Peter Maxwell Davies: Strathclyde Concerto No. 4 & Clarinet Quintet

Dimitri Ashkenazy reflects on his long-standing artistic relationship with Peter Maxwell Davies—beginning with the Strathclyde Concerto No. 4, whose search for an ever-elusive theme became, for him, a symbol of the musical journey itself. Davies’s precise conducting and their shared experiences later led to the premiere of the richly colored and emotionally charged Hymn to Artemis Locheia. Both works, different as they are, embody for Ashkenazy what is most human in music-making: the process, the challenge, and the moving transformation that emerges from it.