Sir Peter Maxwell Davies

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.