The first piece of music by Peter
Maxwell Davies that I heard was the iconic masterpiece Eight Songs of a Mad King premiered in April 1969. This ‘monodrama’
had been released on LP in 1971 and I heard it around about the same time as I
was coming to terms with Elgar and Vaughan Williams. The contrast could not be
greater. It is a work that I find
repellent and fascinating at the same time: which is what I imagine the
composer had in mind.
The score for The Boyfriend was written only two years
after the ‘Mad King’ and again the contrast is unbelievable. The film starring ‘Twiggy’ (Leslie Hornby)
and Christopher Gable was released in 1971 and was basically a romantic musical
comedy.
Richard Whitehouse hits the nail
on the head when he states that this score ‘says much for the versatility of…
the composer’. Maxwell Davies made use
of the original score of the 1954 musical by Sandy Wilson and re-created it for
a large dance band orchestra. There are
seven movements to the derived suite which include ‘Honeymoon Fantasy’, ‘Sur la
Plage’, ‘I could be Happy’ and the all important sequence titled ‘Polly’s Dream’. This music is a sheer pleasure to listen to.
Enthusiasts of ‘Max’ will know that the ‘foxtrot’ and other stylised popular
dances feature in a number of his works including Mavis in Las Vegas and St.
Thomas Wake. In The Boyfriend,
the composer is just enjoying himself: there is no deeper subtext. Just
occasionally, I felt that the music begins to deconstruct from
nineteen-thirties parody into something a little more ‘avant-garde.’ It would make an ideal ‘Last Night of the
Proms’ feature.
The suite of music derived from
Ken Russell’s film The Devils,
starring Vanessa Redgrave and Oliver Reed, is completely different, though
equally satisfying. The music written for the ‘titles’ and for ‘Sister Jeanne’s
Vision’ is introverted and lugubrious. The ‘Sanctus’ sung by an uncredited
soprano comes as a surprise: the twisted theme and dissonant chords that follow
are more the stuff of nightmares than visions. Once again, Maxwell Davies makes
use of a ‘foxtrot’ theme in the ‘exorcism’ movement but there is little humour
here: this is sinister as befits the action on set. The musical parody constantly
breaks down. The final movement of this suite is ‘Execution and End Music’
which has some wild dance episodes to reflect the ‘orgy scenes’ and there is a
poignant cello solo. The movement becomes more disjointed and downright scary
in sound, with a variety of novel orchestral effects. A limited degree of peace is achieved in the
final bars. This horror film with gratuitous sex, violence and deliberate offence
to religious sensibilities is not one that I have seen or would choose to see;
however, the music is clearly superb.
Listeners to Classic FM can hardly have missed the ubiquitous ‘Farewell to
Stromness’ which seems to feature on a regular basis. The work derives from The Yellow Cake Revue written in 1980. The ‘Yellow Cake’ being
‘deposits of uranium’ found near Maxwell Davies’ home in Stromness, Orkney. The
‘revue’ was written as part of the protests against the possible mining of this
substance on these beautiful islands. There were originally eleven songs, recitation
and solo pieces. Two interludes are included on this disc – the ‘Yesnaby Ground’
and the ‘Farewell’. Yesnaby is a stunning part of the coastline a few miles to
the north of Stromness. The ‘ground’ refers to the musical form of a ‘ground
bass’. These two works are both
thoughtful and meditative. They are a million miles away in their musical substance
from works that once defined Maxwell Davies as an ‘enfant terrible’. The
composer himself plays these two pieces: they are taken from an undated
recording.
The earliest music on this
excellent CD is Seven in Nomine
dating from 1963-4. The work is largely
based on a melody derived from an antiphon ‘Gloria tibi trinitas’ from a mass
of the same title by John Taverner (c.1490-1545). The work has seven movements
which commences with a string quartet transcription of the original ‘In Nomine’
for organ found in the Mulliner Book. The second is an arrangement by Maxwell
Davies of the melody making use of modern techniques such as octave
displacements and complex manipulation of the notes using a variety of
canonical devices. It is dedicated to Benjamin Britten on his 50th
birthday. The third was composed to celebrate Michael Tippett’s 60th
birthday. The fourth is an arrangement of John Bull’s setting of the ‘In Nomine’
taken from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. It is beautifully scored for flute,
harp, viola and cello. The fifth is a complex six-part canon for a large group
of instruments including string quartet. The next is a ‘Gloria tibi trinitas’
using music by William Blitheman (d.1591). The finale is original music by the
composer which exploits a recitative and acts as a summing up of the various
moods and diverse styles of this piece. The work was composed for the Melos
Ensemble. Seven in Nomine was considered by Maxwell Davies as being a
preparatory ‘study’ for his large ‘Second Fantasia on John Taverner's In
Nomine’ (1964).
The performance (it is quarter
of a century old) by Aquarius and Nicolas Cleobury is stunning. The liner notes
by Richard Whitehouse are consistently helpful. And the sound quality is great.
I cannot fault this CD. It is a
fine exploration of some of the important byways of Peter Maxwell Davies’
music. I guess for me the ‘highways’ are the Ten Symphonies, the Strathclyde
Concertos and the Naxos String Quartets. The more ‘popular’ mood of most of the
pieces on this CD precludes it being an overview of the composer’s music;
however it acts as an encouraging introduction for anyone who still sees ‘Max’
as being the bad boy of British music.
Track Listing
Suite from ‘The Boyfriend’ (1971)
Suite from ‘The Devils’ (1971)
Seven in Nomine (1965)
The Yellow Cake Revue (excerpts) (1980)
Aquarius/ Nicholas Cleobury, Peter Maxwell Davies (piano)
NAXOS 8.572408
With
thanks to MusicWeb International where this review was first published.
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