Peter MAXWELL DAVIES (b.1934)
Symphony no.6, op.176 (1996) [49:27]
Time and the Raven, op.172 (1995) [13:37]
An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise, op.120b (1984) * [13:13]
George McIlwham (bagpipes) *
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Peter Maxwell Davies
rec. All Saints Church, Tooting, London, 7-8 August 1996; *Abbey Road Studios,
London, 16 December 1991. DDD
NAXOS 8.572352 [76:16]
This is the fifth and last volume in Naxos's reissue of the 1990s-vintage
Collins Classics recordings of Peter Maxwell Davies's Symphonies, all released
in 2012. See reviews of the First, Third and the Fourth & Fifth.
The Sixth Symphony originally appeared with Time and the Raven on Collins
Classics 14822 (1996), whilst An Orkney Wedding came out a couple of
years earlier on Collins Classics 15242. Combining the three works here, Naxos
offer a generous 76 minutes of stirring, striking orchestral music from one
of Britain's greatest living composers. Moreover, now that Collins Classics
discs are only available second-hand or imported, these Naxos reissues are
especially collectible: they remain, rather surprisingly, the only recordings
of the Sixth and of Time and the Raven.
An Orkney Wedding With Sunrise is rightly one of Maxwell
Davies's most popular works, his answer to Malcolm Arnold's Tam O'Shanter
Overture - drunken revelry included. Some may remember the work from the Last
Night of the BBC Proms in 1992 - Andrew Davis conducted the BBC Symphony
Orchestra, but the piper was the same as on this recording, veteran instrumentalist
and composer George McIlwham. The appearance at sunrise of the piper is guaranteed
to send a shiver down the spine of any listener, Scottish or not. Maxwell
Davies has been one of the few composers with the courage and imagination
to incorporate bagpipes into his works, as with the Northumbrian smallpipes
in Cross Lane Fair, coupled in this series with the Third Symphony
(see above for review). Maxwell Davies' own website gives the composition
date for An Orkney Wedding as 1986, but as it was premiered by John
Williams and the Boston Pops in 1985, Naxos's 1984 seems more likely to be
correct! Williams' recording of the work is still available on Philips (420
946-2), as is Maxwell Davies's other recording, with the Scottish Chamber
Orchestra on Unicorn Kanchana (B000001 PCM).
Time and the Raven is more Gothic in title than musically, yet it warms
the listener up nicely for the more difficult Sixth Symphony, being somewhat
darker and more physical than An Orkney Wedding. The decision to place
the Symphony first, incidentally, is an odd one - the new listener will be
much more attuned to its rather uncompromising soundscape by playing the CD
in reverse order. The basic material of Time and the Raven, written
to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations, is national anthems
invented by the composer, although this is anything but a turgid nationalist
reveille.
The Symphony is yet another big one from the composer - of his first six,
only nos. 4 and 5 come in under the three-quarters of an hour mark. With the
two outer movements lasting a full 20 minutes each, this is no quick listen.
Incidentally, the third movement of this recording has already appeared on
Naxos, in their double-CD Portrait of the composer (review). The work borrows a slow tune from Time and
the Raven, composed the previous year. At the time this was probably Maxwell
Davies' most obviously expressionist - or anti-lyrical - Symphony; more indicative
of his modernist background than works he is more likely to be known by, like
Mavis in Las Vegas, Farewell to Stromness or An Orkney Wedding.
Yet, like much of the composer's more 'abstruse' music, there are levels,
and at ground floor it remains surprisingly approachable, with the superb
orchestral colourings and profound sweeps of drama sure to excite all but
the most moribund of palates.
Maxwell Davies has said that he wrote the Sixth with the virtuosity of members
of the Royal Philharmonic in mind, and certainly they cruise through the challenging
score with barely a wind-ruffled hair, expertly directed by the composer himself.
Sound quality is very decent, with excellent stereo. Work on the booklet notes
was shared among Maxwell Davies, David Nice and Richard Whitehouse. Maxwell
Davies's Orkney Wedding comments leave the reader geographically perplexed
(italics added): "as we walk home across the island [Hoy], the sun rises,
over Caithness, to a glorious dawn."
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at artmusicreviews.co.uk
A generous helping of stirring, striking orchestral music from one of Britain's
greatest living composers.
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