Peter Maxwell Davies' Arrangements

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

PETER MAXWELL DAVIES
(b. 1934)
Renaissance & Baroque Realisations
THE FIRES OF LONDON
SIR PETER MAXWELL DAVIES conductor
Mary Thomas, soprano
Philippa Davies, flutelpiccololalto flute
David Campbell, clarinets
Beverley Davison, violin/viola
Alexander Baillie, cello
Timothy Walker, guitar
Stephen Pmslin, pianolharpsichordicelestalhonky-tonklchambero rgan
Gregory Knowles, percussion
Recording Producer: Antony Hodgson
Recording Engineer: Geoffrey Barton
Recording Location: Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London
on 29 - 31 January 1980
Front cover Design: Karl Renner
Nos. 2 & 5 ublished by Chester Music Ltd.
All others pblished & Boosey & Hawkes MusicPublishers Ltd.

Henry Purcell: Fantasia and Two Pavans
Fantasia on a Ground
Pavan in A
Pavan in B-flat

PURCELL Fantasia and Two Pavans (1968)
1) The Fantasia, in Purcell's key of F-major, is presented in the boldest possible colours. Paradoxically, the boisterously updated orchestration (in particular the piccolo doubling at the twe1fth)creates an authentic dimension of its own: a superb impression of the shrill brilliance of a baroque organ.

2 & 3) In a volte-face from this simulated authenticity, the two pavans (in Purcell's keys of A and B-flat major, respectively) are resurrected as foxtrots. Whether or not one finds such treatment outrageous, there is no denying the virtuosity with which this bravura stylistic exercise is carried off, nor the sheer technical acumen that enables the composer to imbed every note of the Purcell originals within the foxtrots. And perhaps any sense of stylistic discomfort can be put to rest by Maxwell Davies's own commonsensical remark that, after all, one dead dance-form is merely being reinterpreted in terms of another.