No Man’s Land (2011) is dedicated to the conductor Richard Hickox, who died three days after asking Colin Matthews for a work to celebrate his orchestra, the City of London Sinfonia. Inevitably an entirely different and elegiac piece emerged. In the poet Christopher Reid’s text, a dialogue takes place between two soldier/ghosts hanging on barbed wire in no man’s land. Period songs and gramophone honky-tonk reminiscences are spun into a coherent, poignant work. Aftertones: Three Landscapes of Edmund Blunden for baritone, chorus and orchestra, makes an ideal companion piece, with the short Crossing the Alps, sung by the excellent Hallé Youth Choir, the perfect bridge. The Hallé forces, Bostridge, Williams and Collon give committed and assured performances.
