This is the second of five volumes reissued by Naxos in 2012 of
the 1990s-vintage Collins Classics recordings of Peter Maxwell Davies's
Symphonies. See reviews of the
First,
Third,
Fourth
& Fifth and
Sixth. With the Collins
discs now only available second-hand or imported, these Naxos reissues
are especially collectible: in most cases, as here, they remain -
almost scandalously, it might be said - the only recordings of these
major works.
Maxwell Davies stands alongside Bruckner and Mahler when it comes
to writing massive symphonies - of his first six, only the Fourth
and Fifth come in under the forty-five minute mark. Running to almost
an hour, the Second demands a considerable commitment from listeners,
but Maxwell Davies's symphonies are like those of Bruckner and Mahler
in another significant way: the degree to which they are able to perplex
contemporary audiences. Though the composer has always incorporated
accessible popular elements in many of his works - such as folk in
An Orkney Wedding With Sunrise, minimalism in
Farewell to
Stromness and jazz in
St Thomas Wake - he remains a modernist
at heart, and expressionism, or at least anti-lyricism, is never far
away. That is generally true of all his symphonies, and the seascape-inspired
Second is no exception, as the long, mainly atonal first movement
testifies. There is little change in the more becalmed second, evidently
reflecting more benign weather conditions around the composer's Orkney
home. As his notes on the work make clear, there is a lot of 'science'
in the score which may or may not, depending on the listener's sensitivities
and proclivities, obscure some of the emotional content, at least
initially. Maxwell Davies inscrutably describes the work as "a birthday
gift for the Virgin [Mary]"; whatever the listener is supposed to
make of that, this is the composer's response to the power, beauty
and relentlessness of
nature, and on repeated listening the
architecture of his ideas starts to become more readily readable.
Maxwell Davies's modernist credentials are also in evidence in the
St Thomas Wake. Despite the parodic foxtrot episodes, which
are frequent, this is a work written in the 1960s, and sounds like
it, at least for the first seven minutes, when there is little sign
of John Bull's original Renaissance pavan, nor of anything recognisable
by ballroom dancing enthusiasts. Atonality and clamour are pushed
aside for a four-minute burst of swinging, foot-tapping frolicking.
St Thomas Wake is a complex work, with a dark, lurking presence,
and the noisy, dissonant drama reappears repeatedly, despite the efforts
of an out-of-tune honky-tonk piano and various 'big band' instruments,
making this a discomfiting, though always fascinating, experience.
Sound quality is really very good, especially considering the vintage
of the recordings and the dynamic range needed to be accounted for,
especially in
St Thomas Wake, recorded live at the 1991 Cheltenham
Festival - the audience, incidentally, has been totally and expertly
expunged. The BBC Philharmonic are on form as usual, with Maxwell
Davies ensuring everything is as it should be.
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at artmusicreviews.co.uk
see also review by William
Hedley
Reviews
of Maxwell Davies on Naxos
