Excellent presentation on this largely forgotten composer
March 2025
One of the puzzles of musical life is why some composers seem to disappear from the repertoire. One thinks of Bruckner who enjoyed great popularity in his day at the end of the nineteenth century then was forgotten for many decades. He began to be appreciated again in the 60s. Bach no less suffered a long period of silence until Mendelssohn brought him out of the shadows.
Last evening we heard a range of compositions by the Welsh composer William Mathias. Unknown to several us, he composed a wide range of material including symphonies, concerti, choral and an opera. Lindsay Dannatt provided several examples from his compositions many of which were accomplished and of great interest. It is true that some have entered the repertory such as the Harp Concerto from which we heard an extract, the Piano Concerto No 3, likewise and the Organ Concerto.
Other works were extracts from Symphony No 1; the Horn Concerto and Divertimento for String Orchestra. Choral works included This World’s Joie and Songs of William Blake.
Mathias’ musical language embraced both instrumental and vocal forms with equal success, and he addressed a large and varied audience both in Britain and abroad. He was widely honoured in the academic word being awarded an Honorary DMus by Westminster Choir College, Princeton USA in 1987 and he was made CBE in the 1985 New Year’s Honours. He was honoured in Wales, his home country as well. He died in 1992 at a relatively young age.
Although some of the references to him, in Groves for example, refer to the influence of Bartok and Hindemith, he had a definite ‘voice’ and was not in any way derivative.
We were enormously grateful to Lindsay for bringing this composer to our attention and for an informed selection of his works.
Peter Curbishley
Salisbury Recorded Music Society 