Overview

Through composed and thus unlike Piano Sonata No.1, this one fifteen-minute movement begins and ends quietly yet retains a sense of clearly defined sections throughout. Piano Sonata No. 2 was commissioned by the BBC in Wales, and given its first performance by the composer on 3 March 1970 in a broadcast recital as part of the BBC St David's Festival of Music.

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9780193732841

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Reviews

Mathias's Tipettian sonatas, the thorny No. 2 in particular, make rewarding listening. * Richard Whitehouse, Gramophone, September 1998 * A dizzying virtuosic whirl of several pages builds up terrific excitement, to be followed by chordal and melodic writing of calm beauty. Mathias's harmonic style is one of expanded tonality, with key centres easily sensed. There is dissonance for colour, but on the whole the idiom is a euphonious one. * The Piano Quarterly No. 140 (Dec 1987-Jan 1988) *

Author Information

William Mathias was born in Whitland, Dyfed. He studied at the University College of Wales, and subsequently at the Royal Academy of Music. From 1970-1988 he was Head of the Music Department at the University College of North Wales, Bangor. 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 also known as a conductor and pianist, and gave or directed many premieres of his own works. He was made CBE in the 1985 New Year's Honours. In 1992, the year of his death, Nimbus Records embarked upon a series of recordings of his major works.

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