How Max put Orkney at the heart of his St Magnus festival – and in the heart of his extraordinary music
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- St Magnus Festival will celebrate its 50th edition this midsummer.
- Peter Maxwell Davies co‑founded the St Magnus Festival with poet George Mackay Brown in 1977 in Orkney.
- Peter Maxwell Davies premiered his chamber opera The Martyrdom of St Magnus at Kirkwall Cathedral as the inaugural event.
- Peter Maxwell Davies composed 10 symphonies, 10 Strathclyde Concertos, and 10 Naxos Quartets, which remain rarely performed.
- Peter Maxwell Davies died in 2016, leaving a legacy of community‑focused music‑theatre works and composition courses.
- Peter Maxwell Davies employed alchemical symbols and mathematical grids in his compositions, seeking new harmonic gravity rather than atonality.
- Peter Maxwell Davies reported a thunderous rock‑fall while writing the final drumstrokes of his Second Symphony, underscoring his belief in magical forces.
Why it matters: Celebrating half a century of the St Magnus Festival gives Orkney audiences and musicians renewed exposure to Peter Maxwell Davies' rarely performed symphonies and concertos, potentially prompting more programming of his works and reinforcing the island’s cultural identity; meanwhile, the broader classical scene continues to overlook a composer whose innovative harmonic language remains under‑utilised.
