Couldn't decide whether to put this in 20th century or 21st century, but I thought I'd go for the 'forward-looking; option ...


Various contributors know the story of how Peter Maxwell Davies was the first living composer whose work I really got to know, so I won't tell that one again except to say that it was the First Symphony I encountered first, followed rapidly by Nos 3, 4, 5 and the (then-new) 6, plus several of the Strathclyde Concertos and other things available on Collins Classics and Unicorn-Kanchana at the time. I worked my way back to the 60s and earlier 70s pieces, though there are a lot of those I didn't know until Decca brought out this rather useful compendium a couple of years back:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Maxwell-Davies-Portrait-Peter/dp/B0002EQ404/ref=sr_1_13/203-0733541-3225529?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1176221883&sr=8-13

Highly recommended!


More recently I'd had the impression the orchestral music was becoming as repetitive and uninteresting as Max's detractors had been saying for a long time (whereas I still think the middle symphonies are underrated, and the generic name 'Strathclyde Concerto' hides a multitude of gems), and I found PMD's own professed desire to give up symphonies in favour of (I quote from his own publicity) 'a late concentration on chamber music' to be a particularly acute case of a neglected composer cultivating even more neglect by telling other people what was and wasn't worth listening to in his own output, particularly since I'd had a bad experience with one of the string quartets in question while, contrariwise, having been impressed by 2 or 3 recent larger-ensemble works I'd heard (Linguae ignis, De Assumtione Beatae Mariae Virginis, Seven Skies of Winter ...).

I now want to publicly eat my words. I finally decided it was time to have another go at the recent quartet cycle, and the disc I bought and listened to this weekend - Naxos Quartets Nos 3 and 4 (the former an intendedly abstract work which got derailed by the invasion of Iraq, leading to an almost 60s-Max-ish parodic 'In Nomine' treatment signifying, in relation to the actions of the British Government, 'not in my name'; the latter a shorter single-movement work inspired by Brueghel, both thematically and in terms of the issue of 'perspective' which fascinates Davies so much) - was rather impressive, and on a first hearing seemed completely free of the longueurs I thought I'd suffered in hearing one of the earlier Naxos Quartets on the radio.


Anyone else want to jump in here? I'll come back later with more thoughts, if the thread takes off ...

'Eight Songs for a Mad King', of course - like 'Miss Donnithorne's Maggot' quite a lot as well.

http://www.maxopus.com/cgi-bin/reclib.cgi?others=cover015


My first experience of PMD's music was that Naxos disc, borrowed from my local library sometime last year. Unlike t_i_n, I had a  very 'in one ear out of through the other' - type reaction I'm afraid, but I didn't give it much time.

What about his work for the 'Fires of London' group, what would be the highlights?

http://www.maxopus.com/organisa/fires.htm

I would certainly like to eat my previous words to the effect that nothing of his written in the last 30 years had really grabbed me, so I'll have a peek at t-i-n's recommendation when I'm next in a House of Temptation.

My own personal highlights are (I'll probably forget a couple...)

Worldes Blis (one of my favourite orchestral pieces)
Eight Songs for a Mad King (mentioned already - but how many of us here have had the wine that's named after it? I have and it's a fine ballsy Aussie shiraz in the grand tradition)
Vesalii Icones
St Thomas Wake, Second Taverner Fantasia (anyone going to write a Tavener fantasia at some point? could be amusing...), Symphony no. 1 (three more very fine, chunky, geological orchestral pieces)
Ave maris stella (one of my very favourite pieces of chamber music - for me the description on the maxopus site as being among "the most outstanding examples of pure chamber music written in the late twentieth century" is overly modest)

I would dearly love to hear Taverner some day. Or better yet of course see it.

I listened to Max's Third Symphony for the first time yesterday. I need to listen again, but I found myself reflecting whether it (or its counterparts) stand a chance of being performed in a concert hall again.

Max's music needs more patience than most people are willing to give. The majority of his output has no 'hook' to draw you back to explore further; you need to attend closely on first hearing.

The other snag of course is that Unicorn-Kanchana and Collins (his staunchest recording supporters) are no more. Forgetting the concert hall, how much of this will ever see the light of day again even on CD (his own download service notwithstanding)?

I would also put in a word for The Lighthouse, watching which was the only time I can recall being really quite scared in the opera house.

I'd try the cello one or the oboe one. Avoid the "trumpet and horn" one at all costs...

What with Naxos's current £3.99 promotion, I thought I'd make a start on the quartets. But beginning at the beginning, I can't say nos. 1 and 2 are making much impression. Before you revised your opinion, which was your first encounter with them, t_i_n?

I wondered if it was 

I'll give 3 +4 a go, then see how I feel about the rest...