The Last Island: Chamber Music by Peter Maxwell-Davies

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Maxwell Davies’s intensity of expression is here distilled into chamber music, by turns simple and complex, furious and tender…The disc closes with the composer’s very last work, a brief movement... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2017, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 18th Aug 2017
Catalogue No: DCD34178
Label: Delphian
Length: 76 minutes

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Davies, Peter Maxwell: The Last Island for string sextet

Work length15:41

$4.00

Album only

$7.00

Hebrides Ensemble
Recorded: 27-29 January 2017
Recording Venue: Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Davies, Peter Maxwell: A Postcard from Sanday for solo piano

Work length3:10

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

Philip Moore (piano)
Recorded: 27-29 January 2017
Recording Venue: Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Davies, Peter Maxwell: String Trio

Work length10:02

$3.00

$2.10

$5.25

Zoë Beyers, Catherine Marwood, William Conway
Recorded: 27-29 January 2017
Recording Venue: Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Davies, Peter Maxwell: Two Nocturnes for piano quartet, Op. 307

Work length4:32

$2.00

$2.80

$3.50

Zoë Beyers, Catherine Marwood, William Conway, Philip Moore
Recorded: 27-29 January 2017
Recording Venue: Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

No. 1,

Track length2:46

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

No. 2,

Track length1:46

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

Davies, Peter Maxwell: Lullaby for violin & cello

Work length3:34

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

Zoë Beyers (violin), William Conway (cello)
Recorded: 27-29 January 2017
Recording Venue: Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Davies, Peter Maxwell: Oboe Quartet

Work length16:12

$4.00

Album only

$7.00

Zoë Beyers, Catherine Marwood, William Conway, Emanuel Abbühl
Recorded: 27-29 January 2017
Recording Venue: Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Davies, Peter Maxwell: A Birthday Card for Jennifer for solo piano

Work length0:47

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

Philip Moore (piano)
Recorded: 27-29 January 2017
Recording Venue: Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Davies, Peter Maxwell: Sonata for Violin & Piano

Work length18:05

$4.00

Album only

$7.00

Zoë Beyers (violin), Philip Moore (piano)
Recorded: 27-29 January 2017
Recording Venue: Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Davies, Peter Maxwell: String Quartet Movement

Work length4:42

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

Hebrides Ensemble
Recorded: 27-29 January 2017
Recording Venue: Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

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About

Peter Maxwell Davies’s later music powerfully evokes the isolated majesty of his Orkney island home, yet it also bears witness to his talent for friendship – to his associations, both personal and musical, with friends and supporters in Scotland and further afield. Among the warmest was with William Conway, whom Davies first encountered as principal cellist of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and for whom he wrote the demanding solo part of his second Strathclyde Concerto. And it was for the Hebrides Ensemble, founded by Conway in 1991, that Davies wrote several of the most impressive and personal works to arise from his late engagement with chamber music – a genre in which he had previously worked rarely, here revealed as the 'last island' of this remarkable and prolific composer's output. On its second Delphian album, the Ensemble reciprocates Davies's friendship with definitive performances of works from his last decade, including the single completed movement of a string quartet left unfinished at his death.

Reviews

November 2017

Maxwell Davies’s intensity of expression is here distilled into chamber music, by turns simple and complex, furious and tender…The disc closes with the composer’s very last work, a brief movement from an unfinished string quartet, its radiant finish a touching finale to this powerful disc.

Awards Issue 2017

The unique character of Davies’s late style is grasped and understood in the Hebrides Ensemble’s highly nuanced performances, described by the composer as ‘a crew of a ship that comes into harbour now and again with supplies. And not just the bare essentials. There are always surprises, little treats that one isn’t expecting.’

27th August 2017

This beguiling — even transfigured —sequence of late works by Davies ends with String Quartet Movement (2016), from a quartet unfinished at his death, and suggests a touching symmetry with the outset of his prolific career and the freestanding Quartet Movement of 1952.

27th August 2017

a final, elusive String Quartet Movement that remained unfinished, evaporat[es] into nothing at the close. Prospero-like, Max lays down his manuscripts: the dedicated Hebrides Ensemble, led by cellist William Conway, feel in close and constant touch with the composer.

Classical Music October 2017

These are stand-out, definitive performances, beautifully recorded by this enterprising Scottish label.

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