Peter Maxwell Davies

Peter Maxwell Davies is universally acknowledged as one of the foremost composers of our time, and is currently Master of the Queen’s Music. His musical idiom has been described by The New York Times as a combination of ‘medieval mysticism, modernist rigour and happy accessibility’.

This fifth and final instalment of Maxwell Davies’s 10-quartet cycle commissioned by Naxos opens with Quartet No. 9, dedicated to Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw, mathematician extraordinary, and sometime Lord Mayor of Manchester, both of which attributes have influenced the content of the work.

The composer has written of Quartet No. 10, ‘in no way must this be a last quartet. I needed to leave the door open: I had enjoyed writing the Naxos Quartets so much, and perhaps even learned a thing or two, that more could, in theory, eventually flourish’.

The prize winning Eden Stell Guitar Duo take a new direction with the release of their CD ‘MUSIC FOR AN ISLAND’ BGS117. The Duo’s passion for performance innovation has resulted in a finely crafted and synchronised multimedia concert of music and images inspired by landscapes and locations from around the UK.

The diverse programme covers the length and breadth of the British Isles from the Orkney Isles to the seaside promenade of Eastbourne, taking in the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, leafy Sherwood Forest, and the Beatles’ Liverpool along the way.