Peter Maxwell Davies had a long association with the SCO and they were to present the world premiere of his accordion concerto last week.  But he died earlier this year, presumably not having completed the work because they changed the programme.

That was a shame because there can't be many accordion concertos around and because the replacement work, one of his Strathclyde Concertos, was a bit of a heavy listen.  Of course the accordion piece might not have been to my taste either.

There was some lovely Sibelius and some Bartok and then the pièce de resistance by Maxwell Davies to finish the evening, An Orkney Wedding with Sunrise.  That's an entertaining quarter of an hour. Here are the SCO playing it at the 2014 Proms with an introduction by the man himself.

Verdi's Requiem which I heard the following evening is miles away in spirit from An Orkney Wedding but is very much to my taste.  It's probably because I can't sing a note that I enjoy those large choral works so much.  This one is definitely aweinspiring to boot. The final pianissimo "libera me" hits deep down in the guts.