Classical

James MacMillan - Stabat Mater (2017)

2017-09-27T14:08:41Z

James MacMillan - Stabat Mater (2017)

PLAINSONG
1.Stabat mater	4:56

SIR JAMES MACMILLAN - Stabat Mater
2.Stabat mater dolorosa		14:48
3.Quis non posset contristari	13:13
4.Sancta mater, istud agas	11:32
5.Fac, ut portem Christi mortem		15:15

The Sixteen
Britten Sinfonia
Harry Christophers – conductor

Few living composers communicate with the emotional directness of Sir James MacMillan, and performances of his new Stabat mater received rave reviews. The Sixteen gave the world premiere of this work at a series of concerts in October 2016 as well as recording the work for their own record label, CORO. For MacMillan, 'beauty is at the heart of our Christian faith' and the Stabat mater is sure to be profoundly shaped by his beliefs. But this is a work with deep roots and a universal message, a celebration of both tradition and radical renewal. --- thesixteenshop.com

Composers across the generations have been attracted to set the beautiful and sad 13th-century Stabat Mater text, the Crucifixion seen through a mother’s grief, Mary weeping by the cross. Sir James Macmillan has taken up the challenge and has composed a moving, profound and startling interpretation for The Sixteen to perform, first heard at the Barbican last autumn with the Britten Sinfonia and now receiving its Scottish première with the same choral forces accompanied by the strings of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. At an hour long, it is a major work, and arriving in Edinburgh and Glasgow in the middle of Lent, both concerts have been packed with audiences keen to experience MacMillan’s latest composition on the Crucifixion, conducted by Harry Christophers.

At a standing-room only pre performance talk with the composer, MacMillan explained this work was not written for the Liturgy, but the concert hall, following a long tradition of religious music. Composing the work specifically for The Sixteen (26 singers in this concert), he sees their early music sound as critical in setting the monochromatic tone palette of the choir and strings. MacMillan divided the 20-verse text into four equal movements, with many string interludes and singers from within the choir taking solos. MacMillan explained that his use of three high tenors was chosen to deliberately mirror the vocal colour of the Jewish Cantor or Muslim Muezzin, reflecting the location of the Crucifixion.

The sheer density of MacMillan’s writing makes it a challenge for the ear to take in all of the detail of what’s going on, but there is no question what we heard at this concert was a masterpiece both for strings and singers, immensely powerful telling the sorrowful story through grief, anger and tenderness. After an extended complex and angry angular string opening, The Sixteen took up the tone ranging from almost operatic (sky high soprano) to words being literally shouted out. A terrifying clash of glissandos, the whole choir sliding down to meet the strings rising upwards was one of several heart-stopping moments, at other times, the double basses set up a shimmering discordant rumble of death, and the lower strings creating a carpet of sound for the singers, at times almost in plainchant over a bass drone. There was lots of energetic solo work for the string section leaders and front desks, excitingly defiant and overlapping but suddenly tender, a violin solo soft like the watery rays of sunlight trying to break through the gloom. Visceral strident choral singing in the third movement Sancta Mater, istud agas bookended the deeply grief-stricken three high solo tenors. More beauty from plangent cellos contrasted fierce choral passages, before this complicated but utterly spellbinding work ended on simple Amens for the upper voices. An astonishing and intense journey for performers and audience, you could almost reach out and touch the concentration.

Earlier, we heard Macmillan’s orchestral showpiece Tryst, originally composed for the St Magnus Festival in Orkney almost thirty years ago and inspired by a poem of the same name by William Soutar. Macmillan conducted the orchestra, which danced through the themes, clarinets wailing, horns and trumpets holding noisy conversations over held string chords. With scoring including a bass clarinet and double bassoon, the woodwind sounded almost like the wheeze of an accordion at times. Quieter passages were illuminated by ghostly wind chimes and bell tree. Lots of aggressive angular interplay with string timpani interjections and ending with an extraordinary fierce musical sequence looped round the first and second violins with brass interludes. I was reminded of Bernstein at times when the music took a bluesy turn. Macmillan says that returning to his older pieces is similar to the mixed feelings experienced when re-reading youthful letters, but the infectious confidence of this performance from conductor and players spilled across into the hall banishing any wistful thoughts.

A major new work in the presence of the composer, in his home patch delivered by the wonderful Sixteen made this a specially memorable event. ---David Smythe, bachtrack.com

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James MacMillan ‎– Into The Ferment (2003)

2019-10-12T12:21:00Z

James MacMillan ‎– Into The Ferment (2003)


1 	Britannia (1994) 	12:42
The Beserking (1989) - A Concerto For Piano And Orchestra 	(31:22)
2 	♪ = 140+ Energico - 	9:10
3 	♩ = 60 - 	12:52
4 	♪ = 104 	9:20
Into The Ferment (1988 revised 2002) - For Ensemble And Orchestra 	(23:27)
5 	The Storm 	1:43
6 	Here Are We Met, Three Merry Boys 	2:26
7 	In Dispraise Of Whisky 	1:56
8 	We Are Na' Fou'! 	3:03
9 	It Is The Moon, I Ken Her Horn 	2:57
10 	Three Merry Boys Again (Sometime Later) 	2:25
11 	Wha' First Shall Rise To Gang Awa' 	2:58
12 	Man To Man...Shall Brithers Be... 	3:41
13 	Finale 	2:18

Martin Roscoe - piano (tracks: 2 to 4) 
BBC Philharmonic
Yuri Torchinsky - conductor

The MacMillan discography continues to grow, with BIS and Chandos slugging it out to put his big orchestral compositions on record. This Chandos series has the benefit of the composer’s not inconsiderable skills as a conductor in its favour, and this attractively programmed disc will almost certainly win many friends.

In actual fact, most of the music here comes from quite early on in Macmillan’s career. The most substantial item is his Piano Concerto from 1989, so pre-dating the work that catapulted him to fame, The Confession of Isobel Gowdie. The rather quirky title was originally inspired by the Viking ‘Berserkers’, warriors who plunged themselves headlong into battle, often suicidally. MacMillan saw in this a bizarre correlation with Scottish sport and politics. Attending a Celtic football match, the composer became aware that his team ‘turned in a characteristically passionate, frenzied, but ultimately futile display’, and that this summed up the ‘Scots’ seeming facility for shooting themselves in the foot in political and, for that matter, sporting endeavours’. So what is the musical illustration of this? Well, one can follow the gradual build up, where the orchestral players resort to clicking the keys and valves of wind and brass, tapping and slapping the string instruments in a rhythmic, carefully controlled crescendo to the first big outburst. The piano’s role in this first movement tends to be textural, with cascading figurations and rippling arpeggios that reminded me of the gamelan sounds in the Tippett Piano Concerto. It has an energy that we now hear as typical of its composer, helped by responsive and alert playing from the excellent BBC orchestra. The slow section brings the lyrical side of the piano to the fore and we hear almost improvisatory musings on Celtic folk melodies, again typical MacMillan. The finale is characterised by a potent mixture of extreme violence and, ultimately, childlike simplicity. Roscoe’s playing has a real muscularity to it, but does not completely eclipse memories of his friend and regular duet partner, Peter Donohoe, who made the premiere recording for RCA in 1995.

That disc also included another item on this new Chandos release, Britannia, a wild and wacky collage that pays homage to Charles Ives. Here the political dimension is rather rammed home, with crude references to God Save the Queen (particularly the line Send Her Victorious), Knees Up Mother Brown and a yobbish, strutting version of the main march theme from Elgar’s Cockaigne. All this is ‘glued’ together by a string threnody straight out of Vaughan Williams, and the whole thing has a subversive black humour that makes it fun to experience but probably not to return to all that often.

Into the Ferment, here receiving its first recording, was written for a school ensemble and similarly mixes riotous high jinxes with elements of folk song and Burnsian poetry. As Stephen Johnson’s excellent note tells us, the opening storm music bears more than a passing resemblance to Arnold’s Tam O’Shanter, but the whole piece has a raw but vital eclecticism that is infectious and hugely enjoyable.

Recording quality is well up to house standards, and the orchestra is on excellent form. Whilst not erasing memories of the earlier disc, with its new item this Chandos offering will make a strong claim on those collectors who enjoy exploring the contemporary British music scene. ---Tony Haywood, musicweb-international.com

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