Peter Maxwell Davies

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.

Job (Vocal Score)-A substantial work for four soli SATB chorus and orchestra using text from the translation of Stephen Mitchell's The Book Of Job. Like Vaughan Williams in his Job: A Masque for Dancing Davies was inspired inpart by William Blake's 21 engravings for the Book of Job. His oratorio however is less dependent on find parallels for Blake's visual details given the direct poetry in David Lemon's adaptation of the Stephen Mitchelltranslation from the biblical original it is hardly surprising that the spotlight should be so much on Job's suffering litany. The baritone has the lion's share of the setting though the other soloists occasionally reinforce hisplea and chorale-like episodes universalize his predicament. Davies frames with work with two seminal plainsong-like passages; there is also plenty of dramatic contrast both within Job's monologues and in the vivid orchestralwriting for the smarmy Comforters the initially shrill God who finally appears out of a dazzling orchestral whirlwind and the animal life he uses to illustrate the wonders of creation to a humbled Job.Commissioned by theUniversity of British Colombia it was first performed in May 1997 by Valdine Anderson (soprano) Linda Maguire (mezzo soprano) Paul Moore (tenor) and Kevin McMillan (baritone) with the Vancouver Bach Choir and the CBC VancouverOrchestra conducted by the composer.Vocal score with piano reduction of the orchestral score. Duration c. 70mins.

In February 2005 the Music Sales Group presented a concert of music for the Violin at the Wigmore Hall London to launch the Wigmore Hall New Music Fund set up to promote the commissioning and performance of new works for theimportant international recital venue. This title contains works from that performance by fourteen of the very best contemporary composers including Philip Glass Kaija Saariaho and Peter Maxwell Davies as well asworld premieres from Joby Talbot Craig Armstrong John Tavener and Judith Weir. The pieces in this programme have been specially selected for their accessibility making this folio suitable for players of a wide rangeof abilities from elementary level (1st to 3rd position only) to shorter but more challenging adventurous and unusual works. The set as a whole represents the large amount of variety and character alive in today's top-levelcomposition. An excellent repertoire source that is fresh exciting and highly accessible.

A work for solo violin and orchestra commissioned by Donald McDonald for the 21st birthday of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the 60th birthday of the composer. It was first performed in November 1993 in Glasgow by JamesClark and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Maxwell Davies.The spell is one quoted by George Mackay Brown in his book An Orkney Tapestry: 'Let not plough be put to acre except a fiddle cross first the furrow.'Davies's dancing concerto imagines the fiddler following a route from field to field from dance to dance accompanied by a bunch of companions in the form of an orchestra. As the music goes on so it gets brighter and livelier moving from the dark colouring of clarinets bassoons and strings to full ensemble with prominent brass and (solo) tuned percussion as if the dancers as much as the fields were beginning to glow with new life.Score(miniature). Duration c. 20mins.

Davies's feeling for the potency and bravura of the clarinet goes back to works of the 1960s; his concerto for the instrument is predictably a big ranging piece in two linked movements. The first fast with a brief slowintroduction has the soloist in propulsive melodic flights slipping over into florid runs but it is a virtuoso piece for the orchestra especially for the marimba and pair of horns. The Adagio that follows is in the spare cold birdcall-riven style of other recent Davies slow movements exploiting first the clarinet's low register and then at its climax the instrument's high extremes. A cadenza leads to the coda where Davies introduces a Scots tune previously hinted at with which he brings the work to an end in F sharp major.Miniature score.

Farewell to Stromness is a piano interlude from The Yellow Cake Revue a sequence of cabaret-style numbers against uranium mining in the Orkney Islands. The Revue was first performed at the St Magnus Festival Orkney by Eleanor Bron with the composer at the piano in June 1980.This performance inspired Timothy Walker to transcribe Farewell to Stromness for solo Guitar. He performed it two days later in Kirkwall Cathedral as part of the same festival.