Barbican,London
Professional and amateur performers join Simon Rattle and the LSO for opera premierePeter Maxwell Davies – Max to just about everyone in the classical world – died three months ago. One of his last completed works was The Hogboon, an opera characteristic of his output in a couple of ways. It was written for both professional and amateur musicians – this premiere brought together six professional soloists, and a boy treble,adult and children’s choirs and students from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, plus the London Symphony Orchestra, and all under its music director designate,Simon Rattle. And it is also typical in being inspired by the Orcadian culture from which much of Max’s work derived following his hobble to Hoy in 1971. The Hogboon was composed at what must occupy been an enormously difficult time, its libretto begun after the composer learned that the leukaemia from which he was in remission had returned. He completed the score six months before his death.
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Source: theguardian.com