MATTHEW KING - COMPOSER
(King’s Wood Symphony’s) contribution to the sub-genre will take some beating: a site-specific symphony, one that could never sound the same way twice… a magical experience… any future attempt will be a must-hear.
Robert Maycock, The Independent
These (Matthew King and Jonathan Dove) are no ivory-tower composers. Both, like Britten, have the knack of writing music that tests young performers without over-testing them, and writing music that is direct and makes its point swiftly and clearly…Here was music not just saying, but doing something, being (as Britten put it) ‘useful.
Rodney Milnes, Opera
(On London Fields): A hugely valuable experience for all involved… which Weill would have enjoyed
Rodney Milnes, Opera
(On London Fields): King’s music is eminently approachable…some of the clashing rhythms and textural layerings are mind-boggling..a considerable achievement.
Stephen Pettit, Evening Standard
The musical excerpts (from Brunel) sounded immediately attractive, richer and more varied than the long littleness of Adams's Nixon in China or the arid wastes of Glass's Akhnaten: characterised vocally and grateful to sing, unlike most modern operas.
Martin Hoyle, Financial Times
There is no doubting King’s facility as a composer of music theatre: this work (Gethsemene) teemed with ideas. Beginning with a Reich-like jauntiness of rhythm and texture, the music flowed through jazz-driven rhythms to Victorian part-song to a busy fugue, all carefully paced.
Helen Wallace, The Times
Reviews
Matthew King is a composer … writing music of distinctive beauty with disarming theatre sense. There’s an innocence about the music (Gethsemene) which is honest, heartfelt, full of what a German could call ‘ear worms’: ideas that dig deep into the listener’s mind.
Michael White, The Independent on Sunday
(The Snow Queen) signals the emergence of a composer who writes not only credibly and well but with immediate engaging charm.
Michael White, The Independent on Sunday
(In The Snow Queen) King switches from Prokofiev to Mozart, Handel to Wagner, pastiche to parody, like a bright Hollywood composer with a sense of humour. He has melodic fluency and the confidence to write tenderly without mocking the sentiment.
Robert Maycock, The Independent
“One of Britain's most adventurous composers, utterly skilled, imaginative and resourceful, who’s music I’ve loved for years”
Judith Weir, Master of the Queen’s Music