Proms Saturday Matinee 3 - 30.08.14: A Portrait of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Saturday, 30 August
3.00 p.m. - c. 4.30 p.m.
Cadogan Hall

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies:
(a) Linguae ignis
(b) Revelation and Fall
(c) A Mirror of Whitening Light

Timothy Gill, cello (Proms debut artist)
Rebecca Bottone, soprano

London Sinfonietta
Sian Edwards, conductor

Celebrating his 80th birthday this year and the subject of one of this season's Proms Plus Composer Portraits, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies is one of the greats of contemporary British music.

This programme chosen by the composer himself explores his wide-ranging sound-worlds, from the sleek and glittering chamber textures of A Mirror of Whitening Light (completed in 1977, shortly after his move to Orkney) to the confrontational music drama of Revelation and Fall.

London Sinfonietta principal cellist Tim Gill is the soloist in the writhing plainchant melodies of Linguae ignis, and Sian Edwards returns to conduct, following her Proms Saturday Matinee appearance last year.

[Nick Armstrong]

Errrm....

Happy birthday!

[jayne lee wilson]

So - here you are... after all our complaints about programming, promos, publicity and popstars... here's The Real Thing... put your attention where your mouth is and make sure your ears are somewhere nearby...

NOTE 15:00 hrs START TIME. (OMG! That's only ten hours from now!)

[Serial_Apologist]

Absolutely terrific first piece - "Linguae ignis"

[teamsaint]

As the BBC say he is one of the greats of British contemporary music, it rather begs the question why the 10th Symphony didn't get an outing this year.

hey ho, need to catch up after the footy.....


Enjoy folks.

[jayne lee wilson]

Hoped to comment further but the Cat's asleep on the notebook, looks settled for the night... and it's nearly bedtime.

Broadly - compelling self-selection by Max, performances good to very good, but... let down by indifferent soundbalancing.
Digested read:levels all over the place...
And after the grand, spacious sweep of the Resurrection on Friday!

More tomorrow perhaps, after a revisit...

[jayne lee wilson]

Skyhigh musical interest here as Andrew Clements makes clear -

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/sep/01/proms-matinee-3-london-sinfonietta-edwards-davies-review

...but the trigger-happy use of the fader on the live webstream made for distracting listening on a hifi. As yet another soft instrumental passage was heavily boosted towards the end of Revelation and Fall, a sudden soaring phrase from the soprano scorched the ears of anyone listening at a decent level at home. The levels changed so often it was hard to tell if conductor or balancer was to blame for an underpowered final climax in Mirror of Whitening Light, but on the evidence presented....
These effects are all too familiar from the later FM era... no need for it on HDs.

This approach would ruin Verses for Ensembles tomorrow...might give it a miss and play the splendid Lyrita(Decca HEAD 7) CD again instead...
All a bit sad.
When they gave us HDs it was with an implicit promise that with all the different platforms available, this one would be top-quality-conscious...

[silvestrione]

I missed these problems, on my fairly good quality but oldish equipment.
I have always loved A Mirror of Whitening Light, and used to have an off-air cassette of Rattle and an orchestra I have forgotten doing it when it was brand new. This (Prom version) was a scintillating performance.
As Andrew Clements says, having heard how Max's symphonic music has developed, you now notice things in it which have become more prominent (the quasi-Sibelian).

[bluestateprommer]

Really nicely done tribute to PMD at Cadogan, from hearing this Prom on iPlayer. While I don't claim to be a particularly huge fan of his music, I'm happy that he's still around to enjoy the tributes, and to keep composing. Assuming that he's over the worst of his recent health issues, here's to many more years to come, and more music from him.

As the BBC say he is one of the greats of British contemporary music, it rather begs the question why the 10th Symphony didn't get an outing this year.

Probably because the LSO had already done the work earlier this year, and it would have been too late to slot it in. Plus, PMD's 10th did get an airing on R3 at the time.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Probably because the LSO had already done the work earlier this year, and it would have been too late to slot it in. Plus, PMD's 10th did get an airing on R3 at the time.

If these are the excuses that the Beeb is offering, then they're utterly pathetic. It has been known for some time that PMD was writing a new symphony for the LSO - any Proms director would have had plenty of time to programme an important new orchestral work by "one of the greats of British contemporary Music" in "the World's greatest Music festival" during his 80th birthday year. Already been broadcast? Since when has that been an acceptable excuse?