Sir James MacMillan (b. 1959)
The Birds of Rhiannon
BBC Singers, BBC Philharmonic / James MacMillan
rec. 2001, Studio 7, New Broadcasting House, Manchester, UK
Presto CD
Chandos CHAN9997 [70]
Sir James MacMillan is one of the most successful and widely performed of all living composers, British or otherwise – you can’t get much more prestigious than writing an anthem for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II – and this 2001 Chandos disc now gets the Presto CD treatment, returning to the physical repertoire a series of performances that were all premiere recordings in their day. That on its own makes the disc enormously attractive, something enhanced by the fact that they’re all conducted by the composer, and that makes the disc a good primer for someone who wants to explore MacMillan’s work, something from his earlier period that goes beyond Veni, Veni Emmanuel and The Confession of Isobel Gowdie.
The Birds of Rhiannon is a semi-programmatic depiction of an ancient Welsh legend where Bran the warrior king lays down his life to achieve peace between warring peoples. It’s a strong example of MacMillan’s embrace of variety, with an opening that embraces full-on musical violence with a maelstrom of orchestral effects that include thunder sheets and a battery of tuned percussion, and later movements that seem more questing and exploratory. There is wiry atonality here, verging on serialism in places, but also vaulting brass fanfares and chorale-like melodies, and when the choir enters to sing Michael Symmons Roberts’ concluding verse, there is a sense of summation and of benediction.
There is an unusual level of eclecticism in the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis, written by MacMillan for the first choral evensong of the new millennium in Wells Cathedral. The choir intones the words (in English) fairly straightforwardly and directly, while underneath the orchestra chirrups, flickers, shimmers and roars in a complementary kaleidoscope of colour. The Exsultet fanfares grows imperceptibly from primordial gloom to exultant climax (via some extraordinarily difficult-to-produce brass sounds) to mirror Christ’s Easter progression from death to resurrection, and the climactic entry of the organ is a proper goose-bump moment.
The chorus sound utterly beguiling both in the church music and in MacMillan’s bewitching setting of Burns’s Gallant Weaver, and they’re dashed impressive in the altogether knottier musical structure of Màiri, which flickers, weaves and dances its way through a moving Gaelic lament of loss.
The performances are all first rate, galvanized by having the composer on the podium with all the insights that brings. The orchestral playing is virtuosic and hugely colourful, and the BBC Singers confirm themselves as operating at the very top of the UK’s choral tree. Sung texts are included in the booklet, alongside a helpful essay from the ever-dependable Stephen Johnson.
Simon Thompson
Other review: Christopher Thomas
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Contents
Magnificat
Nunc dimittis
Exsultet
Màiri
The Gallant Weaver
The Birds of Rhiannon
