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Peter Maxwell Davies Eigentliche Grund Dafür Klar: Ich Wollte Keinen Dicken Deutsche Fassung: Cris Posslac

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Peter Maxwell Davies Eigentliche Grund Dafür Klar: Ich Wollte Keinen Dicken Deutsche Fassung: Cris Posslac 557400 bk Max 14/7/08 10:53 Page 4 diszipliniert, wobei, wie ich glaube, durch die recht schwarzen Schluss-Strich ziehen, wollte nicht, dass das genaue und komplexe Arbeit mit magischen Quadraten ein letztes Quartett sein soll. Ich musste die Tür offen einige Ordnung entstanden ist. lassen: Mir hat die Arbeit an den Naxos-Quartetten so PETER Ich habe auch auf das dritte Naxos Quartet viel Freude gemacht (und ich habe dabei vielleicht sogar verwiesen. Dort habe ich dem Violoncello einen Vers das eine oder andere gelernt), dass theoretisch daraus von Michelangelo unterlegt, der mit den Worten noch mehr entstehen könnte. MAXWELL DAVIES beginnt: Caro me il sonno, e più l’esser di sasso („Der Eine weitere Versuchung bestand darin, in einer Schlaf ist mir teuer, und von Stein zu sein, ist teurer“). feierlichen Abschiedssequenz auf jedes der vorigen In diesem Gedicht beklagt der Dichter, dass er im Quartette anzuspielen, wie ich das im letzten der zehn römischen Exil leben muss – fern seines Heimatstaates Strathclyde Concertos für das Scottish Chamber Naxos Quartets Nos. 9 and 10 Florenz, dessen Regierung er wegen ihrer Orchestra getan hatte. Ich hielt stand. Zwar ist der dritte „Rechtsverletzung und Schande“ tadelt. Satz als Passamezzo Farewell bezeichnet, doch ohne Der zweite Satz ist auch jetzt (wie die ursprüngliche alle Wehmut – wenngleich es durchaus Rückblicke gibt. Maggini Quartet Skizze) ein Largo, in dem der erste Teil des Kopfsatzes Der erste Satz ist ein Broken Reel. Die Umrisse der langsam durchgeführt wird, heftig unterbrochen von der Tanzform sind vorhanden, die Rhythmen aber sind verworfenen Musik, die hier integriert und verstärkt gebrochen, derweil hinter der barocken Oberfläche eine erscheint. „Sonatenform“ herumgeistert. Die Sätze III, IV und V bilden so etwas wie ein Der zweite, sehr kurze Satz ist eine Slow Air and unabhängiges Miniaturquartett innerhalb des Quartetts. Rant. Der Rant fußt auf einer „echten“ schottischen Ich denke sie mir wie ein kurzes Schauspiel im Weise – die Ironie ist offensichtlich. Schauspiel, wie etwa bei Hamlet und dem Traum: Die Das Passamezzo Farewell ist ein umfänglicherer Groteske wird sehr deutlich. Es handelt sich um ein Satz, eine Meditation sowohl über den Passamezzo der Scherzo, ein Lento und einen Militärmarsch. Renaissance wie auch über die letzten mezzi di passare. Der sechste Satz hat sehr viel von einem Finale, das Der vierte Satz ist wiederum sehr kurz – ein die gesamte harmonische Auseinandersetzung plötzlicher Ausbruch, in dem das, was der Passamezzo zusammenfasst und verdichtet. impliziert, zusammengefasst ist. Erst am Ende wird die Dem Quartett ist eine Zeile aus dem apokryphen Melodie „Deil Stick da Minister“ zitiert, eine anonyme Buch der Sprüche vorangestellt: Omnis in mensura et Komposition aus der Zeit, als die protestantische Kirche numero et pondere disposuisti – „Doch Du hast alles Schottlands vergeblich alle Tanzmusik zu verbieten nach Maß und Zahl und Gewicht geordnet“. versuchte. Das Naxos Quartet Nr. 10 ist dem Gedenken an Das Finale ist ein Hornpipe in der neueren Art, wie Fausto Moroni gewidmet. man ihn nach Purcell verstand. Wenn es klar wird, dass Die wichtige Entscheidung angesichts dieses letzten der Satz enden könnte, bleibt die Auflösung der Fantasie Quartetts für Naxos Records war, ob es ein grandioses des Hörers überlassen: Der Tanz hört einfach mit einer Finale werden sollte oder nicht. Es war zwar schwebenden Geste auf. Das ist kein Finale – der verführerisch, etwas noch größeres als die Quartette Nr. Hornpipe könnte direkt zum Anfang des ersten Naxos 6, 7 und 9 zu schaffen, doch dann beschloss ich, ein Quartet zurückführen – oder zu etwas, das noch gar bescheidenes Werk zu schreiben, das auf der barocken nicht geschrieben ist. Der abschließende Doppelstrich Suite beruht, dabei aber anstelle von Bourées und fehlt. Allemanden schottische Tänze benutzt. Nach Abschluss des Werkes wurde mir der © 2007 Peter Maxwell Davies eigentliche Grund dafür klar: Ich wollte keinen dicken Deutsche Fassung: Cris Posslac 8.557400 4 557400 bk Max 14/7/08 10:53 Page 2 Peter Maxwell Davies (b. 1934) The Passamezzo Farewell is a more extended The finale is a hornpipe, in the more recent, post- Naxos Quartets Nos. 9 and 10 movement – a meditation not only on the nature of the Purcellian sense. When it becomes clear how the Renaissance Passamezzo, but on ultimate mezzi di movement might finish, the resolution is left to the The Ninth Naxos Quartet is dedicated to Dame Kathleen of them as a short play-within-a-play, remembering passare. listener’s imagination: the dance is simply stopped, with Ollerenshaw, mathematician extraordinary, and Hamlet and the Dream: the grotesquery will be very The fourth movement is again very brief – a sudden a suspended gesture. This is not a finale – the hornpipe sometime Lord Mayor of Manchester, both of which apparent. They are, respectively, a ‘scherzo’, a ‘lento’ outburst, a summary of implications in the Passamezzo. could lead straight back to the opening of Naxos Quartet attributes have influenced the content of this work. and a ‘military march’. The tune ‘Deil Stick da Minister’, composed No. 1, or into something as yet unwritten. There is no Dame Kathleen dedicated her recent book ‘Constructing The sixth movement is very much a Finale, summing anonymously when the Scottish Protestant Church was double bar-line. pandiagonal magic squares of arbitrarily large size’ to up, and clinching the whole harmonic argument. trying in vain to ban all dance music – is only quoted at me, so this is some kind of reciprocal present. At the head of the quartet is a line from the the end. © 2007 Peter Maxwell Davies There are six movements. The first two form a unit apocryphal Book of Wisdom: - ‘Omnis in mensura et together, but what is now the first movement was numero et pondere disposuisti’ - ‘Thou hast ordered all originally going to be two separate movements. The things in measure, and number and weight.’ The Maggini Quartet resulting compressed ‘allegro’ is thus undermined by Naxos Quartet No. 10 is dedicated to the memory of intruding slow elements - the effect is a gradual harmonic Fausto Moroni. The Maggini Quartet is one of the finest British string quartets. Renowned for their championship of British repertoire, contamination - lifted from the discarded independent The big decision, upon facing the last of the quartets their acclaimed and ongoing contribution to the Naxos British Music Series has seen the Maggini’s worldwide CD ‘largo’. The distortion is particularly real where intervals for Naxos, was whether this should be a grand finale or sales exceed 100,000. International awards include Gramophone Chamber Music CD of the Year, a Cannes Classical between notes are equally divided into unusual fractions - not. Although the former course was tempting – to make Award and a Diapason d’Or of the Year and they have been nominated twice for Grammy Awards. The Maggini’s say, a minor third encompasses a scale of more than the something even bigger than Quartets Nos. 6, 7 and 9 – commitment to new music has led to important commissions including works by James MacMillan, Robert Simpson, common four chromatic notes, inclusive. I eventually decided to write a modest work, based on Eleanor Alberga, Roxanna Panufnik and Ronald Corp. Their unique five-year collaboration with Sir Peter Maxwell These divisions, on a very personal level, refer back the Baroque suite, but with Scottish dances, rather than Davies has seen them perform and record his ‘Naxos’ Quartets, enthralling audiences and critics alike. The Quartet to the popular music of the early 1940s, whose contours bourées and allemandes. appear regularly in prestigious concert series at home and abroad, and are frequent media broadcasters. They have and rhythms are echoed, as are also the raw sounds of After finishing the work, I realised that the real performed recently in France, Austria, Norway, Sweden and Italy, with a major tour of Denmark in autumn 2008. war-time Manchester that I heard as a small boy, and reason for this was that I did not wish to draw a thick associated with that music - air-raid sirens, the black line at the conclusion – that in no way must this be ‘glissandi’ of falling bombs, the tearing apart of crashing a last quartet. I needed to leave the door open: I had Peter Maxwell Davies (geb. 1934) buildings - but all re-interpreted, sublimated and enjoyed writing the Naxos Quartets so much, and Naxos Quartette Nr. 9 und 10 disciplined within terms of the string quartet, almost a perhaps even learned a thing or two, that more could, in lifetime after the events, with, I trust, some order lent by theory, eventually flourish. Das Naxos Quartet Nr. 9 ist Dame Kathleen dem selbständigen, verworfenen Largo übernommen the quite exacting and elaborate magic square workings. Another temptation was to refer to each of the Ollerenshaw gewidmet, die eine außerordentliche wurden. Die Deformation wird besonders deutlich, wo I have also referred back to Naxos Quartet No. 3, previous quartets in a solemn farewell sequence, as I Mathematikerin ist und zeitweilig auch Oberbürger- Tonintervalle in ungewöhnliche Brüche geteilt werden – where I set Michelangelo’s lines, voicelessly, in the had done in the last of the ten Strathclyde Concertos for meisterin von Manchester war. Diese beiden Tatsachen wenn zum Beispiel eine kleine Terz mehr als die cello, beginning ‘Caro me il sonno, e più l’esser di the Scottish Chamber Orchestra: this was firmly haben den Inhalt der Komposition beeinflusst. Dame üblichen vier chromatischen Tonschritte enthält. sasso’ (Sleep is dear to me, and being of stone is dearer) resisted. Although the third movement is entitled Kathleen hat mir ihr jüngstes Buch gewidmet: „Die Diese Unterteilung wurzelt auf einer sehr concerning his Roman exile from his home state, Passamezzo Farewell, there is no nostalgia – but there Konstruktion pandiagonaler magischer Quadrate von persönlichen Ebene einerseits in der Popmusik der Florence, and criticizing the ‘injury and shame’ of the are backward-reaching references.
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