Macmillan: St John Passion - Davis, Maltman, London So, Et Al (2009)

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Macmillan: St John Passion - Davis, Maltman, London So, Et Al (2009)

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When Sir Colin Davis was asked to select a composer to write a new work for his 80th birthday he chose James MacMillan, about to celebrate his own 50th birthday. MacMillan had previously considered writing a passion and used the opportunity of the commission to produce a setting based on the Gospel of St John.The result is a highly dramatic passion, fusing MacMillan's own Catholic faith, compositional style and musical influences with the long tradition of settings for the passion of Christ in both the Catholic and Lutheran faiths. In addition to the choir and orchestra, MacMillan uses a small choir of professional singers to provide the narration and a solitary baritone soloist to portray Christus.The work received its première on 27th April 2008 at the Barbican, in London, and follows the LSOLive release of two of James MacMillan's earlier works: The World's Ransoming and The Confession of Isobel Gowdie in January 2008.

Composer: James MacMillan
Performer: Christopher Maltman
Conductor: Sir Colin Davis
Orchestra/Ensemble: London Symphony Chorus, London Symphony Orchestra

Reviews: “In the central role Christopher Maltman gives one of his finest performances to date, sonorous, assured… and reassuringly firm of tone. The choral and orchestral contributions are likewise beyond reproach, with the superb LSO brass in particular totally unfazed by MacMillan's at times scarily vertiginous demands.”

“An 80th-birthday gift for Sir Colin Davis, James MacMillan's 90-minute setting of the St JohnPassion divides into two parts and is cast in 10 movements, the last of which comprises a deeply affecting and cathartic orchestral elegy (described by the composer as 'a song without words'). A baritone is allotted the sole principal part of Christus, a chamber choir acts as the Narrator/Evangelist and a large chorus is assigned all other duties. In the booklet Mac- Millan relates how some ideas from his 2007 opera The Sacrifice have found their way into the score. “I was also aware,” he continues, “of the paradoxical tension created between the two highly contrasted musical contexts – liturgical chant and music drama.” In the central role Christopher Maltman gives one of his finest performances to date, sonorous, assured and reassuringly firm of tone. The choral and orchestral contributions are likewise beyond reproach, with the superb LSO brass in particular totally unfazed by MacMillan's at times scarily vertiginous demands. The microphones convey it all with startling immediacy, although, as is customary from this source, there's precious little in the way of ingratiating glow.
Even after a number of hearings, nagging doubts remain as to whether the work as a whole measures up to the exalted level of inspiration or possesses quite the communicative force of Quickening but it's valuable to have such an imperious realisation of what is a hugely sincere and often gripping narrative. MacMillan's many admirers will deem it an essential acquisition.”