THE Proms last night paid tribute to Orkney composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies with a special concert marking his 80th birthday, less than a year after he won his battle with cancer.
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra celebrated the birthday of Sir Peter, its Composer Laureate, with a special concert at the Royal Albert Hall. The orchestra also presented Sir Peter with a specially designed waistcoat, the first garment to be made from the Orchestra's exclusive tartan.
Sir Peter, who was appointed Master of the Queen's Music in 2004 and whose works were performed at the royal wedding in 2011, attended the concert where a programme of works selected by him was performed by the SCO.
They included the tone poem 'Ebb of Winter', commissioned by the SCO as part of its 40th anniversary celebrations, which captures the rugged beauty of Sanday, where Sir Peter lives.
Also featured was the much loved 'An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise', and the fourth 'Strathclyde Concerto', for clarinet and orchestra.
As a surprise encore, the SCO performed a special arrangement of 'Happy Birthday' by SCO violinist and longtime friend of Sir Peter, Steve King.
Earlier this year the composer, known to friends as Max, revealed he had been given six weeks to live if he did not undergo hospital treatment for cancer. He was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukaemia, a cancer of the blood.
In February, he unveiled the symphony he wrote in hospital and which he says saved his life.
Mr King, who is also Director of Music at Heriot-Watt University, said: "I am honoured and humbled that it should be my arrangement of Happy Birthday that celebrates Max's 80th. "Max has been a huge influence on my life and career, and his friendship over these many years has been valued greatly. All of us at the SCO wish him a very happy birthday."
The concert at the Proms is the finale of a month-long celebration to mark the composer's birthday, during which a host of Max's works will have been performed at five different concerts.
The tartan waistcoat gifted to Sir Peter by the SCO is made with the tartan commissioned for the orchestra's 40th borthday.
The design is inspired by three clan tartans, representing the Maxwell clan, Ferguson clan in honour of Sir Peter's predecessor, the late Sir Charles Mackerras, and the MacDonald clan tartan in honour of longstanding SCO chairman and supporter, Donald MacDonald.
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