Nicholas Maw: Spring Music, Voices Of Memory, Sonata For Solo Violin

Description

Nicholas Maw’s most fervent desire was to communicate directly with his audiences and produce material which performers would enjoy playing and Spring Music, written with the express purpose of diverting and entertaining an audience, finds the composer at his most uninhibited and freely expressive. Fresh, colourful and vibrant, this score has the exotic, openhearted spirit of a curtain-raiser. In its final, slimmed-down version, it rapidly became one of Maw’s favourite pieces among his own output and he once described the long-breathed cello-led melody as ‘one of the best tunes I think I’ve actually ever written’. Commissioned by the BBC to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Purcell’s death Maw decided to round off his tribute with an example of a chaconne, a form in which Purcell was pre-eminent. The theme is derived from the first of his Life Studies for 15 solo strings. Maw decided that the main title should reflect precisely the reference vocabulary so the piece became known for a while as Romantic Variations. Later the title was altered to Voices of Memory, Variations for Orchestra. The Sonata for Solo Violin is dedicated to Jorja Fleezani and the constraints of writing for a single stringed instrument in a four-movement, large-scale work are deftly surmounted by Maw’s gift for melodic lines and rhythmic invention.