Peter Maxwell Davies' Arrangements VII

-- Liner Notes from 'Renaissance & Baroque Realisations' --

Kinloch his Fantassie (1976)
(unconducted chamber performance)

This severity is certainly dispelled by the final work on the disc, in which William Kinloch's Fantasia is presented in an orchestration that reinforces its innate exuberance. -- Stephen Pruslin


Sir Peter Maxwell Davies is universally acknowledged as one of the foremost composers in the world today. As the New York Times has written, "today, Davies counts as Britain's leading composer. He has achieved that status through his prolific outpouring in nearly every medium, his vivid theatricality and a musical idiom that combines mediaeval mysticism, modernist rigor and a happy accessibility."

His protean and charismatic musical personality expresses itself in his 150 published works including the operas, Taverner and Resurrection, the full-length ballet, Salome, the orchestral works (the Violin Concerto and Trumpet Concerto, the four Symphonies and An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise), the chamber operas, The Lighthouse and The Martyrdom of St. Magnus, the music-theatre works such as Eight Songs for Mad King and Miss Donnithorne's Maggot, as well as the many works written for non-specialist children including the operas, Cinderella and The Two Fiddlers.

He founded The Fires of London and was its Artistic Director throughout its existence, 1967-87. He founded the St. Magnus Festival in the Orkney Islands and was its Artistic Director from 1977 to 1986. He is now President of the festival. He was knighted in the 1987 New Years Honours for his services to music. In 1988, he undertook an extensive tour of the United States and Canada with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, which included performances in San Francisco, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Kansas City, Chicago, Toronto, New York and Washington.

Sir Peter's Symphony No. 4 was premiered in the 1989 BBC Promenade Concerts. He has recently completed a new full-length ballet, Caroline Mathilde, for the Royal Danish Ballet, which was premiered in Copenhagen in March, 1991. Maxwell Davies's music has been recorded on numerous labels, including Decca, EMI, Philips, Deutsche Grammophon and CBS, and he has a special association with Unicorn-Kanchana.

THE FIRES OF LONDON
Throughout its twenty-year existence (1967-87) The Fires of London was regarded as one of the world's outstanding chamber ensembles. The group played all over the world, including every major international festival. The Fires' impact started from their celebrated staged performance of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, with Mary Thomas as soloist, conducted by the group's Artistic Director, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. This was followed by Davies's own Eight Songs for Mad King, Vesalii icones, Miss Donnithorne's Maggot and Le Jongleur de Notre Dame, which together virtually established the genre of music-theatre in the sixties and seventies, and continued with his chamber operas, The Martyrdom of St. Magnus and The Lighthouse, and the 'apocalyptic comedy' The No. 11 Bus.

But the legendary Fires virtuosity, teamwork and commitment also informed their performances of pure chamber music, beginning with the Schoenberg/Webern Kammersymphonie, Opus 9, continuing with Maxwell Davies's Hymn to St. Magnus, Ave Maris Stella and Image, Reflection, Shadow and branching out to Elliott Carter's Triple Duo , the flagship of a long list of works, by other composers of every generation, called into being by the Fires.

The ensemble's life-history ended on January 29,1987 with a sold-out Fires' Farewell/Twentieth Birthday Gala Concert in London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, since which time all of its members continue to enjoy varied and flourishing careers.