Uploaded April 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Psappha Ensemble:
Benedict Holland & Zoë Beyers - violins
Alex Mitchell & Alistair Vennart violas
Jennifer Langridge & Petr Prause - cellos
Mark Heron - conductor
This performance was recorded live at Hallé St Peter's in Manchester (UK) on 31st March 2022 and marked Tim Williams’ final Manchester concert as Psappha’s Artistic Director. It pays homage to Peter Maxwell Davies, whose music was the group’s original inspiration, and to the land Max called home. Four new works have been commissioned, inspired by Orkney and written for this performance and accompanied new films shot by Tim Williams in Orkney.
There is also a version of this work that shows the film (full screen) with the live recording from the performance. This can be found in the 'Orkney - Peter Maxwell Davies Tribute' Playlist.
To view the 4K version we recommend you use Google Chrome or the Firefox browser.
Learn more about Psappha: psappha.com
Orkney film shot, produced and edited by Tim Williams
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Electra Perivolaris Marwick Head, Orkney (World premiere, Psappha commission)
Having spent a lot of time in Orkney as a child, I immediately connected with the seascapes, weathered cliff faces and nesting birds that all feature in the film that accompanies my piece. Many of these Orcadian landscapes are places where I discovered a love of the natural world and ancient natural spaces containing layers of human stories stretching back over millennia.
This connection with landscape, and especially with the ecology of my home on Arran, now forms the basis for my music. The presence in the film of the Kitchener Memorial, a clifftop war memorial to the sunken HMS Hampshire, acts as a reminder of the sheer force of this place that can be hostile to human life, transcending our own life spans and notions of time, but that can also be awe-inspiring, providing a home to thousands of sea birds. My piece aims to capture the elegiac quality of these seascapes, the current fragility of wild spaces like this and the creatures who inhabit them in an age of climate crisis, combined with the potency and intensity which defines the cliff top landscapes of Orkney.
– Electra Perivolaris
Learn more about Electra Perivolaris: electraperivolariscomposer.com
Psappha Ensemble:
Benedict Holland & Zoë Beyers - violins
Alex Mitchell & Alistair Vennart violas
Jennifer Langridge & Petr Prause - cellos
Mark Heron - conductor
This performance was recorded live at Hallé St Peter's in Manchester (UK) on 31st March 2022 and marked Tim Williams’ final Manchester concert as Psappha’s Artistic Director. It pays homage to Peter Maxwell Davies, whose music was the group’s original inspiration, and to the land Max called home. Four new works have been commissioned, inspired by Orkney and written for this performance and accompanied new films shot by Tim Williams in Orkney.
There is also a version of this work that shows the film (full screen) with the live recording from the performance. This can be found in the 'Orkney - Peter Maxwell Davies Tribute' Playlist.
To view the 4K version we recommend you use Google Chrome or the Firefox browser.
Learn more about Psappha: psappha.com
Orkney film shot, produced and edited by Tim Williams
--------
Electra Perivolaris Marwick Head, Orkney (World premiere, Psappha commission)
Having spent a lot of time in Orkney as a child, I immediately connected with the seascapes, weathered cliff faces and nesting birds that all feature in the film that accompanies my piece. Many of these Orcadian landscapes are places where I discovered a love of the natural world and ancient natural spaces containing layers of human stories stretching back over millennia.
This connection with landscape, and especially with the ecology of my home on Arran, now forms the basis for my music. The presence in the film of the Kitchener Memorial, a clifftop war memorial to the sunken HMS Hampshire, acts as a reminder of the sheer force of this place that can be hostile to human life, transcending our own life spans and notions of time, but that can also be awe-inspiring, providing a home to thousands of sea birds. My piece aims to capture the elegiac quality of these seascapes, the current fragility of wild spaces like this and the creatures who inhabit them in an age of climate crisis, combined with the potency and intensity which defines the cliff top landscapes of Orkney.
– Electra Perivolaris
Learn more about Electra Perivolaris: electraperivolariscomposer.com
