Symphony No. 2 St Thomas Wake BBC Philharmonic • Maxwell Davies Peter Maxwell Davies (b. 1934) musical simplicity by these means, but that tonality might first. After an introduction a theme on cellos has virtuoso Symphony No. 2 • St Thomas Wake be extended to furnish new methods of cohesion, if it is “doubles” on bassoon, horn, oboe and . understood modally, and not necessarily in relation to a The third movement, with scherzo and trio Symphony No. 2 the contour is obviously wave-shaped, and the static form bass line, and as of potentially multiple musical characteristics, has the same tonality as the second, (commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and changing melodic and rhythmic content are carefully significance at any given moment – then it need not reflect except that the A is natural. Its form consists of super- and to celebrate its Centenary) underlined. In contrast, at the opening of the third a unifying confidence of outlook characteristic of the juxtapositions of modular “blocks” of material, the content movement, the repeating identities of the rhythmic and greatest period of its former exploration, which would be of which is at first constant, but eventually subject to At the foot of the cliff before my window, the Atlantic and melodic figures clarify the changing forms of their inimical to contemporary experience. interior transformation processes, and whose shapes the North Sea meet, with all the complex interweaving of successive statements. A certain thematic unity is provided throughout by the themselves are subject to “wave-motion”, and designed to currents and wave shapes, and the conflicts of weather, Deeper in the structure, but I hope still articulate, are use of the plainsong Nativitas Tua, Dei Genetrix – proper interlock ever more closely. that such an encounter implies. large-scale “pointers”, like the surfacing of parallel to the birthday of the Virgin Mary, which happens to be my The finale starts with passacaglia characteristics, in B Symphony No. 2 is not only a direct response to the climactic points of the design in the second and third own birthday; this Symphony is a birthday gift for the minor – a long, slow melody for strings. The pace and sounds of the ocean’s extreme proximity, subtly movements accelerating strokes and, in the fourth Virgin. material gradually transform to parallel the first permeating all of one’s existence – from the gentlest of movement, the transformation of what starts starts a slow The plainsong is subject to two kinds of movement, and then evolve further into a tone finale. Aeolian harp vibrations as the waves strike the cliffs on movement into a real allegro finale. transformation process – first, where the intervallic Towards the end, for the first time in the whole work, the D the other side of the bay in calm weather, to explosive It is tempting, but, I feel, pressing an analogy too far, content is gradually and systematically modified to reach tonality – hitherto only touched as a step between B and E shudders through the very fabric of the house, as huge to discuss perceptions of wave-motion – the time-cycles an inversion or retrograde (again, a reference to wave sharp, – comes into its own, in preparation for the final boulders grind over each other directly below the garden, of tides and their transforming heights and intensities motion) and second, by subjection to permutation by the cadence on the minor third, B and D. during the most violent westerly gales – but also a more depending on the moon’s cycle – but it is probably useful, magic squares of the Sun and of Mars. (These are The Symphony was composed in 1980. An amusing considered response to the architecture of its forms. in a short note, to discuss the tonality of the Symphony, arrangements of sequences of numbers arranged into tailpiece – at the very moment that I wrote the final drum- I have observed two basic wave types of potential which is the direct musical expression of these squares, so that by reading the square in particular ways, strokes, there was a tremendous, thunderous rock-fall interest – that where the wave-shape moves through the perceptions. arithmetical constants are given – they are a gift to from the cliff at the other side of the bay, opposite my sea, while the water remains (basically) static – as when Tonality is surely not merely a matter of using a major composers if used very simply as an architectural module, windows. I was very shaken, and hope it is without “breakers” roll in towards a shoreline (moving form, static or minor triad on the music’s surface – it is a system of and their astrological overtones are attractive and significance. content of wave) – and that where the wave-shape is organization, through every aspect of a work, which intriguing.) static and constant, while the water moves through it – as enunciates it as a coherent whole, governing not only The instrumental writing throughout is virtuoso, Peter Maxwell Davies when an obstacle, a sea-wreck, for example, protrudes melody and harmony, but rhythm and architecture. although the orchestra used is not particularly large. The through the surface of a tide race, making a plaited wave- The Symphony is in B minor. The dominant I have percussion section is perhaps unusual, in that it has only shape behind it (static form, moving content of waves). used throughout, however, is F, or rather E sharp, to be tuned instruments – , , and St Thomas Wake While I was first working on the musical potentialities syntactically correct, exploiting the implied semitonal , which, together with the harp, function as a kind in these two extremely different wave types and the conflict with the historic, almost instinctive dominant of F of gamelan, and carry as much of the musical argument The subtitle of St Thomas Wake, Foxtrot for orchestra on various interactions between them, I came upon André sharp, which is always in the background of our musical as any other division of the orchestra. a pavan by John Bull, encapsulates the multi-layered Gide’s exact observation of the same phenomenon, noted consciousness. The musical space of the tritone B - E The four movements follow the old symphonic plan in premise of this extraordinary work. Musically, a series of in an early diary, while on holiday on France’s north sharp is slowly explored throughout the work, being filled outline. In the first, after an introduction containing the invented foxtrots is placed inside a serious orchestral coast, and also upon Leonardo da Vinci’s precise in by pivotal steps of a minor third, against the implied germ-cells of all the material for the whole Symphony, piece in Maxwell Davies’s own style. Underpinning them sketches of both wave types. cycles of the fifths around B and F minors. This might there is a quick sonata movement, with transformation both is the pavan St Thomas Wake by the These two formulations governed the composition of sound naively simple – but I am convinced that to support processes in place of a tone development, and a sixteenth/seventeenth-century English composer. The the new Symphony, in small architectural detail, and also a complex structure spanning four substantial systematic exploration of the B - E sharp pivot only musical elements are reflected by the performing forces, a in long-time spans over whole movements, and more. For movements, an extremely basic unifying hypothesis is throughout, rather than a statement of a tonal centre, ‘period’ band seated apart from a full symphony example, after the short slow introduction, the first necessary, if the ear is to be able to relate surface detail. I followed by a moving away from a return to that centre. orchestra, with further visual definition given by the band’s movement proper starts with six ‘antecedent’ phrases on hope, however, that there is here no easy return to old The second movement is slow, in F minor, with the C attire of ‘boater’ hats and striped blazers. horns, with ‘consequent’ phrases on , where even tonality – I feel there can be no short cuts to a new flat (B natural) functioning tonally as the E sharp did in the As a bravura exercise in parody, Maxwell Davies had already recast pavans as foxtrots in his Purcell Fantasia up fragments of disintegrating ideas, we reach the work’s BBC Philharmonic and Two Pavans (1968), thereby ‘refurbishing one dead high central plateau: a sequence of five foxtrots, each in a dance-form in terms of another, in that sense just as distinct style. Behind and between them the orchestra The BBC Philharmonic is part of the BBC’s dead’. In St Thomas Wake this process takes on a deeper suggests an eerie and threatening presence, which family of six performing groups, and tours dimension. Maxwell Davies recalls listening to foxtrots on eventually erupts in another intense ‘commentary’ on all widely in the United Kingdom and a wind-up gramophone while sheltering in a pantry during five foxtrots. On the crest of this arrives a final foxtrot, internationally. Most concerts are the Second World War bombardment of his native against which we hear Bull’s pavan on the harp. The broadcast live or recorded for BBC Radio Manchester. The foxtrots in St Thomas, heard in relation foxtrot continues, but the orchestra gradually generates a 3. The BBC Philharmonic was founded in to the orchestra’s commentary, graphically convey this tidal wave of sound that finally engulfs it. The ‘victorious’ 1934 as the BBC Northern Orchestra, and grim association. But, from another angle, he hears them orchestra provides the work’s climax and dissolution – but changed its name to the BBC Philharmonic as escapist: the failure of between-the-wars popular at the last moment the bubbles of a ‘ghost’ foxtrot arrive at in 1982. It has recently moved from music to reflect the political/moral climate of its time the surface on a dominant seventh arpeggio question Manchester to nearby MediaCityUK in becomes a metaphor for the meeting of any extreme mark. Salford Quays, joining other programme experience with a state of denial. St Thomas Wake could, Throughout the work Maxwell Davies uses the departments at the BBC’s new Northern for instance, evoke the sinking of the Titanic, in which jangling, disembodied sound of the honky-tonk to suggest base. Its main concert series continues at music and dancing reportedly continued in the ship’s the surreal, hallucinatory, ‘expressionist’ quality of his The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. ballroom long after the impact with the iceberg. The wartime memories (including a ‘half awake nightmare’ of Juanjo Mena took up the post of Chief potential interpretation of the title as either ‘St rats swarming up the chimney) or the special flavour of a Conductor at the start of the 2011/12 Thomas,Wake!’ (‘Awake’) or ‘St Thomas’ Wake’ (‘The 1940s dance-hall, whose gloom, smoke and fusty season, succeeding Gianandrea Noseda Wake of St Thomas’), together with an implied subtext uniforms are evoked with the same decadence as the who led the orchestra for nearly ten years concerning ‘Doubting Thomas’, reveals the work’s true ballrooms of a century earlier in Ravel’s La Valse. and is now Conductor Laureate. John subject to be the shifting relationship of ‘reality’ and St Thomas Wake was commissioned by the City of Storgårds is now the orchestra’s Principal illusion. Dortmund. It was first performed there by the Dortmund Guest Conductor, and the distinguished At the outset, Bull’s pavan is already heard Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the composer, on Austrian composer H.K. Gruber is the metamorphosing into a slow foxtrot. The orchestra 2nd June, 1969. Photo: Sussie Ahlburg orchestra’s Composer/Conductor. The responds with a commentary of impressively controlled BBC Philharmonic has made over 200 violence. After a slow dissolution, in which the band takes © 1991 Stephen Pruslin recordings with Chandos Records. The orchestra is supported by Salford City Council, enabling it to build active links in the area through a busy learning and community programme.

bbc.co.uk/philharmonic Twitter @bbcphilharmonic Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Second Symphony is his ‘Sea Symphony’, a complex, virtuosic work that explores in absorbing, increasingly dynamic fashion, the ocean’s proximity and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies what the composer calls ‘the architecture of its forms’. Both themes and orchestration are masterly. The percussion section is richly voiced, adding considerably to the symphony’s Universally acknowledged as one of the foremost composers of our time, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies very particular, rugged and varied sound world. St Thomas Wake, by contrast, is a has made a significant contribution to musical disquieting but bravura exercise in parody, evoking memories of the composer’s history through his wide-ranging and prolific experiences during the Second World War. output. He lives in the Islands off the north coast of Scotland, where he writes most of Sir Peter his music. In a work list spanning more than five decades, he has written across a broad range of styles, yet his music always communicates MAXWELL DAVIES directly and powerfully, whether in his profoundly (b. 1934) argued symphonic works, his music-theatre works or witty light orchestral works. Maxwell Davies’ major dramatic works Symphony No. 2 • St Thomas Wake include two full-length ballets, music-theatre works Eight Songs for a Mad King and Miss Symphony No. 2 (1980) 56:02 Donnithorne’s Maggot, and operas including 1 I. Allegro molto – Allegro 16:52 Photo: John Batten , , , and Kommilitonen! (Young 2 II. Adagio 16:15 Blood!). His huge output of orchestral work comprises numerous symphonies and concerti, and light orchestral works 3 such as An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise and Mavis in Las Vegas. His substantial chamber and instrumental III. Allegro molto, leggiero 9:30 catalogue includes the landmark cycle of ten string quartets, the , described in the Financial Times as 4 IV. Adagio, flessible – Poco più mosso – “one of the most impressive musical statements of our time”. Più mosso – Moderato – Allegro 13:25 Maxwell Davies has held the position of Composer/Conductor with both the Royal Philharmonic and BBC Philharmonic Orchestras. He has guest-conducted orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony 5 Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Russian National Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic St Thomas Wake (1969) 20:38 and Philharmonia Orchestra. He retains close links with the St Magnus Festival, Orkney’s annual arts festival which he Foxtrot for orchestra on a pavan by John Bull founded in 1977, is Composer Laureate of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and is Visiting Professor at London’s Royal Academy of Music and Christchurch University Canterbury. Maxwell Davies was knighted in 1987 and appointed Master of the Queen’s Music in 2004, in which rôle he seeks BBC Philharmonic • Maxwell Davies to raise the profile of music in Great Britain, as well as writing many works for Her Majesty the Queen and for royal occasions. Previously released on Collins Classics in 1991 and 1994

www.maxopus.com Recorded by arrangement with BBC North at Studio 7, New Broadcasting House, Manchester, UK, www.intermusica.co.uk/maxwelldavies in September 1993 (tracks 1-4), and live at the 47th Cheltenham International Festival of Music, Cheltenham Town Hall, Gloucestershire, UK, on 12th and 13th July, 1991 (track 5) Producer: Veronica Slater • Engineer: John Timperley Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers, Ltd. Booklet Notes: Peter Maxwell Davies and Stephen Pruslin Cover photograph by Doug Houghton (www.doughoughton.com)