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James MacMillan – Visitatio Sepulchri

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Catalogue numberBIS-1719 SACD
Release date2010-04-28
Discs1
Orig. sample rate44100Hz
Total time67:02

With music that combines rhythmic excitement, raw emotional power and spiritual meditation, James MacMillan (b. 1959) has rapidly established himself as a leading international composer. On BIS, seven previous releases feature instrumental works by him, and now the time has come for the first disc with scores involving voices. MacMillan is unusual among mainstream contemporary composers in that his output includes a high proportion of choral works, from music to be used in weekly church services to virtuoso writing for soloistic multi-voiced choirs. On the present disc are two world première recordings: the 45-minute Visitatio Sepulchri for chorus and chamber orchestra (a recording of the version for solo voices already exists) and the 23-minute a cappella Sun-Dogs. As with so much of MacMillan’s production, both works reflect the composer’s deep involvement with matters of religious – and more specifically Roman Catholic – faith. The longer work is a setting of a medieval liturgical drama which describes the scene from the New Testament where three women go to visit the Holy Sepulchre on the day after Christ’s crucifixion, and learn that he has risen from the dead. Sun-Dogs instead uses a contemporary text, by the poet Michael Symmons Roberts, which in MacMillan’s own words is: ‘richly allegorical, evoking a range of emotions and images, dark and terrifying one minute, radiant and ecstatic the next.’ In both works the composer allows a number of diverse musical influences to surface: those of composers such as the mystic Olivier Messiaen and the expressionistic Harrison Birtwistle, of Gaelic psalm-singing typical of the Hebrides and of Tibetan Buddhist chanting. The scores also include various techniques such as deep breathing, whistling and stage-whispered, toneless chanting. Performing these exciting works are the singers of the eminent Netherlands Radio Choir, one of the largest and most versatile professional choirs in the world, conducted by its current chief conductor, Celso Antunes (in Sun-Dogs) and by the composer himself (in Visitatio).
 
  • STUDIO QUALITY
    File formats included in STUDIO QUALITY
    • FLAC 24-bit Stereo
    • FLAC 24-bit Surround 5.0
    • FLAC 16-bit Stereo
    • MP3 Stereo
  • CD QUALITY | MP3
    File formats included in CD QUALITY | MP3
    • FLAC 16-bit Stereo
    • MP3 Stereo
$ 13.77
 
Extra material for download
 
 
  Composer: MacMillan, James
  Sun-Dogs (2006) for chorus a cappella 20:41
01 I. ‘I first saw them’. Largo 04:59 $ 1.05 USD
02 II. ‘Domini canes’ (‘Dogs of the Lord’). Adagio 01:54 $ 0.40 USD
03 III. ‘I saw them leading’. Allegro moderato 02:35 $ 0.54 USD
04 IV. ‘Sometimes, like Tobias’. Andante 07:18 $ 1.53 USD
05 V. ‘If you turn down the offerings’. Andante 03:55 $ 0.82 USD
 
  Visitatio Sepulchri (1992–93). Version for 7-part chorus and chamber orchestra 44:53
06 Scene 1 07:53 $ 1.66 USD
07 Scene 2 15:28 $ 3.25 USD
08 Scene 3 21:32 $ 4.52 USD
 
  Album total 67:02
ComposerMacMillan, James
ConductorAntunes, Celso
MacMillan, James
ChoirNetherlands Radio Choir
OrchestraNetherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic

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