Tag Archives: Matthew Best

In appreciation – Matthew Best

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by Ben Hogwood Photo (c) Chris Gloag

On Sunday we learned of the sad news that Matthew Best, the British conductor and bass singer, had sadly passed away at the age of 68.

To many collectors, Best will be known for a series of very fine recordings made with two ensembles that he founded, the Corydon Singers and Orchestra, for Hyperion in the 1980s and 1990s. These discs became cornerstones of the label’s choral repertoire. Here is the text of an obituary shared by Matthew’s artist management team at Intermusica:

“It is with deep sadness that we inform you of the death of renowned British conductor and bass, Matthew Best. Matthew passed away today, 11 May 2025, surrounded by his loving family.

Matthew’s long career was defined by his extraordinary versatility earning him a distinguished reputation worldwide. An opera singer for over thirty-five years with over one hundred bass, bass-baritone and baritone roles in his repertoire, he also worked extensively as a choral and orchestral conductor across the UK and Europe, at various stages during his career as a composer, arranger and editor.

Julia Maynard, Director, Vocal & Opera, said:

“Matthew was one of the finest basses of his generation and an intuitive musician and interpreter of many of the major roles in the bass repertoire. He was a warm, funny, utterly engaging artist, teacher, friend, and a much loved parent, grandfather and husband. Our thoughts are with his most treasured family”

As a singer, Matthew was a regular guest artist for all the major UK opera houses, singing extensively the roles of Wotan in the complete Wagner Ring Cycle, The Flying Dutchman, King Mark, Amfortas, Kurwenal, King Heinrich, Scarpia and Jochanaan, and premiering new works by Jonathan Harvey, Julian Anderson and Kaija Saariaho. Matthew’s extensive concert career made his a familiar face across the country and in Europe and the USA, working with many distinguished conductors including Muti, Haitink, Colin Davis, Andrew Davis, Mehta, Nelsons, Salonen, Mackerras, Marriner, Runnicles, Gardiner and Hickox.

As an active composer and arranger, Matthew conducted the premiere of his operetta Alice (based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland) in Cambridge in February 1979, directed by Nicholas Hytner; with further performances as part of the 1979 Aldeburgh Festival, with a guest appearance by Sir Peter Pears. Matthew produced performing editions for a number of works, including of a rare Bruckner manuscript for inclusion in his Bruckner cycle for Hyperion Records.

Matthew was equally well known as a conductor specialising in choral, vocal and orchestral music, in 1973 Matthew founded the Corydon Singers and later, in 1991, Corydon Orchestra and went on to make over thirty highly-regarded recordings for the Hyperion label. His extended conducting career took him to many of the orchestras and festivals of the UK and Europe, where he was regular guest conductor with, amongst many others, the English Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Northern Sinfonia, City of London Sinfonia and BBC Singers. For the 1998/99 season he was Principal Conductor of the Hanover Band, and in 2017, Matthew became Music Director of the Academy Choir Wimbledon and Academy Baroque Players. In his final performance with the Academy Choir on 8 March 2025, he conducted the London Mozart Players in a performance of Brahms Requiem and Strauss Metamorphosen for Strings.

Since 2015, Matthew had been a highly regarded teacher at the Royal Northern College of Music, shaping the careers of many students, several of whom have gone on to have active professional careers. In April 2025, Matthew was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Northern College of Music in acknowledgement of his remarkable career, an award he was able to collect in person from Head of Vocal Studies and Opera, Professor Lynne Dawson.

Our thoughts are with Matthew’s wife Roz and family at this incredibly sad time.”

The below link will take you to a Tidal playlist collecting a number of Matthew’s recordings as a singer, but principally those made with the Corydon Singers. My own personal favourites include those selections from albums of Vaughan Williams, Rachmaninov, Beethoven and Bruckner, finishing with a terrific performance of Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem.

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/6cff6639-1675-43c2-92ad-9cc9e22f881f

Published post no.2,532 – Tuesday 13 May 2025

Arcana at the opera: Pelléas et Mélisande @ Symphony Hall

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Debussy Pelléas et Mélisande

Saturday 23rd June, 2018

Review by Richard Whitehouse

Pelléas – Jacques Imbrailo (baritone), Mélisande – Katja Stuber (soprano), Golaud – Roland Wood (bass-baritone), Arkel – Matthew Best (bass), Geneviève – Dame Felicity Palmer (mezzo-soprano), Doctor – Renaud Delaigue (bass), Yniold – Freddie Jemison (treble)

Members of CBSO Chorus, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Mirga Graźinytė-Tyla

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Saturday 23 June 2018

It might not have been on the scale of the two weekends with which the City of Birmingham Symphony marked the centenary of Debussy’s death in March, though this evening’s concert performance of Pelléas et Mélisande provided a fitting climax to this year’s commemorations.

Premiered in 1902 after a genesis of almost a decade, Pelléas et Mélisande is Debussy’s only completed opera and his treatment of Maurice Maeterlinck’s symbolist drama a highpoint of musical impressionism. It was this blend of aesthetics that the present account brought out in full measure, so confirming Mirga Graźinytė-Tyla’s authority and the CBSO’s conviction in French repertoire as extends back almost a half-century to Louis Frémaux’s tenure. Obscure as the opera’s narrative can appear, there was nothing equivocal about tonight’s performance.

Vocally it was cast from strength and not least in the title-roles – Jacques Imbrailo’s eloquent and imploring assumption finely complemented by that from Katja Stuber, whose poise and limpidity betrayed no hint of coyness. Between them they amply conveyed a sense of people drawn together despite themselves and prevailing circumstances; the serenity characterizing their relationship gradually eroded as the net of fate closes around them. Golaud unwittingly plays the defining part in this, such as Roland Wood recognized with singing of great force but equally an emotional fragility which undermined every exchange with his wife and half-brother. Dramatic tension generated in the third and fourth acts is as tangible as in any opera of the period, and there was no doubting its presence as this account reached a fateful climax.

This is not to decry the other vocal contributions. In particular, Matthew Best was riveting as Arkel – ruler of a decaying kingdom (and dysfunctional dynasty) whose haunted demeanour was allied to a pathos and compassion that commanded the platform at his every appearance. Nor was there anything undersold about Felicity Palmer’s Geneviève – which, limited as this role may be, conjured the requisite foreboding in the face of inevitability that sets the course for all that follows. Renaud Delaigue was sympathetic if a little over-insistent as the Doctor, while Freddie Jemison was ideally cast as Yniold – his exchanges in Act Three with Golaud a heart-rending instance of innocence corrupted. It may enjoy the most incidental of roles, but the CBSO Chorus duly acquitted its brief (and here offstage) contribution with great subtlety.

Otherwise, and for all its radical take on French prosody, this is an opera where the orchestra plays a pivotal (and arguably determining) role, such as Graźinytė-Tyla recognized in the way she steered the emotional ebb and flow of the music with calm assurance. Momentum during the first two acts seemed a touch fitful, but that across the two which follow was unerringly gauged – so leaving the fifth act to unfold as a distanced while undeniably poignant epilogue which ultimately evaporates as if to underline the dream-like aura of much that has occurred.

This performance was enhanced by Jonathan Burton’s idiomatic surtitles and an absence of concert presentation or ‘scenic treatment’ as might have impeded the musical impact. A pity it does not seem to have been recorded, as this reading would have been worth hearing again.

For Arcana’s coverage of the two Debussy weekends in Symphony Hall, click here for the first weekend and here for the second