Maxwell Davies Symphony no 3

 Day 153

Peter Maxwell Davies Symphony no 3

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

Maxwell Davies

Peter Maxwell Davies was a hugely important figure in British musical life in the 1970s and 1980s when I was starting to develop my musical horizons. Pieces like the Songs for a Mad King and the opera Taverner  placed him firmly at the centre of contemporary music. But as he got older his reputation as an enfant terrible began to fade as he moved a little closer to the main stream. His various lighthearted pieces such as Orkney Wedding with Sunrise, several of which I have played, have shown a different side of his character and his Farewell to Stromness - which of course I listened to when I was on a ferry out of the harbour there a few years ago - has achieved widespread popularity.

I remember the surprise when in the mid 1970s he wrote his first symphony - it seems a backward looking gesture by a contemporary composer but it marked a sustain engagement with traditional forms, such as the symphony (there are 10 altogether), the concerto and the string quartet.

I hadn’t heard any of the symphonies before and I chose this one at random. It is a substantial piece of- nearly 50 mins long - and was by no means an easy listen. But I got a lot out of it. It feels symphonic in form with a sense of logic. Indeed more than once I was reminded of Sibelius. The music itself sounds nothing like Sibelius of course but the way that Maxwell Davies builds up the tension through long phrases and ostinato figures is certainly reminiscent of Sibelius’ approach to symphonic writing.  The orchestral writing is highly complex and demands virtuoso players - the writing for the horns trumpets and oboes in particularly is often in the highest register for bars on end. To be honest I found some of that material to be quite painful to listen to - but away from those moments the composer’s ear for interesting sonorities was absolutely clear.

I can’t imagine that a difficult and long work like this will be performed very often but I am glad that I heard it. It will be interesting to speculate how Maxwell Davies is regarded by generations to come. Will he be seen as part of the long tradition of English symphonic music or will people only remember his early, more shocking, work?  He is such an important figure that it is hard to imagine that he will disappear from view completely.