LSO/Chan/Stankiewicz review – Matthews’s oboe concerto is dense and dynamic

2026-02-09 - 13:15

Barbican Hall, London The London Symphony Orchestra’s Olivier Stankiewicz was the soloist for the premiere of Colin Matthews’s oboe concerto; Rachmaninov and Bartók followed, with Chan compelling and clear It’s hard to think of a living musician more embedded in British musical life than Colin Matthews – not just as a composer and arranger, but teacher, label-founder, producer and administrator. The approach of his 80th birthday seems to have spurred rather than slowed a composer who warmed up by premiering his first opera in 2025, and now marks the milestone itself with a new oboe concerto for longtime colleagues the London Symphony Orchestra and their principal oboe Olivier Stankiewicz. Nearly 20 years on from 2009’s Violin Concerto, Matthews’s uncompromising structural vision has only intensified. His solo oboe might stand apart from the orchestra, but is locked into its musical argument, helping to tussle themes and ideas into their ultimate form in a dynamic – often combative – back and forth. Continue reading...