Sir Peter Maxwell Davies

Maxwell Davies’s Kommilitonen! triumphs in New York

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s opera Kommilitonen! has received critical acclaim following its US premiere on 16 November 2011 in New York. Directed by David Pountney and performed by students of the Juilliard School, the work’s co-commissioners alongside the Royal Academy of Music in London, Maxwell Davies received praise from the New York Times for his “exhilarating score”, with the opera being labelled an “earnest and engaging creation” by the Associated Press and “a well-crafted and moving meditation on student activism” by the New York Post. The opera received two further performances on 18 & 20 November.

Press quotes for Kommilitonen! in New York:

“There are many impressive things about “Kommilitonen!,” the new opera by Peter Maxwell Davies, with a libretto by David Pountney, which had its American premiere at the Juilliard School on Wednesday night. Best of all is Mr. Davies’s exhilarating score. Here, for once, is a modern opera that exudes musical modernism.

Mr. Davies was a major figure in the European avant-garde. Over the years he may have softened the hard edges of his modernist language. But at 77 he still writes bracingly gritty and complex music. In his many dramatic works and unconventional operas, Mr. Davies has excelled at putting contemporary-music techniques to arresting theatrical purposes.”

The New York Times, 17 November 2011

"Kommilitonen!" is an earnest and engaging creation, an agitprop pageant that proves surprisingly entertaining. Moreover, the Juilliard Opera singers and orchestra, led by conductor Anne Manson, performed it with an enthusiasm and polish that had the 77-year-old composer beaming when he came out for his curtain call.

Davies' lifetime of experience writing large-scale compositions shows in his expert use of the orchestra. The rhythmically varied, basically tonal score is filled with snatches of melody that hint at Chinese marches, American spirituals and German lieder ' tunes that often melt into one another. In a compelling moment during the interrogation of the Chinese parents, a relentlessly upbeat chorus for the Red Guard plays against a string lament for the hapless victims.”

The Associated Press, 17 November 2011

“Rumors were that an “Occupy”-something group would disrupt Wednesday night’s US premiere of “Kommilitonen!” But the Juilliard Opera performance went off without offstage fireworks, and proved to be a well-crafted and moving meditation on student activism... A post-performance protest outside the theater suggested the 20 or so “Occupy Opera” demonstrators had at least done their homework: Among the slogans they chanted was a line from this opera’s rousing finale, “There is no quota on freedom!”

The New York Post, 17 November 2011

“With timid tonality pervading so many new operas, it was refreshing to hear the edgy, acerbic sounds of Peter Maxwell Davies's "Kommilitonen!" presented by the Juilliard School last week. Mr. Maxwell Davies and librettist David Pountney, who also directed, used that agitated quality and a range of musical styles to deftly weave together three tales of student political action.

Mr. Pountney's kaleidoscopic libretto and Mr. Davies's music vary the dramatic treatment of these stories, giving each a distinctive profile and keeping the show moving as it switches among them. Meredith (the fine baritone Will Liverman) narrates his experiences dispassionately. There are hints of spirituals, but his vocal line is contained and conversational, as though he were keeping emotion at bay in order to survive. The Weisse Rose group, led by the piercing, poignant high soprano of Deanna Breiwick as Sophie, is written as a small ensemble, and Mr. Davies brings out the passion of their commitment through soaring vocal writing, even when the text is a description of how to make indelible paint or the names and addresses in telephone books.”

The Wall Street Journal, 22 November 2011

The World Premiere of Kommilitonen! took place in March 2011 at London’s Royal Academy of Music. For press quotes and information please visit here.

For further details of Kommilitonen! please see here.

New York’s Juilliard School presents the US premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies opera Kommilitonen!

Students of New York’s Juilliard School present the US premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s opera Kommilitonen! (Young Blood!) in performances on November 16, 18, and 20 2011. Co-commissioned by Juilliard and London’s Royal Academy of Music, the work features a libretto by acclaimed opera director and librettist David Pountney who directed the work’s world premiere in London in March 2011.

With the title translating as “fellow students”, Kommilitonen! was written specifically to be performed by students. The plot consists of three interlocking stories of students involved in political action crossing several 20th century generations, time-zones and cultures: protest against the Nazis in 1940’s Germany; struggling against oppression during the Chinese Cultural Revolution; and fighting racial prejudice in 1960’s America.

Sir Peter commented “I especially enjoy working with the young singers rising to the challenges of this project. I can’t resist such a wonderful opportunity and am grateful to the Principal for the support I have been shown. My new opera deals with brave students who stood up for what they believed in and triggers a wonderful example of adversity. It is very educational, probes deeply into the human psyche, and shows we should never under-estimate young people.”

Click here to read the reviews from the world premiere of Kommilitonen! in London, March 2011.

Aventa Ensemble gives the world premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s new work

On Tuesday 1 November, Maxwell Davies's Stormwatch, Stormfall will be premiered by Aventa Ensemble at the Phillip T Young Recital Hall, University of Victoria, Canada. The piece was commissioned by Aventa and written for horn trio. The premiere will be given by Darnell Linwood (horn), John Lowry (violin), and Miranda Wong (piano).

On 15th September 2011 the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq premieresMaxwell Davies's "A Reel of Spindrift, Sky" in Erbil, Iraq.

On 15th September 2011 the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq premieres Maxwell Davies's "A Reel of Spindrift, Sky" in Erbil, Iraq. Written for the orchestra and its conductor Paul MacAlindin, to whom the work is dedicated alongside the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the work will be performed as the culmination of the orchestra's summer school in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which brings together 45 young Kurdish, Arab and Turkmeni Iraqis.

The Last Night of the Proms hosts the world premiere of Maxwell Davies's large-scale work "Musica Benevolens".

On 10th September 2011 the Last Night of the Proms hosts the world premiere of Maxwell Davies's large-scale work "Musica Benevolens" at London's Royal Albert Hall. Commissioned by the Musicians Benevolent Fund and written as a tribute to the outstanding fundraising work of the Promenaders' Musical Charities, "Musica Benevolens" will be performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Edward Gardner, joined by festival trumpeters from the Royal Military School of Music. To mark this special occasion promenader participation is invited during the performance of the piece, and throughout this year's BBC Proms season promenaders have submitted ideas for music-inspired texts, of which three will be chosen by Maxwell Davies and incorporated into the work for its Last Night of the Proms performance.

For more information please visit the BBC Proms website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/whats-on/2011/september-10/85.

To read Maxwell Davies's article about the BBC Proms, click here

Critical acclaim for the world premiere of Maxwell Davies’s opera Kommilitonen!

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s new opera Kommilitonen! (Young Blood!) has received critical acclaim for its hugely successful world premiere performances on March 18, 21, 23 and 25. A joint commission between London’s Royal Academy of Music and New York’s Juilliard School, the opera was written specifically to be performed by students and focuses on three stories of 20th century student protest around the world: protest against the Nazis in 1940’s Germany, against oppression during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and fighting racial prejudice in 1960’s America.

The opera features a libretto by acclaimed opera director and librettist David Pountney, who directed these premiere performances at London’s Royal Academy of Music and will take the same role for the upcoming US Premiere production by the Julliard School in New York in November 2011.

“More than a decade after saying he had written his final theatre piece, the chance to compose a work for and about students has lured Peter Maxwell Davies back to opera.

Pountney also directs the immaculate RAM staging, [which] commutes effortlessly between the narratives, Davies's music delineating each strand with remarkable clarity. His score is extraordinarily fluent: the vocal lines are perfectly judged and the instrumental writing full of wonderful touches, with marching band, jazz trio, solo harp and erhu players on stage. It is as good as any theatre score he has ever composed.”

Five Stars, The Guardian

“The music works with exemplary theatrical skill; Maxwell Davies has coloured his score with snatches of American roots music, German art song and brassy Chinese marches without ever losing sight of the opera’s unifying goal. Here is proof that Maxwell Davies, who says he never intended to write another opera, still had a serious success inside him.”

Financial Times

“A master symphonist. It was a triumph: an extraordinary testament to the fact that, at the age of 76, his creativity is radiantly alive but more judicious than it was when he was half this age.

Kommilitonen! is an ensemble piece that prioritises collective singing – which from start to finish was magnificent. But the evening’s real star was Maxwell Davies, whose music gave these young performers something genuinely worthwhile to work with. It found distinctive style and colour for the separate stories, with convincing Weimar Republic expressionism for the White Rose episodes, and robust parodies of Maoist jingles for the Chinese ones. But it also had a heart and soul, touching profoundly spiritual depths in its recourse to scriptural quotations.”

Daily Telegraph

“If you're looking for a glorious, heart-warming pageant of humanity, [Maxwell Davies’s] latest opera will do nicely. Maxwell Davies flits between sound worlds. Chinoiserie, German modernism and wonky Porgy and Bess succeed and bleed into each other. What emerges is a prolonged paean to Freedom, finding its most obvious form in a rousing hymn at the close.

More tender moments amaze: luminescent strings make a recipe for graffiti paint into a ray of hope; a celeste turns a hand-operated press into a Mozartean music box, and the entire German people stand transfixed by its magical leaflets.

It's a bold and beautiful assertion of the transformative power of truth.”

Five Stars, Evening Standard

“The score works strikingly well. Kommilitonen! visits Juilliard School, New York, its co-commissioner, in November, but I’m sure that won’t be the end of this stirring blast of an opera.”

The Times

“Peter Maxwell Davies’s astounds with the world premiere of his brilliant opera for students about protest movements.

The moral force that Davies and Pountney dramatise — positive in two of the strands, if negative in the other — is felt in the brilliance and blinding conviction with which this production is brought off.

the piece moves forward in an undoubtedly compelling way, helped by Glover’s dynamic direction, and the score has an energy belying the composer’s 76 years.

Davies not only exploits stylistic pastiche as deftly as ever, he raises it to a new dramatic level, allowing the illustrative elements — nightclub jazz, marching-band music, a discreet chinoiserie — to inter­penetrate and form a language of their own. And his writing for chorus — tonal yet obliquely so, lusty yet astringent — provide the most gripping moments. I didn’t want Act II’s opening stretch, a transformation of “Michael, row the boat ashore”, to end.”

Sunday Times

“With a large cast, onstage marching band, jazz trio and Chinese erhu player, it lent itself to student performance but also deserves, if ever practicable, a wider audience. How satisfying to have a full-scale opera written with the fluency of a composer who, at 76 and with several early theatre works to his name, understands the stage. Pastiche is skilful and immediate, only the showy top strata of a many layered and subtle score.”

The Observer

“What emerged last weekend at the Royal Academy of Music is a gripping new opera about – for once – something important. Maxwell Davies’s score is mercurial, moving with a fluidity that matches the rapidly changing scenes. His vocal lines are lyrical, and the composer is at his most inventive in embracing styles from American jauntiness to Chinese marching-band music.”

Sunday Telegraph

The Britten Sinfonia gives the World premiere of Nocturne No. 1 for piano quartet at London's Wigmore Hall

On Wednesday 6 October, Maxwell Davies's Nocturne No.1 is premiered at the Wigmore Hall in a lunchtime concert by players from the Britten Sinfonia. Written as a birthday tribute to James MacMillan, whose chamber music also features in Wednesday's programme, the work is the first in a collection of two Nocturnes composed by Maxwell Davies for piano quartet. The second in the set is premiered in November by the Nash Ensemble, again at the Wigmore Hall.

June News - St Magnus Festival

The music of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies features strongly once again as part of the annual St Magnus Festival in June, founded by the composer over 30 years ago in the Orkney Islands. In addition to celebrating a Polish theme and the music of Chopin in his bicentennial year, works by Maxwell Davies within the programme include staged performances of Le Jongleur de Notre Dame by the Hebrides Ensemble, the second performance of the recently commissioned Overture: St Francis of Assisi by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Polish conductor Michal Dworzynski, and the world premiere of a new short work for chorus and string orchestra by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins.

World premiere of Blake Dreaming for baritone and string quartet at the Wigmore Hall

A new work by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies for baritone and string quartet is premiered at the Wigmore Hall at the end of April, by Roderick Williams and the Doric String Quartet. Commissioned by Nicholas and Judith Goodison, Blake Dreaming sets a phrase of poetry by William Blake, whilst also exploring the nature of the solo voice as an additional instrument within the textures of a string quartet.

The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra premieres a new work by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies

The world premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies' Sea Orpheus is presented at Carnegie Hall in early February by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and soloist Christopher Taylor. Drawing inspiration from a poem by fellow 'Orcadian' George Mackay Brown and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No.5, the work was commissioned as part of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra’s New Brandenburg series.

Kings Place celebrates the chamber music of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies

London's Kings Place presents a week of performances celebrating the chamber music of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies from 20 to 23 January 2010. Entitled 'Circus Maximus', the week represents a major retrospective of the astonishing scope of Maxwell Davies’ chamber output. Highlights from his vast catalogue, such as the iconic Eight Songs for a Mad King, will be performed by leading ensembles including the Maggini Quartet, Brodsky Quartet, Psappha and the Gemini Ensemble.

"I am very much looking forward to offering London audiences the opportunity to experience such a wide range of the chamber music I've composed over the years" commented Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. “To have such close musical friends coming to perform at Kings Place is wonderful - it is always such an honour to have one's music performed by ensembles who understand it intimately."

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies conducts the Netherlands Radio Kamer Filharmonie

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies conducts the Netherlands Radio Kamer Filharmonie in a concert of his own music, including the Dutch premiere of Last Door of Light, alongside Jimmack the Postie, An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise and his Strathclyde Concerto No. 4 with clarinet soloist Dimitri Ashkenazy.

75th birthday celebrations for Sir Peter Maxwell Davies continue in Glasgow

Following events at the BBC Proms, Southbank Centre and Wigmore Hall, the 75th birthday celebrations for Sir Peter Maxwell Davies continue in Glasgow with a fortnight of events devoted to his music. In addition to performances by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Hebrides Ensemble, Scottish Ensemble and students from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra give the world premiere of a new work by Maxwell Davies - Overture, St. Francis of Assisi – under Ilan Volkov, and also perform his seminal opera Taverner, conducted by Martyn Brabbins.

Later in November, Maxwell Davies conducts the Royal Flemish Philharmonic and soloist Daniel Hope in the Belgian premiere of his Violin Concerto No. 2 'Fiddler on the Shore', following successful premieres with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the BBC Proms.

World premiere of string sextet The Last Island with the Nash Ensemble at Wigmore Hall

The first complete presentation of Maxwell Davies’ Naxos String Quartet Cycle will be performed over one weekend at the Southbank Centre during October, as part of the Park Lane Group's anniversary series. Each of the ten quartets will be performed by a different ensemble from the Park Lane Group’s Young Artists scheme, as well as the Maggini Quartet who premiered and recorded the entire cycle for Naxos.

Also this month, Maxwell Davies returns to conduct Camerata Salzburg in a programme including his climate change inspired work Last Door of Light, which was premiered by the orchestra under his baton at the Carinthischer Sommer festival last year. His music is also celebrated by the Nash Ensemble in a special birthday tribute concert at the Wigmore Hall, featuring the world premiere of a new string sextet The Last Island, alongside Maxwell Davies' Seven in Nomine and Kettletoft Inn with Northumbrian pipes soloist Kathryn Tickell.

Maxwell Davies conducts the UK premiere of his Violin Concerto No. 2 at the BBC Proms

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies celebrates his 75th birthday at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall, conducting the UK premiere of his Violin Concerto No. 2 Fiddler on the Shore with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and soloist Daniel Hope. Mendelssohn’s Overture The Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave) and Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony complete the programme, the latter conducted by Garry Walker. To follow, the BBC Singers present a late night performance of his choral works Westerlings and Solstice of Light.

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies conducts the world premiere of his Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and soloist Daniel Hope in August. Subtitled Fiddler on the Shore, the inspiration for the concerto combines nature with the fiddle and folk music of the Orkney Islands, which lie off the North coast of Scotland, where Maxwell Davies lives and writes most of his music.

Music by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies features at the 2009 BBC Proms as part of the ‘1934: England at the Crossroads’ theme. Solstice of Light and Westerlings will be performed at a special late-night Prom (Prom 71, 8 September) while Maxwell Davies conducts the UK premiere of his new violin concerto with soloist Daniel Hope and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Prom 70, 8 September). His music is also forms an integral part of the 2009 City of London Festival, within the festival theme of the latitude 60° North, exploring the historic and environmental issues of northern cities of Kirkwall, Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallinn and St Petersburg, through the work of world-class performers and composers. Performances of Maxwell Davies’ music at the festival include the London premiere of The Sorcerer's Mirror (text by Andrew Motion), performed by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, while many of his best known works also feature in the festival programme.

A new work by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies receives its world premiere performance this month in Cambridge. Based on a text by former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, The Sorcerer’s Mirror was commissioned in celebration of the University of Cambridge's 800th anniversary and will be performed in King’s College Chapel under Stephen Cleobury. The City of London Festival will host the London premiere of the work later this month, along with numerous performances of other works by Maxwell Davies, including An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise, the London premiere of his String Trio and the world premiere of a new set of piano pieces Three Sanday Places.

This month Sir Peter Maxwell Davies conducts the Hamburg Philharmonic in three concerts featuring his own works An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise and A Reel of Seven Fisherman, alongside Mendelssohn's Symphony No.3 Scottish and Overture The Hebrides.

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies has presented the prestigious Queen's Medal for Music to Kathryn Tickell at The Sage Gateshead on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen, as part of his role as Master of the Queen's Music. Speaking of the announcement and Kathryn Tickell’s work, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies said, “I am delighted to have had the opportunity to present the Queen's Medal to Kathryn Tickell as she is not only the foremost Northumbrian Pipes player, a great composer and a wonderful all-round musician, but for her work in music education and in putting the pipes and the music of her own part of England back among the public where it belongs, and also spreading a love of this music throughout the whole world."

A new work by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies - A Birthday Card for Prince Charles - is premiered this month as part of his role as Master of the Queen's Music, in celebration of the sixtieth birthday of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. Written as a special birthday present for The Prince of Wales, the work will be performed by conductor Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in the presence of The Prince of Wales as part of a private gala celebration at Buckingham Palace, with the first public performance to take place shortly afterwards at the Royal Festival Hall by the Philharmonia Orchestra and David Hill on 27 November 2008.

This month Sir Peter Maxwell Davies is featured in three events as part of the opening weekend of Kings Place Concert Hall in London. He gives a lecture entitled "Musica Speculum Mundi?", presents the music of two composers supported by the Society for Promotion of New Music, and introduces a performance of his clarinet quintet Hymn to Artemis Locheia by the Brodsky Quartet and Mark van der Wiel.