![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/34/Appleby-Matthews.jpg/170px-Appleby-Matthews.jpg)
Thomas Appleby Matthews (30 August 1884[1] – 22 June 1949) was an English conductor and organist.
Life and career
[edit]Matthews was born in Tamworth, Staffordshire and received his musical education at the Birmingham and Midland Institute School of Music,[2] serving as organist of St. Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham and playing viola in George Halford's Orchestra.[3] He became an experienced choirmaster, running his own Appleby Matthews Chorus, and also conducted the Birmingham City Police band.[4]
Leon Goossens, who played the oboe under Matthews for the City of Birmingham Orchestra, described him as "a very short man [who] always tried to walk a little bit taller than he really was".[5]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/36/Birmingham_Police_Band_recording_session_-_Appleby_Matthews_-_1921_%28cropped%29.jpg/220px-Birmingham_Police_Band_recording_session_-_Appleby_Matthews_-_1921_%28cropped%29.jpg)
Appleby Matthews Orchestra
[edit]Between 1916 and 1920 Matthews ran annual series of concerts in Birmingham with an orchestra bearing his own name.[6] The first recorded concert took place on 16 July 1916 at Birmingham Town Hall, with 40 musicians and Alex Cohen as leader.[7] The 1917-1918 season saw twelve Monday evening concerts take place at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in Station Street; the 1918-1919 season saw 40 Sunday evening concerts at the Scala on Smallbrook Street; and the 1919-1920 season saw 36 concerts, also on Sunday evenings, at the Futurist Cinema on John Bright Street.[8]
The orchestra's most significant concert took place on 4 October 1917, when Matthews, his orchestra, chorus and a soprano soloist gave the first complete performance of Edward Elgar's choral trilogy The Spirit of England.[9] The first concert of Matthews' final season on 7 September 1919 was reviewed in the Musical Times: Alex Cohen was still leading the orchestra, who played a programme featuring works by Mozart, Wagner and Dvorak, and the review recorded a "packed house" and "fine performances", concluding "evidently these excellent concerts have come to stay".[10]
City of Birmingham Orchestra
[edit]In 1920 Matthews became the first conductor of the City of Birmingham Orchestra, today's City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians says of this period:
Other activities
[edit]Matthews supported Rutland Boughton at his Glastonbury Festivals (1914–1925) and conducted performances of The Immortal Hour and Bethlehem. He also acted as a chorus master for the Beecham Opera Company.[12]
Appearances by Matthews as a guest conductor included performances with the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester in 1916;[13] with the Berlin Philharmonic in April 1922, where his programme was adventurous and well-reviewed;[14] and with the Orchestre Lamoureux in Paris on 31 October 1922,[15] where he conducted the Paris premiere of Beni Mora, the first performance of any work of Gustav Holst given in that capital.[16]
Matthews died in Birmingham on 22 June 1949.[17]
Notes and references
[edit]- ^ Hinrichsen (1947), p. 213
- ^ Hinrichsen (1947), p. 213
- ^ King-Smith (1995), p. 25
- ^ King-Smith (1995), p. 25
- ^ King-Smith (1995), p. 25
- ^ Handford (2006), p. 223
- ^ Handford (2006), p. 223
- ^ Handford (2006), p. 223
- ^ Handford (2006), p. 223
- ^ Handford (2006), p. 223
- ^ Handford, Margaret. "Birmingham", Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, 2001. Retrieved 19 June 2021 (subscription required)
- ^ King-Smith (1995), p. 25
- ^ King-Smith (1995), p. 25
- ^ King-Smith (1995), p. 30
- ^ King-Smith (1995), p. 31
- ^ Short (1990), p. 204
- ^ "Thomas Appleby Matthews", Ancestry UK. Retrieved 19 June 2021 (subscription required)
Bibliography
[edit]- Greene, Richard. Holst: The Planets. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-521-45633-9
- Handford, Margaret. Sounds Unlikely: Music in Birmingham. Studley: Brewin Books, 2006. ISBN 1858582873
- Hinrichsen, Max. Hinrichsen's Musical Year Book, 1947–1948. London: Hinrichsen Edition Limited, 1947.
- King-Smith, Beresford. Crescendo! 75 years of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. London: Methuen, 1995. ISBN 0413697401
- Short, Michael. Gustav Holst: The Man and his Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990. ISBN 0-19-314154-X
- (organization), Jstor (1948). "Appleby Matthews". The Musical Times. 89. Novello: 291. Retrieved 18 August 2007.