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    3. Macmillan: Quickening, 3 Interludes from "The Sacrifice" (2009)

    Macmillan: Quickening, 3 Interludes from "The Sacrifice" (2009)

    Posted By: peotuvave
    Date: 15 Jun 2014 11:44:11
    Macmillan: Quickening, 3 Interludes from "The Sacrifice" (2009)

    Macmillan: Quickening, 3 Interludes from "The Sacrifice" (2009)
    EAC Rip | Flac (Tracks + cue + log) | 1 CD | Full Scans | 226 MB
    Genre: Classical | Label: Chandos | Catalog Number: 5072

    As James MacMillan celebrates his 50th birthday he here conducts his large-scale, complex work, The Quickening coupled with the symphonic suite The Sacrifice: Three Interludes, taken from his opera, The Sacrifice, a work based on a medieval Welsh tale and focusing on issues of love and conflict. Co-commissioned by the BBC Proms and the Philadelphia Orchestra, The Quickening sets poetry by MacMillan’s frequent collaborator Michael Symmons Roberts. Hailed as some of the most distinguished writing since that of Benjamin Britten, the powerfully imaginative score explores the themes of birth, new life and new impulses, but as MacMillan says, it also has its dark side out of which hope is glimpsed. Joining the BBC Philharmonic is the Hilliard Ensemble, who premiered the work at the BBC Proms, accompanied by the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus and Youth Chorus.

    MacMillan was awarded the 2008 Royal Philharmonic Society Opera and Music Theatre Award The Sacrifice following its premiere in September 2007 by Welsh National Opera. As did Britten in the now-famous Four Sea Interludes from his opera Peter Grimes, MacMillan uses the Interludes as opportunities to withdraw from and reflect on the action, and he says, ‘the orchestra provides another dimension to the narrative and to the drama, which allows the imagination to travel deeper or in a different direction.’

    James MacMillan is one of the UK’s leading contemporary composers, and several of his earlier compositions are available on Chandos under his direction, including The Confessions of Isobel Gowdie (Classic FM Award winner), and The Berserking.

    Composer: James MacMillan
    Performer: Rogers Covey-Crump, Robin Blaze, Gordon Jones, Steven Harrold
    Conductor: James MacMillan
    Orchestra/Ensemble: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Hilliard Ensemble, City of Birmingham Symphony Youth Chorus, …

    Reviews: James MacMillan is riding a giant wave of popularity in the classical music world and, listening to these performances, it doesn’t take long to understand why. MacMillan, who first and foremost seems motivated by a desire to communicate important ideas, is a master of his craft, offering up score after score of highly dramatic, challengingly modern but consistently absorbing and often quite beautiful music. One can question his decisions, as I do elsewhere in a review of his St. John Passion , but there is no doubt as to the power of his vision or the integrity of his art. Certainly, it is hard to imagine any listener at all attuned to contemporary concert music coming away from these two works unmoved or unimpressed.


    The Sacrifice , MacMillan’s second opera, is a mythic tale of the clash of love and politics based on “The Tale of Branwen, Daughter of Llyr” from the The Mabinogiona , a Welsh collection of folk tales. Set in a war-ravaged land in an indeterminate time, the opera tells an almost unrelievedly tragic story of duty, sacrifice, and loss. The three orchestral interludes extracted here provide periods of reflection and commentary on the action in the opera, much as do the Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes . The grim passacaglia in particular seems an homage to Benjamin Britten, to whom James MacMillan is often compared. The dramatic and musical richness, darkly evocative of a story that I have so far only read in synopsis, makes me anxious to see the whole opera performed.


    Compared to the relatively straightforward painting of atmosphere in the Sacrifice excerpts, the dense symbolism of The Quickening , a four-movement cantata, proves more of a puzzler. Starting from Britten’s War Requiem as a structural inspiration, MacMillan and collaborator Michael Symmons Roberts present, on the surface, a reflection on childbirth and the bringing of children into a hostile world. They even consider birth from the perspective of the newborn, portraying the midwife as the agent of painful transition who, Pilate-like, washes her hands of the implications of her actions. However, the scale and drama of the work argues other even weightier purposes. Not explicit—though the interpretation is not unreasonable—is what seems to be a statement on abortion in the context of a lament of the prematurely born. Or maybe not. In truth, I have not come close to absorbing all of what is implicit in the rich imagery of the poetry and multifaceted setting, even after multiple hearings. And like any great art—if I may presume—it reflects as much what the listener brings to the experience as what the composer and author intend. I will simply declare that the effort to come to terms with this work is rewarding in itself, and the musical experience, with its ending so full of hope, is fascinating. The canvas is large, with the composer marshaling a massive chorus, delicate countertenor-led early-music quartet, distanced youth choir with organ, and a battery of novel percussion instruments, including steel drums and temple bells. The effect ranges from the grandiose to the ethereal, from decidedly 21st-century to vaguely medieval; somehow, MacMillan causes it all to work.


    The composer-led performance is presumably definitive, though I hope not literally the last word. The Birmingham choruses seem unfazed by even the more exotic demands of language or improvisation, the Hilliard Ensemble sings collectively and—in the fourth movement—separately with its usual otherworldly purity of sound. The BBC Philharmonic plays with absolute commitment and precision. The Chandos recording is excellent even by its exalted standards. There is no reason to think twice.

    Tracklisting:

    1. The Sacrifice: Interludes (3) for Orchestra by James MacMillan
    Conductor: James MacMillan
    Orchestra/Ensemble: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
    Period: 20th Century
    Written: 2007
    Length: 14 Minutes 28 Secs.

    2. Quickening by James MacMillan
    Performer: Rogers Covey-Crump (Tenor), Robin Blaze (Countertenor), Gordon Jones (Baritone),
    Steven Harrold (Tenor)
    Conductor: James MacMillan
    Orchestra/Ensemble: Hilliard Ensemble, City of Birmingham Symphony Youth Chorus, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra …
    Period: 20th Century
    Written: 1999; United Kingdom
    Length: 48 Minutes 0 Secs.

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