Sir Peter Maxwell Davies RIP

[Bryn]

Back in the '60s I attended a number of early performances of Max's works in South Bank venues (Revelation and Fall, Songs for a Mad King, Missa Super L'Homme Armé, etc.). The Scratch Orchestra then intervened and Max and the rest of the Manchester School were relegated to 'the official avant garde' and I basically stopped following Max's work. In the past decade or so, however, I have revisited those works from the '60s, via recordings, with renewed enthusiasm. I also got to know the Symphonies, some of the Concertos, and the Naxos String Quartets. It came as quite a shock when I checked this Forum this afternoon to read of his death. Would that I could have tasted his swan terrine. Much will he be missed by many, myself very much included.

[Petrushka]

This is indeed a very sad day. I had the pleasure of meeting PMD just the once, following a pre-Prom talk he gave on his Symphony No 2 in 1981. Coincidentally, I played that very Symphony only on the Saturday just gone.

My younger brother was present (at the age of 13!!) at that (in)famous 1969 Prom which included the world premiere of Worldes Blis. By another one of those coincidences, I was present at the premiere of the revised version (LSO/Atherton, July 1978). Worldes Blis and St Thomas Wake, both from the productive period of 1968/9, are my favourite PMD works.

[makropulos]

Incredibly sad. My own PMD highlights have been theatre pieces. I went to the original run of "Taverner" at the ROH when I was still at school, got the know the "Eight Songs" straight afterwards, and much more recently was utterly gripped by "The Lighthouse" at Buxton - a piece that I continue to find stunning.

I type this while watching a small piece at the end of the 10 o'clock news on BBC 1 (to be blunt, Will Gompertz is hardly first choice for an intelligent comment on music, but I suppose we should be grateful for something).

RIP, Max. You will be greatly missed.

[kea]

Wow, sorry to hear that. I never met him myself, but he did present one or two composition workshops I attended when I was an undergraduate, and not only his knowledge but also his understanding of music was as far, I think, ahead of the professors as theirs was of ours. Does that sentence parse? He also seemed like a genuinely nice and kind-hearted person, which is pretty rare among composers! >_>

I hope to find more time for his music, which I don't think I've ever really appreciated.

[Beef Oven!]

The guitar arrangement of 'Farewell To Stromness' that Chip-shop Forlornley played on the breakfast show this morning was wonderful. I'd never heard it before, nor did I know it even existed. Great stuff.

[Bryn]

The guitar arrangement of 'Farewell To Stromness' that Chip-shop Forlornley played on the breakfast show this morning was wonderful. I'd never heard it before, nor did I know it even existed. Great stuff.

That piece always sounds like melding of Skempton and late Cardew, and that is no kind of negative criticism.

[Richard Barrett]

That piece always sounds like melding of Skempton and late Cardew, and that is no kind of negative criticism.

Although it is predictably one of the few pieces of Max's that gets regular outings on CFM!

[Stanfordian]

I once saw PMD conduct one of his own works and two others at the BBC Philharmonic at Studio 7 Manchester that would be the mid-80s. I recall attending the world premiere of his Symphony No. 3 at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester and obtained the LP but I found it very tough like most of his works. I fear he will be known for two unrepresentative works: ‘Farewell To Stromness’ and his awful ‘Orkney Wedding, With Sunrise’ both sometimes played on Classic FM.

.

[Beef Oven!]

Although it is predictably one of the few pieces of Max's that gets regular outings on CFM!

The guitar arrangement?

The piano version is pretty well known, but today was the first time I heard the guitar version.

[jean]

I met him when I sang in A Hymn to the Spirit of Fire, commissioned for Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral- he was indeed an engaging and approachable man.

[Richard Tarleton]

The guitar arrangement?

The piano version is pretty well known, but today was the first time I heard the guitar version.

I discovered it on this CD of British Guitar Music (the version Petroc played, I see), bought the sheet music (arr. Timothy Walker) and stumble through it myself from time to time. Various perfs. on You Tube inc. this by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet in Scott Tennant's arrangement (he's the guy second from right who leads off). Here's a solo version by Scottish guitarist Matthew McAllister - they played a brief clip of this on Channel 4 News last night. There's a couple of seconds of extraneous stuff at the start of the clip.

[visualnickmos]

I was sad to hear the news of Peter Maxwell Davies. Although I am not really familiar with his music - I have only one of his works on CD (the ballet Salome) I'd always enjoyed hearing him speaking on the radio, or reading articles about him, and so on; he always came across as being a really very nice chap, and someone with whom I would have loved to have met in person. Some of you on here were fortunate enough to have had that privilege. He seems to have had a fascinatingly interesting life, and I remember him once talking about his environment, and the way it works into his music... amazing.

I feel that now I would like to explore more of his work - maybe look at his symphonies....? Where to start? String quartets...? I really don't know.

RIP, PMD.

[Beef Oven!]

I discovered it on this CD of British Guitar Music (the version Petroc played, I see), bought the sheet music (arr. Timothy Walker) and stumble through it myself from time to time. Various perfs. on You Tube inc. this by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet in Scott Tennant's arrangement (he's the guy second from right who leads off). Here's a solo version by Scottish guitarist Matthew McAllister - they played a brief clip of this on Channel 4 News last night. There's a couple of seconds of extraneous stuff at the start of the clip.

Thanks. Very interesting. Think I may get that CD.


Edit: I just looked at that CD, I can't think why it has escaped my notice - I misplaced my Walton bagatelles CD a few years ago and keep meaning to get a replacement - this'll do!

[Richard Barrett]

The guitar arrangement?

No, I meant the original, I don't know the guitar version.

[Richard Barrett]

I feel that now I would like to explore more of his work - maybe look at his symphonies....? Where to start? String quartets...? I really don't know.

The symphonies are some of his most impressive works to be sure. I wouldn't say the same about his string quartets or for that matter his operas - I was transfixed by The Lighthouse when I saw it at Sadler's Wells in what I think was its first run, but the recording doesn't do much for me. Then there is the long series of often theatrical pieces he wrote for the Fires of London - Eight Songs for a Mad King, Vesalii Icones etc., culminating in Ave maris stella for chamber ensemble which I think is his most impressive work overall.