Thus said British composer Peter Maxwell Davies, who passed away ten years ago, his Naxos discography comprising twenty-five albums, their programmes ranging from vocal, choral and opera to orchestral, concertante and chamber works. The reputational arc of his career progressed from that of an enfant terrible of British music to the elevated role of Master of the Queen’s Music.

When Naxos commissioned ‘Max’ to write ten string quartets for us – The Naxos Quartets – few could have anticipated what a treasure trove was in the making. Released between September 2004 and September 2008, these were the composer’s opening and closing thoughts on the project:

‘It was architectural challenges which preoccupied me in the composition of the first Naxos Quartet. I am very aware that this is the first in a sequence of ten quartets, which enabled me to think from the outset of an architecture spanning the whole cycle. I feel like a novelist who issues a book chapter by chapter at regular intervals in the pages of a periodical.’

‘The big decision, upon facing the last of the quartets for Naxos, was whether this should be a grand finale or not. I eventually decided to write a modest work, based on the Baroque suite, but with Scottish dances, rather than bourées and allemandes … When it becomes clear how the [finale] might finish, the resolution is left to the listener’s imagination: the dance is simply stopped, with a suspended gesture. This is not a finale—the hornpipe could lead straight back to the opening of Naxos Quartet No. 1, or into something as yet unwritten. There is no double bar-line.’

Watch the creative interplay between the Maggini Quartet and the composer, and dip into the works’ sound worlds via the links that follow.

Watch the video trailer
Recording the Naxos Quartets of Peter Maxwell Davies