• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • Biography
  • Works
    • Upcoming performances
    • Past performances
  • Recordings
  • Listen
  • Gallery
  • News & Views
    • Articles
  • Contact

Colin Matthews

Composer

It is fascinating how Matthews can use, almost entirely, dark and subtly shifting colours …

— David Denton, Tempo

Berceuse for Dresden (2004-5). Cello & Orchestra

Berceuse for Dresden, which I began work on shortly after my first visit to the city last autumn, is based almost entirely on the sounds of the eight bells of the Frauenkirche, their pitches transformed into long melodic lines for the solo cello, while the overtones of the bells give the underlying harmony of the piece. A berceuse is a lullaby or cradle song, but the mood of the work is impassioned as well as lyrical. Once the title had appeared, though, it seemed the only appropriate one, implying rebirth even if there are strong elements of turbulence and lament. The cello part is not designed to be in any way virtuoso or concerto-like, but takes the role almost of a wordless singer.

Berceuse for Dresden is dedicated to the memory of Victor Klemperer, whose remarkable diaries reveal that the destruction of Dresden was, paradoxically, for him a liberation. He had spent the day of February 13 1945 delivering letters to his few remaining fellow Jews in the city which told them that they were to be transported later that week. He and his wife both survived the firestorm, and fled to safety.

Categories: Orchestra

Primary Sidebar

Search Works & Recordings

Filter Works

Work categories: START AGAIN

20 January, 2021 - La cathédrale engloutie (Debussy/Matthews)
Orchestre de Paris, Ludovic Morlot (conductor)
Philharmonie, Paris, France

4 February, 2021 - Eleven Studies in Velocity
Royal Academy of Music
Livestreamed from the David Josefowitz Recital Hall

27 April, 2021 - Seascapes (World Premiere)
Nash Ensemble
Wigmore Hall, London

View all performances

Useful Links

Faber Music
NMC Recordings
The Holst Foundation

© 2021 Colin Matthews · Website by Bookswarm

Menu
  • Home
  • Biography
  • Works
    • Upcoming performances
    • Past performances
  • Recordings
  • Listen
  • Gallery
  • News & Views
    • Articles
  • Contact