Fires of London
| Company type | Chamber music ensemble |
|---|---|
| Industry | Music |
| Founded | 1965 |
| Founder | Harrison Birtwistle, Alan Hacker, Stephen Pruslin |
| Defunct | 1987 |
| Fate | Disbanded |
| Headquarters | London , England |
Key people | Harrison Birtwistle, Peter Maxwell Davies, Alan Hacker, Stephen Pruslin |
| Products | Chamber music performances, contemporary classical music premieres |
The Fires of London, initially known as the Pierrot Players, was a British chamber music group that operated between 1965 and 1987.
The ensemble was established by Harrison Birtwistle, Alan Hacker, and Stephen Pruslin. From 1967, leadership was shared by Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell Davies. Its original purpose was to perform Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire alongside newly composed works featuring similar instrumentation, frequently incorporating percussion. Due to the restrictive nature of the instrumentation, Birtwistle departed in 1970. Subsequently, Maxwell Davies assumed sole leadership and renamed the group the Fires of London. The ensemble ceased activity following its twentieth anniversary performance in 1987. Maxwell Davies later supported the Manchester-based group Psappha, serving as their patron until his passing in 2016.
The Fires of London maintained a strong association with Maxwell Davies’ own compositions, premiering numerous pieces including Eight Songs for a Mad King, Vesalii Icones, The Martyrdom of St Magnus, Ave Maris Stella, and Revelation and Fall. Additionally, the ensemble introduced works by other notable composers such as Elliott Carter’s Triple Duo, Birtwistle’s Cantata, Morton Feldman’s I Met Heine on the Rue Fürstenberg and The Viola in My Life 1, Oliver Knussen’s Ocean de Terre, and Hans Werner Henze’s Der langwierige Weg in die Wohnung der Natascha Ungeheuer.
Collaboration with the Early Music Consort of London led to their joint contribution to the soundtrack of the film The Devils.
Instrumentation and players
According to Maxwell Davies, the ensemble’s fundamental instrumentation consisted of flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, keyboards, and percussion. Among the early key members were Judith Pearce (flute), Alan Hacker (clarinet), Duncan Druce (violin), Jennifer Ward Clarke (cello), and Stephen Pruslin (piano).
The Fires of London played a pivotal role in establishing the Pierrot ensemble—comprising flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano—as a recognized standard formation within contemporary music by inspiring a significant number of new works tailored for this instrumental combination.
References