Maybe it's something to do with my age, which is 38, but I've been finding that I've been listening a lot to Radio 3 lately. Radio 4 is full of old bores, Radio 1 of young morons, and Radio 2 is just a bit too wet and pointless. Radio 3, however, is staffed by people who love the music they play, are knowledgeable about it, can talk about it and can talk about art and life and ideas without embarassment. They also have a justifiable hatred of the way Classic FM has remodelled classical music into some kind of chill-out de-stressing technique. It's highbrow but gentle at the same time, and alone among radio stations plays some way-out and radical stuff.
I listen to Radio 3 in my car while driving the one hour it takes me to get home from the train staion. In this way the journey flies by in a delightful dream. The great thing is that you always learn something and last week I started to learn about the wonderful Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, the English composer and conductor who moved to the Orkneys in the 1970s, and is known in classical music circles as "Max".
On Radio 3 they appeared to be in the middle of playing a series of concerts of Max's music played in Gateshead. They played a new march he had written and it was superb: full of drama and fun and joy. In his music he combines the sound of medieval church music, Scottish folk and avant-garde noodlings and it's a great combination: pastoral without being sentimental. The other lovely thing about Max is that he is very community-minded and works with local schools and writes music inspired by the Orkney landscape and weather. If only every village had a Max!
When I got home I rushed to my computer and bought two CDs, A Celebration of Scotland (Unicorn-Kanchana) and Peter Maxwell Davies: A Portrait (Decca). They arrived two days later and I've had them playing in the kitchen non-stop since. I'm particularly keen on the Dances From The Two Fiddlers. There is also a piece called Antechrist which is surely more punk than anything the Pistols ever did.
Now I'm still very much a beginner in the world of Max so if any readers could point me in the direction of great Max works then I'd be extremely grateful.
