Classical CD Reviews
PETER MAXWELL DAVIES: Naxos Quartets 1 and 2, 3 and 4/ Maggini String Quartet - Naxos
Four quartets on two CDs, in which Davies stretches the fabric of the 21st Century string quartet
Published on July 29, 2005
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PETER MAXWELL DAVIES: Naxos Quartets 1 and 2; 3 and 4 -
Maggini String Quartet - Naxos Records 8.557396, 8.557397 - (2 separate
CDs) *****:
Commisioned by Naxos records and composed in 2002-2004 as the first four of a projected ten string quartets, "Max" has stretched the fabric of the post twentieth century string quartet. Utilizing the now familiar "Max" devices of the Orkney soundscape, his ongoing exposition of "magic square" tonal development , referential plainsong and, in the third quartet, his response to the Iraq war.
Peter Maxwell Davies is a greatly gifted and prodigous composer. He has produced successful compositions and recordings of choral music for solo and massed voices, symphonic music for large and small groups, and combinations therof involving voice, orchestra, chamber groups. He has been actively involved in composition for more than thirty years. Maxwell Davies' music is highly original and demanding of the listener, often requiring repetitive listening/study to come to grips with his musical language.
The first and second Quartets deal with Max' ever present Orkney sounds/colors. The familiar calls of sea birds and craggy pristine landscape of the North Atlantic are evoked uneeringly by his expanded writing for string quartet. Has any E-string been so thoroughly tested? Juxtaposed against vigorous viola and cello attacks, the range of tone and intensity of feeling is quite remarkable.
In the notes supplied with these recordings, Peter Maxwell Davies cites his indebtedness to both Haydn and Beethoven as classical models for the structure of his quartet writing. The first movement of Quartet #1 uses the Haydn fast-slow-fast model while the opening bars of #1 are similar in mood to the opening of the Beethoven F sharp major piano sonata. Orkney free form fiddling is suggested as well. Layering of these and more sylistic devices is masterfully carried out, followed inevitably by deconstuction. The ebb and flow of this music, of vitality, becomes increasingly engaging with listener familiarity.
Maxwell Davies tells us that the Third Quartet began as a work to explore the creative potential of certain magic square tonal associations based on the Plainsong celebrating St. Cecelia on Nov. 22. This Quartets' development was affected by the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The Third Quartet is in four movements: The first "A military march of a fatuous and splintered nature", the second a slow In Nomine "quietly distorted and dissonant, that is, very much not 'In Nomine'. The third movement, titled Four Inventions and a Hymn, is a burlesque which borrows fom Bach's Inventions. It is marked 'stucchevole' (cloying,nauseating) towards its end. The fourth movement, Fugue recalls the style of the Italian fugue rather than Bach. It is subdued, ruminative, dispairing. Maxwell Davies describes the end of the movement: "Here in unison with the cello line, I imagine a baritone voice intoning Michelangelo's words: 'While damage and shame persist, it is my great fortune to neither see nor hear- so please do not disturb me, and speak quietly.'"
The Naxos Quartet No.4 was written in 2004 "with the intention of producing something lighter and much less fierce than its predecessor." Inspired by the Brueghel masterpiece of 1560, Children's Games, it is a single movement pastiche of often vigorous musical impressions of Brueghel's catalog of children at play. A circus of visual movement is depicted musically as interlocking games played back and forth by the four members of the string quartet. This is deft, tight musical composition stretching the resources of string quartet structure as well as the listener who must become an active player.
The Maggini Quartet, formed in 1988, has become one of the finest ensembles performing today. Their recordings of the chamber music of Vaughan Williams, Bridge, Britten, Bax, Elgar, Tippett and Robert Simpson are celebrated as most favored recordings of these works. In this tradition of excellence these recordings of the first four of the Maxwell Davies String Quartets carry the imprimatur of the composer and the quartet of players who have lived with this music thoughout its growth and development. These performances are authentic.
Recorded at Potton Hall, Sullfolk in 2003-04 by sound engineer Eleanor Thomason, there is a cool, detached yet immediate and natural string sound presented. The sound stage is very deep, the instumental sound finely balanced, in keeping with the nature of this music and the beautifully performances by the Magginni Quartet.
This is important music by a major contemporary Brtitish composer . The musical public is twice blessed: having commissioned these important works, Naxos also provides definitive, composer-supervised authoritative recordings of these emerging masterpieces......most highly recommended.
- Ronald Legum
Commisioned by Naxos records and composed in 2002-2004 as the first four of a projected ten string quartets, "Max" has stretched the fabric of the post twentieth century string quartet. Utilizing the now familiar "Max" devices of the Orkney soundscape, his ongoing exposition of "magic square" tonal development , referential plainsong and, in the third quartet, his response to the Iraq war.
Peter Maxwell Davies is a greatly gifted and prodigous composer. He has produced successful compositions and recordings of choral music for solo and massed voices, symphonic music for large and small groups, and combinations therof involving voice, orchestra, chamber groups. He has been actively involved in composition for more than thirty years. Maxwell Davies' music is highly original and demanding of the listener, often requiring repetitive listening/study to come to grips with his musical language.
The first and second Quartets deal with Max' ever present Orkney sounds/colors. The familiar calls of sea birds and craggy pristine landscape of the North Atlantic are evoked uneeringly by his expanded writing for string quartet. Has any E-string been so thoroughly tested? Juxtaposed against vigorous viola and cello attacks, the range of tone and intensity of feeling is quite remarkable.
In the notes supplied with these recordings, Peter Maxwell Davies cites his indebtedness to both Haydn and Beethoven as classical models for the structure of his quartet writing. The first movement of Quartet #1 uses the Haydn fast-slow-fast model while the opening bars of #1 are similar in mood to the opening of the Beethoven F sharp major piano sonata. Orkney free form fiddling is suggested as well. Layering of these and more sylistic devices is masterfully carried out, followed inevitably by deconstuction. The ebb and flow of this music, of vitality, becomes increasingly engaging with listener familiarity.
Maxwell Davies tells us that the Third Quartet began as a work to explore the creative potential of certain magic square tonal associations based on the Plainsong celebrating St. Cecelia on Nov. 22. This Quartets' development was affected by the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The Third Quartet is in four movements: The first "A military march of a fatuous and splintered nature", the second a slow In Nomine "quietly distorted and dissonant, that is, very much not 'In Nomine'. The third movement, titled Four Inventions and a Hymn, is a burlesque which borrows fom Bach's Inventions. It is marked 'stucchevole' (cloying,nauseating) towards its end. The fourth movement, Fugue recalls the style of the Italian fugue rather than Bach. It is subdued, ruminative, dispairing. Maxwell Davies describes the end of the movement: "Here in unison with the cello line, I imagine a baritone voice intoning Michelangelo's words: 'While damage and shame persist, it is my great fortune to neither see nor hear- so please do not disturb me, and speak quietly.'"
The Naxos Quartet No.4 was written in 2004 "with the intention of producing something lighter and much less fierce than its predecessor." Inspired by the Brueghel masterpiece of 1560, Children's Games, it is a single movement pastiche of often vigorous musical impressions of Brueghel's catalog of children at play. A circus of visual movement is depicted musically as interlocking games played back and forth by the four members of the string quartet. This is deft, tight musical composition stretching the resources of string quartet structure as well as the listener who must become an active player.
The Maggini Quartet, formed in 1988, has become one of the finest ensembles performing today. Their recordings of the chamber music of Vaughan Williams, Bridge, Britten, Bax, Elgar, Tippett and Robert Simpson are celebrated as most favored recordings of these works. In this tradition of excellence these recordings of the first four of the Maxwell Davies String Quartets carry the imprimatur of the composer and the quartet of players who have lived with this music thoughout its growth and development. These performances are authentic.
Recorded at Potton Hall, Sullfolk in 2003-04 by sound engineer Eleanor Thomason, there is a cool, detached yet immediate and natural string sound presented. The sound stage is very deep, the instumental sound finely balanced, in keeping with the nature of this music and the beautifully performances by the Magginni Quartet.
This is important music by a major contemporary Brtitish composer . The musical public is twice blessed: having commissioned these important works, Naxos also provides definitive, composer-supervised authoritative recordings of these emerging masterpieces......most highly recommended.
- Ronald Legum
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