Original version

BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Migrated podcast image for: Composer Of The Week

Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Peter Maxwell Davies (1934-2016)

Composer of the Week: Peter Maxwell Davies (1934-2016): Episode 5: Rage Against the Dying of the Light

Back to the Future

Episode 5

Episode 5: Rage Against the Dying of the Light

Peter Maxwell Davies (1934-2016)

Rage Against the Dying of the Light

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Peter Maxwell Davies (1934-2016), Rage Against the Dying of the Light

Donald Macleod explores Peter Maxwell Davies's late works from the 21st century.

Donald Macleod on Maxwell Davies's remarkable journey from enfant terrible to Master of the Queen's Music, as well as his music for the Anglican liturgy and his last symphony.

Donald Macleod explores the music of Peter Maxwell Davies, who died a year ago this week at the age of 81. The contribution this former Master of the Queen's Music had made to the musical life of these islands as a hugely prolific composer, performer and teacher, is incalculable. Born in Salford in the 1930s, one of the composer's first musical memories was listening to foxtrot records under his parents' staircase as the bombs were falling during the Second World War. In the 1960s he was considered the 'enfant terrible' of new British music, writing the soundtrack for Ken Russell's controversial film 'The Devils' and even provoking an audience walk-out during the BBC Proms. However his music and life was to change as he came under the spell of the desolate Orkney islands, which he first visited in the early 1970s before moving there a few years later for the rest of his life.

By the turn of the twenty-first century, Maxwell Davies had completed a remarkable journey from enfant terrible to a highly decorated figure within the music world. A lifelong republican, he received a knighthood before taking the post of Master of the Queen's Music from 2004 for a decade. He insisted that by taking these titles his voice and opinions would carry more weight. He spoke out against the closure of music libraries and the declining standard of music education in British schools. His music was never shy of tackling environmental issues or reflecting his pacifism, as in his third Naxos Quartet, written at the outset of the Iraq war in 2003. 


Fanfare for Lowry
The Wallace Collection

Naxos Quartet No.3 (first movement)
Maggini Quartet

Magnificat and Nunc Dimitis (The Edinburgh Service)
Michael Bonaventure, organ
Choir of St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh
Matthew Owens, conductor

Symphony No.10 (part four)
Markus Butter, baritone
London Symphony Chorus
London Symphony Orchestra
Antonio Pappano, conductor

Lullaby for Lucy 
Choir of St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh
Peter Maxwell Davies, conductor.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of Peter Maxwell Davies

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of Peter Maxwell Davies, a hugely prolific composer, performer and teacher. While he was once an 'enfant terrible', his music changed after moving ot Orkney

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Composer of the Week

Peter Maxwell Davies (1934-2016)

Episode 5: Rage Against the Dying of the Light

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3