fair amount of vocal music, notably a song-cycle, The Golden Kingdom, on poems of Kathleen Raine and Cantiga, a dramatic cantata on the tragic story of Inez de Castro, to a text by the novelist Maggie Hemingway (who was Matthews's partner for the last ten years of her life), Matthews's output as a whole is centred on the classical instrumental and orchestral forms. His series of (to date) fifteen string quartets is one of the most distinguished that any composer has essayed in recent years. To date he has written ten symphonies - nine of which have been commercially recorded. They, and an accompanying cluster of works such as September Music, the Serenade, two violin concertos, concertos for cello, for piano, and for oboe, the symphonic poems In the Dark Time, The Music of Dawn, A Vision and a Journey and the monumental orchestral Chaconne (inspired by a poem of Geoffrey Hill), show that he can handle large and small orchestras with skill. Matthews celebrated his 70th birthday in 2013. The occasion was marked by: a Nash Ensemble portrait concert at the Wigmore Hall – which included the premiere of A Blackbird Sang, a quartet for flute and strings; a major new symphonic poem, A Vision of the Sea, premiered at the Proms by the BBC Philharmonic; a new concerto for violin, viola and strings co-commissioned by the Presteigne and Cheltenham Festivals; two piano pieces for William Howard performed at the Spitalfields Festival; and the release of two recordings – a disc of piano music for Toccata Classics featuring pianist Laura Mikkola, and a Dutton disc of Matthews’ Symphony No. 7 (Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/John Carewe) and Vespers for Choir and Orchestra (BSO/The Bach Choir/David Hill) List of works Symphonies Symphony No. 1, Op. 9 (1975–78, rev. 2007) Symphony No. 2, Op. 17, (1976–79) Symphony No. 3, Op. 37 (1983–85) Symphony No. 4, Op. 51 (1989–90) Sinfonia, Op. 67 (1995–96) Symphony No. 5, Op. 78 (1998–99) Symphony No. 6, Op. 100 (2003–07) Symphony No. 7, Op. 109 (2008–09) Symphony No. 8, Op. 131 (2014) Symphony No. 9, Op. 140 (2016) Symphony No.10, Regeneration, Op.157 (2020-2021) Orchestral Little Concerto, Op. 6, small orchestra (1970–71) Elegy, small orchestra, Op. 16a (1977), transcription of third movement, String Quartet No. 2) Sonata Canonica, small orchestra, Op. 19 (1978–79) September Music, Op. 24 (1979–80) White Nights, fantasia for violin and orchestra (or piano), Op. 26 (1980)