Maxwell Davies: Miss Donnithorne's Maggot & Eight Songs for a Mad King

The performances are astonishingly accomplished (and the earlier of the two pieces is as much a pretext for astonishing performance as anything else)………. The Fires of London, in both their 1970... — Gramophone Magazine More…

Release Date: 13th May 2016
Catalogue No: DKPCD9052
Label: Unicorn

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Davies, Peter Maxwell: Miss Donnithorne's Maggot

Premiere Recording
Mary Thomas (mezzo-soprano)
The Fires of London
Peter Maxwell Davies

Davies, Peter Maxwell: Eight Songs for a Mad King

Julius Eastman (baritone)
The Fires of London
Peter Maxwell Davies

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In repertoire terms, this Unicorn release is unrivalled. Peter Maxwell Davies’ exploration of extreme mental states finds the Fires of London and Mary Thomas in fine fettle.

'Eight Songs for a Mad King' is a monodrama by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies with a libretto by Randolph Stow, based on words of George III. The work was written for the South-African actor Roy Hart and the composer's ensemble the Pierrot Players, and premiered on 22 April 1969. Lasting half an hour, it is scored for a baritone, with an extraordinary command of extended techniques covering more than five octaves, and six players. The songs derive from tunes played by an extant mechanical organ owned by George III, tunes that he attempted to train bullfinches to sing. Miss Donnithorne was an Australian lady, apparently one of the models for Miss Havisham in Dickens's Great Expectations; jilted at the last minute, she became a recluse, and Davies's piece discovers her ranting among the remnants of her wedding cake, which is decorated with instrumentalists. Like the mad king, she has eight songs. 'Miss Donnithorne's Maggot' was premiered by these artists in Adelaide in 1974. A true testimony to the late composer’s art.

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The performances are astonishingly accomplished (and the earlier of the two pieces is as much a pretext for astonishing performance as anything else)………. The Fires of London, in both their 1970 and 1984 line-ups, play with extraordinary pungency and precision, and both recordings have an alarming immediacy.

Maxwell Davies: Miss Donnithorne's Maggot & Eight Songs for a Mad King

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