Mad, bad and dangerous to know.
Lady Caroline Lamb coined the phrase to describe Lord Byron, but it might have been just as applicable to Peter Maxwell Davies in his younger days, when he delighted in tweaking both the musical establishment and audience expectations.
It would be easy to claim the intervening decades have mellowed him – he served ten years as Master of the Queen’s Music, and he’s written ten symphonies (so far) built on organic structures in the tradition of Sibelius. Also, he scored one of his biggest hits, “An Orkney Wedding with Sunrise (with a bagpiper standing in for the rising sun), writing for the Boston Pops.
But I say it would be a mistake to turn your back on a man who would offer to serve protected swan terrine to the police. No, at 80 years, Max still hasn’t lost his glint.
Join me for “Mad Max: English music’s angry young man turns 80,” a belated birthday tribute to Sir Peter Maxwell Davies,” on “The Lost Chord,” this Sunday night at 10 ET, with a repeat Friday morning at 3; or listen to it later as a webcast, at http://www.wwfm.org.