Nicholas Maw, Composer, Dies at 73
Nicholas Maw
During those first years in Washington, Maw completed what will likely be considered his most important composition, Odyssey, a mammoth work for orchestra, over 90 minutes of continuous music on the scale of the Mahler and Bruckner symphonies. It was a shot across the bow of the compositional establishment of atonal serialism, because Maw embraced more tonal structures and lush harmonies. Hopefully, either Marin Alsop or Christoph Eschenbach will program the work with the Baltimore or National Symphony in the next season or two, which would be a fitting tribute to Maw.
Washingtonians were most strikingly confronted by Maw's work in 2006, when Washington National Opera gave the American premiere of the composer's equally mammoth opera (even after it was scaled down somewhat), Sophie's Choice. The work was not without its flaws, especially its unwieldy libretto, but there were many moments of great beauty in a work of tragic heft. Here are a few thoughts from my review of the opera:
Nicholas Maw wrote the libretto himself, and he took most of the dialogue the characters sing directly from the novel, language that sometimes comes across as unsingable ("massive infusions of iron" and "I turned my piercing mind to the seething arcana of human protoplasm" come to mind). The music is strikingly beautiful, with Maw's style best described as solidly neo-tonal, allowing for occasional forays into more dissonant territory. Maw writes for a very traditional orchestra with a sure hand — harp, celesta, some unusual percussion are the strangest things we get — heavily favoring lush string sounds, triads glistening with a quicksilver coating of non-chord tones. Winds and brass have brief solo roles and in large numbers and full dynamics punctuate major moments in the score.The success of the opera was due in large part to the memorable performance of Angelika Kirchschlager, who created the title role and owned it in three subsequent national premieres. Her performance has taken its place in my mind next to the terrifyingly reserved one of Meryl Streep in the movie made from the same novel.
Nicholas Maw is survived by his companion, Maija Hay, two children, two sisters, and two grandchildren.