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
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George McIlwham (bagpipes) *
