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 Peter Maxwell DaviesSymphonies Nos 4 and 5 Scottish Chamber Orchestra / Philharmonia Orchestra / Peter Maxwell Davies The orchestra used by Peter Maxwell Davies for his Fourth Symphony is of Classical period proportions, but this relatively compact framework belies a richness of ideas and sonorities. With its starting point in the tone poem Chat Moss, the single-movement Fifth Symphony utilizes a more varied orchestral palette than its predecessor, with a large percussion section often in evidence. Both works are performed here by the orchestras for which they were written. > Buy here at our shop |
 Peter Maxwell DaviesSymphony No 1 / Mavis in Las Vagis BBC Philharmonic / Peter Maxwell Davies Peter Maxwell Davies’s visionary music has gained him a knighthood, the prestigious position of Master of the Queen’s Music and a leading position among the foremost composers of our time. The two works on this disc, authoritatively conducted by the composer, show two sides of his remarkable musical imagination. The First Symphony is permeated by the presence of the sea and the haunting landscape of his home in the Orkney Islands, while the vibrant theme and variations Mavis in Las Vegas is an exuberant ‘tribute’ to the glitzy gambling capital of the world, in all its hyper-reality. > Buy here at our shop |
 Peter Maxwell DaviesSymphony No 2 / St. Thomas Wake BBC Philharmonic / Peter Maxwell Davies Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s Second Symphony is his ‘Sea Symphony’, a complex, virtuosic work that explores in absorbing, increasingly dynamic fashion, the ocean’s proximity and what the composer calls ‘the architecture of its forms’. Both themes and orchestration are masterly. The percussion section is richly voiced, adding considerably to the symphony’s very particular, rugged and varied sound world. St Thomas Wake, by contrast, is a disquieting but bravura exercise in parody, evoking memories of the composer’s experiences during the Second World War. > Buy here at our shop |
 Peter Maxwell DaviesSymphony No 3 / Cross Lane Fair BBC Philharmonic / Peter Maxwell Davies Peter Maxwell Davies’s Symphony No 3 is the product of symmetry and proportion based on the principles of Renaissance architecture. It is also a dynamic and thrilling seascape, one that both invokes medieval chant and summons up the violent buffeting of the waves, and the stirring cliff-face full of nesting birds. The dual inspirations of proportion and the natural world are seamlessly coalesced, and the Symphony teems with evocative sounds and brooding passages both expansive and time-defying in their beauty. Cross Lane Fair is a lighter work, scored for Northumbrian pipes, bodhran (an Irish drum) and chamber orchestra, inspired by the memories of a fairground that Maxwell Davies visited as a child. > Buy here from our shop |
 Peter Maxwell DaviesSymphony No. 6 / Time and the Raven / An Orkney Wedding with Sunrise Royal Philharmonic / Peter Maxwell Davies Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s passionate Sixth Symphony is dedicated to the memory of the writer George Mackay Brown, with the ‘very special musical virtuosity’ of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in mind. It is one of his most beautifully expressive works and, whilst not untroubled, reaches moments of serene beauty. Composed for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, Time and the Raven is a brilliant and exciting collage, whilst few contemporary works enjoy such popularity as the magical An Orkney Wedding with Sunrise. > Buy here online |
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Britten: War Requiem
Britten's pacifist masterwork, combining war poetry by Wilfred Owen with the Latin Requiem Mass, is included in the Masterworks Library of full scores, ideal for conductors, students and music lovers.
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