The Full Score for Peter Maxwell Davies’ fourth in a series of ten string quartets commissioned by the Naxos Recording company first performed by the Maggini Quartet on 20th August 2004 at the Chapel of the Royal Palace Oslo Norway as part of the Olso Chamber Music Festival. Composer Note: The fourth Naxos quartet was written in January and February of 2004 with the intention of producing something lighter and much less fierce than itspredecessor an unpremeditated and spontaneous reaction to the illegal invasion of Iraq.I returned to the well-known Brueghel picture of children's games (1560 now in Vienna) which had been the inspiration for my sixthStrathclyde Concerto for flute and orchestra. These illustrations liberated my musical imagination but I feel it would limit the listener's perception to be too specific about which game relates to exactly which section of thework. Suffice it to say that there is vigorous play - leap-frog bind the devil with a cord truss wrestling - alongside quieter pastimes - masks guess whom I shall choose courting odds and evens. The single movementjuxtaposes these activities as abruptly and intimately as they occur in Brueghel. Rather as the eye is taken into different perspectives and proportions of scale within the picture taking liberties which would never be presentin for instance Brunelleschi architectural drawings so here with a constant sequence of transformation processes I have distorted the neat precise implications of modal progression expressed in the unison opening phrase(from F to B through A sharp/B flat) so that the ear is led en route into the sound equivalents of strange passageways and closed rooms: sicut exposition ludus. As work on the quartet progressed I became aware that Iwas reading into and behind the games adult motives and implications concerning aggression and war with their consequences. It was impossible to escape into innocent childhood fantasy. The nature of the F to B

This work was commissioned by the Naxos Recording Company and is the eighth in a series of ten quartets. It was first performed on 10th March 2006 by the Maggini Quartet at St. Gregory’s Centre Canterbury Christ ChurchUniversity Canterbury as part of the Sounds New Festival.Naxos Quartet No. 8 is dedicated to Her Majesty the Queen on her 80th birthday.

The set of parts for Maxwell Davies's Naxos Quartet Six for strings. This work was commissioned by the Naxos Recording Company and is the sixth in a series of ten quartets. It was first performed on 26th April 2005 at the PurcellRoom London by the Maggini Quartet.

The third in the series of ten Quartets commissioned by the Naxos recording company. First performed at Wigmore Hall London in Oct 2003 by the Maggini Quartet. A convenient miniature-sized version of the score intended forstudy.

This work was commissioned by the Naxos Recording Company and is the fifth in a series of ten quartets. It was first performed on 20th October 2004 at the Wigmore Hall London by the Maggini Quartet.

This work was commissioned by the Naxos Recording Company and is the fifth in a series of ten quartets. It was first performed on 20th October 2004 at the Wigmore Hall London by the Maggini Quartet.