Fibonacci Sequence to play Mathews’ Flaying of Marsyas

in the home of Titian’s painting  in Kromeriz, Czech Republic at the Forfest Festival June 24, 2003

   The chamber ensemble The Fibonacci Sequence is to travel to the Czech Republic in mid June to perform David Matthews’ Flaying of Marsyas  in the Archbishop’s Chateau in Kromeriz.  The performance will be part of a leading Czech Music Festival, the Forfest festival of Contemporary Music and Art. But for a huge Titian exhibition at the National Gallery in London followed by another one at the Prado in Madrid,  the ensemble would have performed Matthews’ work  not quite beneath the  Titian  painting which inspired his work, but close by in the  painting’s usual home.

     The Titian painting  usually hangs in the picture gallery of the Archbish op’s chateau in the small town of Kromeriz on the  Morava River  which lies 150 kilometres east of Prague.  Kromeriz has a beautiful castle with many cultural activities. The extraordinary painting was only discovered in the late l970s in a  Czech monastery and is one of Titian’s last paintings, dating from the 1570s when the artist was in his late 80s.

    David Matthews who 20 years ago first set eyes on the Titian Painting at the Royal Academy exhibition,  spoke about  his work at  a Unilever corporate event  at Tate Modern in April.   Art  historian , Simon Wilson, talked about   the  significance of  the painting and also a lecture on the Anish Kapoor sculpture Flaying of Marsyas which was sponsored by Unilever. In December 2003 the ensemble performed the piece at Kingston University and will be performing it again in Belfast in May  2004.

    The myth behind Titian’s  extraordinary painting has a lot to answer for in terms of inspiration.  There is a Jusepe de Ribera painting of 1637 and a 16th century  Carracci ceiling in the Farnese palace. Not only has it inspired Matthews and Kapoor but also a violin and live electronics piece by Canadian composer Omar Daniel who performed the piece upside down.

    The  music, sculpture and paintings are based on the  legend of Apollo and Marsyas the Satyr who found a musical instrument called an  aulos,  which had been thrown away by Athena. She tried to play it  but realising how ugly she looked with  her protruding  mouth,  immediately gave it up. When Marsyas found he could play nice music with the instrument, he challenged Apollo and claimed to make sweeter music with his aulos  than Apollo with his lyre. Marsyas was the loser and Apollo first hanged him from a pine tree and then
flayed him. The aulos  is usually translated as a flute but is actually a reed instrument. Matthews has written his work with the oboe representing Marsyas and the first violin Apollo.
   
    The ensemble arrives straight from its residency at the Leicester International Music Festival.  It will also perform Puccini’s Crisantemi, one of the few pieces of chamber music that he wrote. The piece was written in l889 and dedicated to the memory of a Duke Amadeo of Savoy. Another first will be the premiere of  a work by the composer Jaroslav Stastn;y (known in the UK as Peter Graham). The working title is “Without Titian” and the piece, composed specially for Fibonacci Sequence’s trip to Kromeriz, will last 12 minutes.    Oboist Christopher O'Neal will also be performing Britten's 6 Metamorphosen after Ovid
   
    The visit to the Forfest Festival is being supported by the British Council.

 

         
The Fibonacci Sequence  is now well established as one of the foremost chamber ensembles in Britain.  Composed of musicians of international repute, it enjoys warm receptions from its audiences, whether playing at music clubs across the country or at London venues such as the Wigmore Hall and the South Bank  .  Formed in 1994 by Kathron Sturrock,  the ensemble is distinguished by the quality and high profile of its players and by the variety and imagination of its programming, making full use of the range and versatility of the chamber music repertoireThe Fibonacci Sequence is named after  the series of numbers, discovered  by  the  medieval mathematician Leonardo of
Pisa, known as Fibonacci, which occurs naturally throughout nature in the most extraordinary , magical  and complex  way  appearing in branches, petals .  The relation of the numbers to each other is directly connected to the Golden Section, held by many to determine the most harmonious proportions in art and music.

         1  1  2  3  5  8  13  21  34  55  89  144  233  377  600

The Fibonacci Sequence is sponsored  as ensemble in residence at Kingston University  by the Stanley Picker Trust.  The ensemble also runs composition workshops with Kingston music students and performs lunchtime concerts. The ensemble has a busy concert and recording schedule: its recent CDs of chamber music by Ned Rorem (for Naxos) and John McCabe (for Dutton Epoch) have just been released. This summer sees the start of the recording of a series of Chamber Music CDs featuring each instrument of the group for the
Deux Elles classical recordings label.  Matthews’ “Flaying of Marsyas”  will also be recorded and will appear on the Oboe CD.

The Fibonacci Sequence celebrates its Tenth Birthday  next year (2004)  with a special concert in London .  David Matthews is writing a special arrangement of Mahler’s Ruckert Lieder  for the ensemble.

David Matthews was born in London in l943 and started composing at the age of sixteen. He read Classics at the University of Nottingham and afterwards studied composition privately with Anthony Milner. He was also much helped by the advice and encouragement of Nicholas Maw. He spent three years as an assistant to Benjamin Britten at Aldeburgh in the later l960s and
collaborated with Deryck Cooke on the performing version of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony. He has also written a book on he music of Michael Tippett, a published lecture on the relation of music to painting, Landscape into Sound, and articles and reviews for various journals. Matthews is Music Advisor to the English Chamber Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Deal Festival. His music is widely played in Britain and abroad, is frequently broadcast, and over a dozen of his works are available on CD.  David has been much concerned with working in the great  inherited forms of the past - notably symphony and string quartet - and finding ways of renewing them. To  date he has written five symphonies and ten quartets, also four symphonic poems, two of which , In the Dark Time and Chaconne, have been recorded by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, for the NMC label. His numerous chamber works include commissions by the Schubert Ensemble, Nash Ensemble, Brodsky Quartet, Brindisi Quartet and many others;  vocal music includes a
dramatic scena, Cantiga, for soprano and orchestra, premiered at the l988 Proms, and a large-scale vespers for soloists, chorus and orchestra for the Huddersfield Choral Society. His most recent work, a Cello Concert for Steven Isserlis, was premiered in October with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Richard Hickox. He is currently writing a biography of Benjamin Britten.