Score and parts for hire

'Vivo' means lively, and applies to just over half of this four-and-a-half-minute work. There's a clear divison into two parts, the second of which takes over and radically slows down the descending chords which figure as part of the musical material tossed around rather frenetically in the first part. The fast music returns at the end of the piece, which is dedicated to my wife Belinda - who often complains that I tend to end works softly, although not in this case.

Colin Matthews

‘Adrenalin had been set coursing by a new and truly festive overture: Matthews' tiny Vivo, a tightly constructed, excitingly scored and wonderfully capricious play of musical conceits from top to bottom of the orchestra.’
The Times (Hilary Finch), 28 July 2003

‘A short, fizzing, brassy preface, Vivo, from Matthews.’
The Guardian (Andrew Clements) 28 July 2003