PETER MAXWELL DAVIES (b.1934): Strathclyde Concertos No. 7 for Double Bass and Orchestra and No. 8 for Bassoon and Orchestra, A Spell for Green Corn: The MacDonald Dances.

Description: With the latest entry in this series of what are arguably Maxwell Davies most readily accessible works, we reach this contrasting pair for the orchestra's most sombre-hued members. The Seventh is in quite consistently dark tones throughout, the soloist given long, lyrical lines in uneasy and at times confrontational interchanges with the orchestra. The more conventionally structured bassoon concerto contains more animated music and a wider range of expression, though the mood and timbral palette also tend toward the darker end of the spectrum, with a prominent, ominous role for the tympani. A Spell is contemporaneous with the concertos, with which it has some features in common, sharing a somewhat Sibelian idiom, though the folk-like feeling is much stronger, in an especially attractive and approachable work. Duncan McTier (double bass), Ursula Leveaux (bassoon), Scottish Chamber Orchestra; Peter Maxwell Davies.