Obituary, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies 1934-2016

The English composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies has died aged 81, following a long struggle with leukaemia. An astoundingly prolific and versatile composer whose collective output ran to over 300 compositions, his legacy includes ten symphonies, a cycle of string quartets for the Maggini Quartet (commissioned by and named for the Naxos label), eight operas (the last, Kommilitonen!, was premiered just five years ago), and numerous music-theatre works and songs.

Born in Salford in 1934 and educated at the Royal Northern College of Music, ‘Max’ received compositional tuition from Milton Babbitt and Goffredo Petrassi and support and endorsements from Benjamin Britten and Aaron Copland, and taught at a Gloucestershire grammar school for several years after graduation before furthering his studies in the US and Australia. His early triumphs included the searing Eight Songs for a Mad King (a one-man opera setting words by King George III) and his first opera Taverner (conceived during his early studies in Manchester and germinating from fragments of the Renaissance composer’s In Nomine, it was premiered at Covent Garden in 1972).

Davies relocated to the Orkney Islands in the early 1970s, and from then on much of his music was shot through with a strong sense of place, both in terms of the landscape and the community which surrounded him. A passionate environmentalist, several of his best-known compositions were inspired by his beloved Scotland, including the Strathclyde Concertos, and Orkney Wedding and Sunrise, and the Farewell to Stromness: the latter, from The Yellow Cake Revue, was conceived as part of a protest against uranium mining in Orkney. Other notable works include ten symphonies, Eight Songs for a Mad King, the witty, louche symphonic poem Mavis in Las Vegas (inspired by a mix-up regarding his name at a hotel reception-desk!), the monodrama Miss Donnithorne's Maggot (based on the story which inspired Dickens to create Miss Havisham in Great Expectations), and the 1980 opera The Lighthouse.

Davies was intensely politically engaged throughout his life, and his relationship with the English establishment remained an uneasy one even as he steadily accrued official accolades: he was knighted in 1987 and appointed Master of the Queen’s Music in 2004, but came very close to renouncing his knighthood at one point in the early 90s in protest against Arts Council cuts and vehemently opposed the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq both in person and via his music - the Ninth Symphony, given its London premiere at the 2012 BBC Proms, is in many respects a savage critique of military bombast. (Posterity doesn’t record whether the infamous incident in which he received a police caution for making terrine from a swan (legally ‘property of the Crown’) which had flown into power-cables on his property adversely affected his relationship with Her Majesty; given that he remained in his position for a good few years afterwards, we presume not!)

Davies was also an eminent conductor (he had a ten-year relationship with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in his dual capacities as composer and conductor, and worked with many of the world's other leading orchestras, including the Gewandhausorchester and Boston Symphony Orchestra) as well as an inspirational educator and ambassador for music: he founded the St Magnus Festival in Orkney in 1977 (several years after moving to the Islands), and spent five years as Artistic Director of Dartington International Summer School in the early 80s. Education and community were central preoccupations throughout his career, with works for children including the music-theatre work Dinosaurs at Large and Cinderella.

A particular highlight from among his recent compositions was his Symphony No. 10, completed in 2013 and largely written whilst he was undergoing his leukaemia treatment. Subtitled “Alla ricerca di Borromini”, it was inspired by the 17th-century architect, Francesco Borromini, and is a large work for baritone, chorus, and orchestra. It received its premiere in February 2014, with Antonio Pappano conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, a magnificent performance which has thankfully been preserved on the orchestra’s own label, LSO Live. Even in the last few months he was still busy composing; the LSO are also due to perform the world premiere of his children’s opera, The Hogboon, in June this year, conducted by Simon Rattle.

Tributes which have flooded in today testify to a warm, witty and gregarious man who combined fierce integrity with generosity of spirit and an infectious sense of joie de vivre. He will be much missed by musicians and audiences alike.

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies - some key works