Nothing is jagged or abrupt.
There is a rich palette of contrasts, but the sense of steady, intelligible development is secure - and of deep expressive weight too. All this is enhanced by Davies's excellently idiomatic writing for his instruments, which the Royal Philharmonic delivered with grateful sympathy. Each ensemble of the moment gets the space to expand a lyrical thought at leisure, decorative or declamatory. 14822 Recordings of almost all of Peter Maxwell Davies's works, as well as talks and interviews with the composer, are available for visitors to listen to at the National Sound Archive and British Music Information Centre in London. The second movement starts grandly and slowly, but soon becomes another allegro with, increasingly, something of the character of a grim scherzo, in that ostensibly weighty ideas will, characteristically, be deflated by repetition in an ironic form.