This work was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It was first per...(+)
This work was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It was first performed on 2nd May 2000 at the Barbican Centre London conducted by Peter Maxwell Davies. Duration c.23 minutes. Peter Maxwell Davies: The hornwriting is extremely virtuoso throughout not least in exploring the full range of the horn from the deepest notes in the bass normally exclusive to an orchestral fourth horn player to the highest most exposed sostenuto of afirst horn soloist presenting here challenges of embouchure and sheer stamina I should think fairly unprecedented.Solo part and piano reduction on sale (CH61758) Conductor's score and orchestral parts available for hire.
Caroline Mathilde Act I (Concert Suite)-The story centres on the English princes...(+)
Caroline Mathilde Act I (Concert Suite)-The story centres on the English princess Caroline Mathilde (1751-1775) sister of George III who at the age of 15 was sent to Denmark to marry the 17-year-old eccentric and schizophrenic Danish King Christian VII. The balletportrays her unhappy marriage the King's growing madness and her fatal love-affair with Struensee the King's influential physician which leads to their arrest his execution and her exile at the age of 20 separated from hertwo young children. In keeping with the period and perhaps also with the traditions of Romantic ballet the music is relatively simple in harmony and form and most of the action is conveyed in set-piece dances. The suite which consists essentially of the second half of Act I begins with one of these a bristling interplay of wind and string ensembles in D major portraying in the ballet a curious nuptial game with the king and princess on movablepedestals. The slow music that follows has to do with the king's healing by Dr. Struensee and the new queen's unquiet reverie (oboe and cor anglais solos). Then the suite like the act is capped by a pair of pas-de-deux thefirst savage and bizarre for the royal couple the second rich and passionate for the queen and the miracle-working doctor.Score (miniature). Duration c. 25mins.
The solo group consists of a sextet of the woodwind instruments which are normal...(+)
The solo group consists of a sextet of the woodwind instruments which are normally doubled with more regular members of the orchestra: these six strangers now brought to the fore are piccolo alto flute cor anglais clarinet inEb bass clarinet in Bb and contrabassoon. They make a motley group diverse in colour as in register and one of the tasks of the piece sets itself is to have them blend and cohere both together as an ensemble and in partnershipwith the string orchestra (which itself is used with unusual variety and subtlety). Another evident task of the work is to provide fine solos for each member of the woodwind sextet: bright dances for the piccolo recitativesfor the alto flute a stoical song from the contrabassoon in the extreme bass. The work is cast as a single movement which begins in the composer's first-movement style of rapid regeneration. This is interrupted by slowinterventions including one for divided strings which gives rise to a sextuple cadenza for the soloists. Out of this comes a slow movement or sequence of short slow movements followed by a dancing finale with its own slowepisodes. Altogether this is music of songs and dances heavily tinged with Scottish rhythms and tonalities: one might think of a magic bagpipe having six chanters and a drone of variegated string texture.
Orchestral study score. This work was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Orc...(+)
Orchestral study score. This work was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It was first performed on 23 April 1997 by Stewart McIlwham and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the composer. The threemovements should be played without a break.The piccolo may have obvious limitations as a solo instrument but Davies is not one to shirk a challenge. What he does is to play with the stereotypical modes of the instrument sothat the military ?pipe and drum? effect is hinted at near the beginning of the third movement while the jaunty manner is recalled at the close of the first but as through a veil. A potentially comic partnership with the bassclarinet is also dignified when the two instruments engage in meditative dialogue in the second movement. Solo part and piano reduction on sale. Conductor's score and orchestral parts are available on hire.
This work was commissioned by the City of Darmstadt for the Darmstadt State Thea...(+)
This work was commissioned by the City of Darmstadt for the Darmstadt State Theatre. It was first performed in September 1988 at the Staatstheater Darmstadt. Written for full orchestra with large percussion section marchingband pop group and electronic vocal quartet. Duration c. 75mins.
Peter Maxwell Davies' Symphony No. 9 for Orchestra. Study score.This work is ded...(+)
Peter Maxwell Davies' Symphony No. 9 for Orchestra. Study score.This work is dedicated to Her Majesty The Queen in celebration of her Diamond Jubilee. It received its premiere in June 2012 bythe RLPO in Liverpool conducted by Vasily Petrenko.In addition to the Orchestra the symphony calls for a virtuoso Brass Quintet.
A short piece for small orchestra written in 1989 when the composer heard of Mi...(+)
A short piece for small orchestra written in 1989 when the composer heard of Michael Vyner's death. Premiered in October 1989 at Glyndebourne Sussex by the London Sinfonietta and conducted by the composer just six days afterVyman's death.Approximately six minutes in duration it is based on the plainsong âCor meum et caro mea exultaverunt in Deum vivumâ and is scored for two oboes two bassoons two horns two trumpets timpani and strings.
This work written by Maxwell Davies in 1983 for chamber orchestra was commissi...(+)
This work written by Maxwell Davies in 1983 for chamber orchestra was commissioned to celebrate the quartercentenary of Edinburgh University. The first performance was given by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by EdwardHarper in October 1983. Duration c. 29mins.This work was thought through in outline following a visit to the ruined pre-Reformation church of Hoy in Orkney on a fine Spring afternoon after Maxwell Davies had played theharmonium for the tiny congregation in its large bleak Victorian replacement. The old church was surrounded by the graves of centuries the more recent ones with familiar names largely of people who lived in houses now ruinous crofters fishermen clerics sea-captains. Next to it stood the chief farmhouse the Bu going back to Viking times. He thought of the lives and deaths encompassed there expressed through hundreds of years of music in thechurch and in the big barn of the farm.The plainsongs âDies Iraeâ and âVictimae Paschali Laudesâ are used throughout the work the first concerning the Day of Judgement from the Mass for the Dead the second particular toEaster Sunday and the Resurrection. These are subject to constant transformation the intervallic contour slowly changes from one into the other and their notes are made to dance through Renaissance astrological âmagic squareâpatterns.The orchestra consists of double woodwind two horns two trumpets and strings.
