Maxwell Davies: 2nd Violin Concerto "Fiddler on the Shore" Part 1/3

Peter Maxwell Davies: Violin Concerto No. 2
Fiddler on the Shore
Recording from the world première 22/08/2009 at Gewandhaus Leipzig, Germany
Conducted by the composer himself.
Part 1/3
Programme Note:
My second violin concerto was born one day when I took a walk with a local traditional fiddle player along the shore near my house on the island of Sanday, Orkney, Scotland (population about 500). There is a strong tradition of folk music in Sanday, with a flourishing fiddle club, for whom I have composed quite a lot of music in folk style: they play for dances, and give concerts. However, these traditions are under threat from contemporary commercial music, and the shore walk, where the sound of folk tunes on violin combined with the sounds of the sea, brought home the bigger threat of climate change: it is reckoned that one of the first places to disappear under the sea due to climate change will be Sanday, and that my house, so close to the water, will be one of the very first to be inundated.

So the new work is at the same time a celebration of Orkney traditional fiddle music, and of the sheer wonder and beauty of the sea, whose sound permeates every moment of your life, and also a meditation on the fragility of this music under modern pressures, and the vulnerability of a sandy island in the way of ever-rising seas, as icecaps melt.

The work is in one movement, whose mercurial changes of pace and mood reflect the extremely quickly changing weather patterns of the island, while at the same time reflecting and celebrating the contrasting emotional moods of the slow air, strathspey and reel.

I wished to end the work on an affirmative and positive note I did my best however, I felt that under the circumstances, with whole futures in doubt, it was only honest to end with a question mark: the music literally dissolves quietly into the sea.

© Peter Maxwell Davies

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Peter
• Maxwell
• Davies
• violin
• concerto
• Sanday
• Orkney
• Scotland
• fiddle
• climate
• change
• sea
• Mendelssohn
• Bartholdy

[orkneyproperty64]

I Have met Max on several occasions ,a nice chap indeed , very friendly.

[violaXplayer]

@cheamverdi there is a reason why this music is here and its not to be forced to write it, its to expand your music so you don't have to use V and I and another thing Davies is a genius, he is truly the prime example of 20th century composition.

[pointreyes6]

I hope this comes out on CD or as a download.

[cheamverdi]

I am a composer who had to endure while studying composition the almost fascist atonal dominance(which still exists) in academia of composers like Davies. His 'serious' complex music is some of the most unmusical classical music I have heard.That is why the public are not interested-it just is'nt musical.I often listen to Stravinsky,Honegger,Adams so am no prude. He also produces as an opposite extreme really  bad pseudo folk music like 'Stromness'. Overrated is an understatement.

[amatorynumber]

@ColinMoss what do you mean? can you clarify? I think he is astonishingly good and a seems to be a very nice and simple guy by all accounts I have heard (some personal ones too)

[Viscamo]

A superb composer in my opinion. Fantastic orchestration, a hint of romanticism and expressionism. Large view. Brilliant

[ColinMoss]

in my opinion?

A very good composer yes, but one who sometimes lets his ego overtake good judgement.

[laurion69]

@ColinMoss

And in your opinion?

[ColinMoss]

A great composer - in his opinion