Matthew read music at Oxford and has worked in music journalism for 30 years as a writer, critic and editor. He has written numerous programme and CD booklet notes, spent 13 years as a Daily Telegraph critic, worked at BBC Music Magazine and was reviews editor of The Strad, for which he continues to write. He also writes for The Wagner Journal and Opera and blogs at ferneklang.blogspot.co.uk. He was general editor of 1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die (Cassell Illustrated, 2007) and is the author of a new series of eBooks, Masterpieces of Music (Erudition).
Karita Mattila and Keval Shah call up all their combined artistry at Wigmore Hall for searing performances of Poulenc’s La Voix humaine and a quartet of torch songs.
A human waxwork, a lottery win and circus buffoonery combine in a long-neglected Offenbach operetta, given a fizzing performance by the forces of Opera Rara and the London Philharmonic.
Will Siegfried get his girl? Will she turn out to be his sister? And has the ultimate prize already got into the wrong hands? More posers from Bayreuth's intriguing new Ring.
Janáček’s satirical opera The Excursions of Mr Brouček may not be among his greatest dramatic works, yet it earns its place in the limelight for its musical, visual and dramatic wit at Grange Park Opera.
An unusual collection of five disparate shorter orchestral works made for a fascinating celebration of Sir Simon Rattle’s musical enthusiasms over his career.
Die Verurteilung des Lukullus, Paul Dessau and Bertolt Brecht's political satire about a Roman general judged for his deeds after death, has lost none of its relevance in Staatsoper Stuttgart's new production.
François-Xavier Roth conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra with pianist Kirill Gerstein in a thrillingly played trio of Debussy, Schoenberg and Stravinsky.
An incandescent concert performance of Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage launches a new era for the London Philharmonic under principal conductor Edward Gardner.
The Berlin Philharmonic, reunited with its former chief conductor Sir Simon Rattle, framed Britten’s Serenade, commandingly sung by tenor Andrew Staples, with two complementary sets of orchestral variations.
Reminding us of the timeless relevance of myth, Joe Hill-Gibbons’s Scottish Opera production of Greek moves to Hannover with a few contemporary twists.
