PETER MAXWELL DAVIES (b. 1934)

 

Naxos Quartets Nos. 7 and 8

 

Naxos Quartet No. 7: Metafore sul Borromini

(For Archie Bevan on his 80th birthday)

I. Adagio molto: S. Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, I

II. Adagio: S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini, Chiesa Inferiore

III. Lento molto: S. Giovanni in Laterano

IV. Adagio - Oratorio dei Filippini (L’Alzato della Balustrata della Loggia d’Ingresso e Trabeazione)

V. Lento: S. Ivo alla Sapienza

VI. Adagio: Scorsa Secolare - Palazzo Falconieri

VII. Adagio: Postludio - S. Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, II

 

Naxos Quartet No. 8

(Dedicated to Her Majesty The Queen on her 80th birthday)

 

Maggini Quartet: Laurence Jackson (violin 1), David Angel (violin 2), Martin Outram (viola), Michal Kaznowski (cello)

 

Peter Maxwell Davies is universally acknowledged as one of the foremost composers of our time, and is currently Master of the Queen’s Music.

 

Plainchant, musical tradition and the haunting landscape of his adopted Orkney Islands all serve as inspiration to Maxwell Davies’ extraordinary and fecund imagination. This is the fourth release in a series of ten quartets commissioned by Naxos.

 

Naxos Quartet No. 7 (2005) is a tribute to the Baroque architect Francesco Borromini. Its intense and brooding seven movements are contrasted by the bright and airy single-movement Quartet No. 8 (2005), based on John Dowland’s Queen Elizabeth’s Galliard, and dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of her eightieth birthday.

 

Praise for Quartets 5 & 6: “The Maggini Quartet plays with deep commitment and complete technical command. The recording is attractive and clear.”

Classics Today

 

Naxos 8557399