I was saddened to hear of the recent death of Nicholas Maw, the contemporary British composer who was known for lush, romantic works. He gained his musical education at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Lennox Berkeley and with Nadia Boulanger and Max Deutsch in Paris. Although he was well versed in the serialist technique, he soon gave it up and composed rich, opulent music in the vein of Richard Strauss and Frederick Delius.
His ticket to success proved to be his 1962 work Scenes and Arias, which had its premiere at the BBC Proms. His gorgeous melodies and harmonies which were quite different from the status quo at the time, led him to compose two operas, One Man Show in 1964 and The Rising of the Moon, 1967-1970. The latter was a commission by the Glyndebourne Opera and was later perfolrmed in Austria, Germany and Ireland. Thirty years later he wrote the libretto and music for Sophie's Choice for Covent Garden; this 2002 production starred Angelika Kirchschlager as Sophie. His orchestral and chamber music works included Odyssey, Life Studies, a Cello Concerto, World in the Evening, La Vita Nuova, Shahnama and a Violin Concerto written specially for Joshua Bell.
The institutions where he taught composition through the years included the Peabody Institute, Yale University, Bard College, Boston University, the Royal Academy of Music, Cambridge University and Exeter University,
