Maxwell Davies: Beltane Fire / The Turn of the Tide

The works on this recording embrace a varied miscellany of Peter Maxwell Davies’ orchestral output from the early 1990s. The ‘choreographic poem’ The Beltane Fire pits the sternness of the Reformation clergy against the pagan traditions of the Orkney Islands. Concerned with environmental pollution, The Turn of the Tide ultimately reaches “a triumphant dance of all creation”, while the Threnody and Pavan are poignant memorial tributes for significant figures in the composer’s life.