peter Katin).

I'd prefer to hear the second Pno Conc to Thursday's Lux Aeterna, but I suppose they didn't want to broadcast all three.

Yes, Lux Aeterna does little for me too. But the Harp concerto, on the same Lyrita CD as the Katin PC3, is a piece I like very much indeed.
Actually, playing all three piano concertos would have made sense, IMHO.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks for the correction, Ferney & SA, I will miss today's programme, so i'll catch up later,although I did hear the organ work, but didn't like much.

I thought they'd inserted a piece of early Messiaen that I hadn't heard before, and had to check Radio Times!

[BBMmk2]

I thought they'd inserted a piece of early Messiaen that I hadn't heard before, and had to check Radio Times!

Yes, it sounded a bit like that. But perhaps, as I didn't hear all this programme be good to hear again?

[Pulcinella]

Harp concerto being broadcast right now!

[Serial_Apologist]

Harp concerto being broadcast right now!

Yes I'm just now hearing the final measures - almost Milhaudesque. I feel i've been rather disingenuous in my previous judgements in the wake of this, with its delightful first movement, fresh with those early Tippett styled influences I love so much, and the unexpectedly fraught middle movement successfully carried through in its musical arguments.

PS - never heard Dylan Thomas's name pronounced DIE-lan before!

[Pulcinella]

Yes I'm just now hearing the final measures - almost Milhaudesque. I feel i've been rather disingenuous in my previous judgements in the wake of this, with its delightful first movement, fresh with those early Tippett styled influences I love so much, and the unexpectedly fraught middle movement successfully carried through in its musical arguments.

I love the use Mathias makes of the celesta as a contrasting instrument to the harp, too.

[Serial_Apologist]

I love the use Mathias makes of the celesta as a contrasting instrument to the harp, too.

I'm assuming off the top of my head he took that idea from Tippett's Piano Concerto, though admittedly I haven't yet checked the year of the Mathias composition.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes I'm just now hearing the final measures - almost Milhaudesque. I feel i've been rather disingenuous in my previous judgements in the wake of this, with its delightful first movement, fresh with those early Tippett styled influences I love so much, and the unexpectedly fraught middle movement successfully carried through in its musical arguments.

Oh dear - just as I was coming round to agreeing with your initial "lightweight" description Well - I still think that the Symphonies and String Quartets are splendid, but almost everything this week has led me to lower my general opinion of Mathias' work. Not helped, I have to say, by the idiotic oversimplifications of Geraint Lewis: "the Welsh character", "the Welsh culture" ... as if, given the differences between North & South versions, it could even be claimed that there is something that could be described as "the Welsh language"! Lots of inane oversimplifications from this chap all week so far.

[Pulcinella]

I'm assuming off the top of my head he took that idea from Tippett's Piano Concerto, though admittedly I haven't yet checked the year of the Mathias composition.

Tippett Piano Concerto 1953ish (1953--1955)
Mathias Harp Concerto 1970

[Serial_Apologist]

Tippett Piano Concerto 1953ish (1953--1955)
Mathias Harp Concerto 1970

Oh thanks, Pulcinella!

[Serial_Apologist]

Oh dear - just as I was coming round to agreeing with your initial "lightweight" description Well - I still think that the Symphonies and String Quartets are splendid, but almost everything this week has led me to lower my general opinion of Mathias' work. Not helped, I have to say, by the idiotic oversimplifications of Geraint Lewis: "the Welsh character", "the Welsh culture" ... as if, given the differences between North & South versions, it could even be claimed that there is something that could be described as "the Welsh language"! Lots of inane oversimplifications from this chap all week so far.

Indeed: I wonder what Dylan Thomas would have had to say about that!

I see that the third symphony is up for broadcast in Friday's programme, so looking forward to that. Pity we're not going to hear anything from the string quartets, eg (?):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76enrQQDfXE

[Richard Barrett]

I can't say I've ever been keen on WM's work, but he was the first composer I actually saw in person. He must have been about 40 at the time but looked (I thought) a lot older and more like a schoolteacher than an artist of any kind.