Recently named a Classic FM Rising Star. The Strad’s Charlotte Gardner praises her “perfect intonation and beautiful shaping and colouring, comprehensively nailing each new stylistic and emotional universe as she went”. Mathilde has performed as a soloist at leading concert halls such as Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Kings Place, Cadogan Hall and St John’s Smith Square. Her frequent radio appearances have included Scala Radio’s ‘One to Watch’, BBC Radio 3 ‘In Tune’, Deutschlandfunk Kultur’s Hörprobe, Radio Swiss Classic, Yle Radio Suomi and Hessischer Rundfunk.

For her debut CD, released in 2020 on Toccata Classics, Mathilde made the world premiere recordings of Agnes Zimmerman’s three Violin Sonatas with pianist Sam Haywood, and was subsequently named Classical Music Magazine’s ‘Artist of the Month’. Her latest recording, released on the Guild label, is of the Beethoven Romances for Violin and Orchestra alongside the National Symphony Orchestra, and was given a five-star review in Musical Opinion.

A graduate of the St John’s Smith Square Young Artist Scheme and Countess of Munster Recital Scheme, Mathilde won First Prize and Audience Prize at the 2018 Aurora Music Competition in Sweden, First Prize in the String Section at the 2017 Royal Overseas League Music Competition, and was a semi-finalist laureate of the International Joseph Joachim Violin Competition, Hanover, in 2018.

Born in London in 1994, Mathilde’s studies have taken her from the Royal College of Music Junior Department to an undergraduate degree at the Royal Academy of Music on a full scholarship, followed by a Masters at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, where she has just completed her Konzertexam (Excellence in Performance) studies under Mi-kyung Lee.

Huw Watkins is notable for his equal renown as a pianist and composer. Andrew Clark of the Financial times describes him as ‘one of the most rounded composer-musicians in the UK’. Watkins was born in 1976, in Pontypool, South Wales. He studied piano with Peter Lawson at Chetham’s School of Music and composition with Robin Holloway, Alexander Goehr and Julian Anderson at Cambridge and the Royal College of Music. In 2001 he was awarded the Constant and Kit Lambert Junior Fellowship at the Royal College of Music, he now teaches composition at the Royal Academy of Music. As a pianist, Watkins has performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Britten Sinfonia, and the London Sinfonietta, as well as giving recitals at such top British and American venues as Wigmore Hall, the Smithsonian, and the Library of Congress. Watkins’ ability to step into and enhance any musical endeavour is widely appreciated; The Telegraph described him aptly as an “unfailingly dependable and musical pianist who seems to be everywhere”, suggesting that without him most of Britain’s summer season would collapse. 

His duet and vocal partners include Alina Ibragimova, Daniel Hope and Carolyn Sampson, who recorded his Five Larkin Songs (with Joseph Middleton) in 2020. Sampson is just one of the leading British performers who have championed Watkins’ compositions; others include the London Symphony Orchestra, which premiered his London Concerto to mark its 2005 centenary. Watkins’ chorus and orchestra work The Moon premiered at the 2019 Proms in London, and his Dawning was performed in Early 2020 by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Watkins has written numerous chamber works, including string quartets for the Carducci and Calidore quartets, and a piano quintet for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Centre. Watkins’ catalogue of vocal works is large, and he has composed a pair of song cycles, Remember (2014) and Echo (2017), for soprano Ruby Hughes; the latter was co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall. He has recorded for several prominent classical music labels, often performing his own works; notably Mendelssohn’s cello and piano works with his brother Paul Watkins (Chandos) and a disc dedicated to his work entitled ‘In my craft or sullen art’ (NMC).

Programme:

Fritz Kreisler: Schön Rosmarin and Liebesfreud, from Drei Walzer

Piers Hellawell: Jan Palac and the Flaming Skier

Eugène Ysaÿe: Solo Violin Sonata in D minor, op. 27, no. 3, Ballade

Huw Watkins: Elegy

Maurice Ravel: Violin Sonata no. 2 in G major

Mathilde Milwidsky - Photo by Neda Navaee

Huw Watkins - Photo by B Ealovega