There’s no question that Peter Maxwell Davies commands a composing technique that enables him to write anything he pleases. Time and again over the course of his first two “Naxos” quartets you notice obsessive dotted rhythms that fluidly disintegrate, a high degree of textural refinement in every register (his extensive use of ponticello effects and harmonics, for instance), and the ease with which slow and fast musical ideas repeatedly dovetail. Typical of many 20th century string quartet composers, Davies fills his slow movements with long lines carved in wide interval leaps, punctuated by gentle offbeat pizzicatos and fortified by doublings at different octaves.
However, Davies’ undeniable gift for gesture is not matched by one for creating memorable motives, while his harmonic language conveys a dour, dissonant landscape that’s largely devoid of tension and release. For all of Davies’ seasoned professionalism and savvy understanding of the string quartet medium, I ultimately find these compositions easier to respect than to love. They lack character. There’s not much point in considering the music in further detail: either you like this sort of thing or you don’t, and perhaps the fact that the music sounds like so much else of similarly “contemporary” stripe says it all. The Maggini Quartet plays on the highest level and stands out for its masterful control of timbres and dynamics, especially in passages where the textures are delicate and cruelly exposed. Naxos provides excellent sound and detailed annotations by the composer.
