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SCO & Sean Shibe - Maxwell Davies: An Orkney Wedding, With Sunrise - The Sunday Times

Interleaving some smaller orchestral pieces with Davies's Hill Runes, for guitar, and an arrangement for that instrument of his Farewell to Stromness, this disc affords a fond farewell to the composer and the musical realisation of his adopted Orkney. Each of the five Hill Runes amplifies verse by George Mackay Brown to make a wordless rural elegy. Two of Davies's last scores, Concert Overture: Ebb of Winter (2013) and Last Door of Light (2008), come across strongly. And the idea behind the title piece, bagpipes at daybreak, again proves itself unbeatable.

The Sunday Times
11 September 2016