The distinguished British composer Nicholas Maw died at home in Washington, DC, last Tuesday, May 19th, at the age of 73.
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presented Nicholas’s chamber music on many occasions, including his Piano Trio, String Quartet Number Two, Quartet for Flute and Strings, Roman Canticle, and his Sextet for Strings, a world premiere commissioned by CMS, which was based on material from his opera Sophie’s Choice, which had just received its Washington premiere after performances in London and Berlin. CMS was honored to have Maw as its Season Composer for the 2007-08 season.
In a much-quoted interview, Nicholas described his own music this way:
I never think of my work in terms like romantic or post-romantic. I do not categorize like that. I was just recently talking to some of my students and telling them that I really don’t like the word “style.” I think that word has been overused and used dangerously in the 20th century. It’s only in the 20th century where this huge amount of commentary has gone on that the concept of “style” has, in my view, become destructive.
I like to think in terms of vocabulary. My own vocabulary is one that contains characteristics related to many previous elements in music that are meaningful to me. This thing about conservatism and avant-gardism is completely misconceived. There are figures who use an avant-garde vocabulary who are, in fact, often very conservative. Often people who don’t categorize themselves as avant-garde are more open…. I see my own music as having plenty of advanced elements, many of which nobody has yet commented on! I’ve always been interested in this flexibility of language.
Composer Bruce Adolphe, CMS’ Resident Lecturer and Director of Family Programs, offered this personal reflection:
Close personal friends of mine for the last 24 years, Nicholas and his partner Maija Hay opened their home to my family and me many times, and they were always welcome in our home in New York, where they often came when Nicholas’s music was performed here. Most recently I stayed with them during the production of my opera Let Freedom Sing: The Story of Marian Anderson this past March. The rehearsal studios for the Washington National Opera are just a short walk from the Maw-Hay house, and when Nicholas’s opera Sophie’s Choice was in rehearsal there, the cast regularly came over after a day’s work to relax and unwind with Nicholas and Maija. Their home was always open to friends, and was a center of creative activity, as well as dinner parties, and spontaneous festivities. Behind the house, Maija’s large pottery shed is a magical place, with a stunning variety of beautiful bowls, pots, plates, mugs, vases, and giant platters in various states of completion, mirroring Nicholas’s composition study in the upstairs of the house, with its pencil manuscripts in the strong, flowing handwriting that has a visual beauty in addition to its musical meaning.
I had the pleasure of writing the liner notes for the 1996 Sony world-premiere recording —with Josh Bell and the London Philharmonic led by Sir Roger Norrington— of Nicholas’ now famous Violin Concerto. In those notes, I took the opportunity to state my belief that Nicholas was a Brahms for our time:
“Like Brahms, Nicholas Maw has reached his sixties as a century turns (Brahms was born in 1833, Maw in 1935). Writing in a fully mature, highly evolved personal language, Maw (like Brahms) has managed to ignore – and survive – all that is merely trendy, whether technical or conceptual, in the difficult world of musical composition. Maw has always remained rue to his personal vision, whether or not it was in vogue at any given time. At the end of this century, it has become clear that we will all benefit from his tenacity and integrity, as his impressive catalogue of masterful compositions enters the canon. …With this violin concerto, Nicholas Maw has given us a virtual river of melody: spirals within spirals, branchings, detours, waves and whirlpools. A manifesto of the romantic lyric tradition in an age of sound bites and short attention spans. Maw’s violin concerto may prove to be a source of inspiration and solace in the coming millennium.”
In 1960 Nicholas married Karen Graham, with whom he had a daughter, Natasha, and a son, Lou. The marriage was dissolved in 1976. In 1984, while in the U.S. to teach at Yale, he met Maija Hay, a distinguished Finnish potter, with whom he lived in Washington, DC, and later also in Les Junies, France. Although they did not marry, Maija was clearly his true love and dear wife, whom he adored for the rest of his life, and who loved him deeply and cared for him devotedly in the last months. She survives him, along with his children.
There will be a memorial service for Nicholas Maw on June 21st in Washington. The 21st Century Consort, the Washington-based new music ensemble directed by Christopher Kendall, will devote their first concert to music by Nicholas Maw.
For Press related inquiries, members of the media should contact Marlisa Monroe by email.