MAX’S ORKNEY SAGA

SIR PETER MAXWELL DAVIES is one of the leading composers of his generation, and was the driving force behind the launch of the St Magnus Festival in 1977. Sir Peter talks to Kenny Mathieson about the festival, Orkney, and the newest developments in his work.
 

What was your role in the launch of the St Magnus Festival?

PMD: It was my idea, and my role was to get the ball rolling, along with Norman Mitchell, who was the organist at St Magnus Cathedral, and to write a piece for the opening of the festival. That was my opera The Martyrdom of St Magnus, which we did in the Cathedral on the first night of the first festival. It took off from there. Originally I had the idea of doing it basically as a thank you to the people of Orkney, who had welcomed me very warmly. I got a great deal from Orkney, its landscape and its seascape and its people, and I thought doing something of that kind would be both a very apposite way of presenting Orkney to a potentially large public, and also presenting classical music and whatever else was eventually included in the festival to the public in Orkney. It has also encouraged a great deal of grassroots musical and artistic activity on the island for both children and adults, which is wonderful.
 

Did you envisage that the festival would still be thriving 26 years on?

PMD: I didn’t know how it would go, to be honest. It could just have fizzled out, and I was quite prepared for that – I remember getting a letter from Ben Britten warning me that in his experience of launching his famous festival in Aldeburgh it was very difficult to involve the locals and get them on board. There was a lot of opposition in some quarters, just as Ben had warned me there would be. It was difficult in the early years, especially with the local newspaper launching a campaign against it, and BBC Radio Orkney showing no interest for the first ten years! You cope with these things, however, and it went on regardless. I had faith in it, and it worked. For the next one in 1978 I involved local school kids, and through them their parents. I had decided I would stay as director for a maximum of ten years, and then it must be handed over to people who were very strictly local, which is what happened when Glenys Hughes took over in 1986.
 

What do you think is the festival’s unique appeal?

PMD: It’s uniqueness lies firstly in its location, which is very splendid. It is very much a part of the life of the islands now. I think that is its real secret, and it’s rather splendid that lots of people have now more or less forgotten that I had originated it. It’s not remotely your average rent-a-festival. Indeed, one of the problems now is that some of the venues are just not big enough for the events, and people cannot get tickets.
 

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