Peter Maxwell Davies’s later music powerfully evokes the isolated majesty of his Orkney island home, yet it also bears witness to his talent for friendship – to his associations, both personal and musical, with friends and supporters in Scotland and further afield.
The first disc in the recording partnership between Hebrides Ensemble and Delphian Records presents Sir James MacMillan’s extraordinary setting – by turns intimate and dramatic – of the Resurrection story as told in St John’s Gospel.
Songs of Courtship were set to music by Bevan Baker in 1992 for the Black Isle Singers. The poems, written by Mao Shih in the 7th century BC, were translated from the Ancient Chinese in 1946 by Arthur Waley. John loved them and maintained that they had ‘a simple directness which could have been written Yesterday'.
The internationally-acclaimed Hebrides Ensemble release Messiaen: Chamber Works to celebrate the centenary of the innovative composer. Including Quatuor pour la fin du Temps and the recorded premiere of Fantaisie.
Cresswell's music blends a background of western classical music with the Maori heritage of his birthplace New Zealand, and the Salvation Army bands of his Wellington childhood.