American Games

If Nicholas Maw is best known as a master of expansive, often melancholy, musical statements, his riveting American Games for symphonic wind band displays a different side of his fascinating output. Unfolding as one continuous span, this driving, dynamic 7-movement work is filled with rhythmic zest and a sophisticated feeling for colour. Commissioned for the 1991 BBC Proms, the work was first performed there by the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra.