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Peter Maxwell Davies: Naxos Quartets 9 & 10

These two quartets mark the end of a remarkable achievement by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, namely the composition of a cycle of ten string quartets within a five-year period. As a member of the Maggini Quartet, Outram worked closely with the composer throughout the period 2002-8. Davies was present at early rehearsals and he collaborated with the performers in public workshops on each new quartet before the premiere performances. He was also present at the recording sessions. These interactions often focused on the characterization of the musical fabric, including the negotiation of tempi, discussion of structural relationships, and the sharing of Davies’s inspiration for particular sections.

Challenges in the preparation of the quartets included the development of extensive cueing strategies; equally vital was the ability to respond to the extremely complex rhythmic texture of much of the music, requiring a thorough internalization of the musical landscape. Naxos Quartet No 9 was uniquely challenging in that the composer chose to specify the speed and nature of vibrato to be used at various points. In the fourth movement he achieved a unique effect when diatonic intervals of fourths and fifths are spanned via equal intervals of only three and four notes respectively. Naxos Quartet No 10, although not as technically challenging, presented an interesting twist: the composer chose to base the work on the idea of a Baroque suite, but using Scottish dances. This generated a far lighter, more texturally open work. Its theatricality was self-evident and the use of certain rhythms which had been ubiquitous throughout the cycle seemed here to be totally 'at home' in this lighter-weight and more modest context.