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Colin Matthews

Composer

The Isambard Kingdom Brunel of contemporary music …

— Paul Griffiths, The Times

Turning Point (2003-6). Orchestra

The title for this single-movement work did not emerge until the piece was nearly finished, and arose in part from the circumstances of its composition. Having completed the first main section I couldn’t find the way to continue, and put the piece aside for a year while working on other projects. This first section was almost wholly fast music, and when I came back to it, the continuation was even faster – a whirling scherzo-like episode. Again I found it difficult to make any further progress until I realised that what was needed was a complete change of direction, a ‘turning point’. The third part of the piece, almost half of the whole, is very slow and intense, and in complete contrast to the earlier music (although based entirely on the same material).

While the turning point itself is very clear, the division between the first two parts is less straightforward, as they share nearly identical music, an episode towards the end of the first section becoming the coda to the second. (The same music also reappears briefly not long before the end of the work.)

Turning Point lasts around 25 minutes, and plays without any break. It was a commission from the Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Categories: Orchestra

Recordings

RCO Live (2008)

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Faber Music
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