Ave Maris Stella: Chamber Music by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies Shop Now

The Wire

Composed in 1975, the instrumental sextet Ave Maris Stella is one of the composer’s greatest achievements. A single 30-minute movement based on the plainchant of the same name, its haunting soundworld, with marimba prominent, was created by Davies after his move to Orkney a few years earlier. The Gemini Ensemble make this tough, knotty composition – in a kind of serial structure, a ‘magic square’ or matrix generates a cantus firmus for each section – totally compelling.

While his avant garde credentials have been overshadowed by those of now dominant colleague Harrison Birtwistle, this composition shows how radical Maxwell Davies could be.  Three short pieces – a paraphrase of Psalm 124, Dove, Star-Folded and Economies of Scale – complete the disc.

—Andy Hamilton

@divineartrecordingsgroup

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