SCO & Sean Shibe - Maxwell Davies: An Orkney Wedding, With Sunrise - The Sunday Times

Interleaving some smaller orchestral pieces with Davies's Hill Runes, for guitar, and an arrangement for that instrument of his Farewell to Stromness, this disc affords a fond farewell to the composer and the musical realisation of his adopted Orkney. Each of the five Hill Runes amplifies verse by George Mackay Brown to make a wordless rural elegy. Two of Davies's last scores, Concert Overture: Ebb of Winter (2013) and Last Door of Light (2008), come across strongly. And the idea behind the title piece, bagpipes at daybreak, again proves itself unbeatable.