Page 153 - FINAL_The Sixteen Coverage Book 40th Anniversary Year

“They just threw everything at that Festival, the good and the bad, presenting the
premiere of the trumpet concerto Epiclesis and many other things, including a piece

called Tourist

Variations, which I found the score of a few years ago and realised it was nothing to
write home about. They were willing to take a risk, which I was very grateful for.”

In recent years, the leftist political anger that once fuelled a furious passion within the
former card-carrying communist has visibly softened. His views have shifted to the

right, and he opposes the nationalist cause. He is relaxed with his monumental

popularity worldwide, the success of his flourishing Cumnock Tryst Festival, the
imminent wedding of his daughter Clare, one of the twins, and the quiet family life he

enjoys at home on the Ayrshire coast, where he continues to work prolifically.

He is genuinely delighted, though, to find himself yet again one of the central focuses of

an Edinburgh International Festival. “They have put together a good package, ranging

from my chamber music up to big choral pieces and including two symphonies,” he says,
referring to a series of five major concerts, supported through the Scottish

Government’s Festivals Expo

Fund, that culminate in the world premiere of the highly-anticipated Fifth Symphony

(Le grand inconnu), featuring the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and the singers of The

Sixteen and Genesis Sixteen under Harry Christophers.

In its finalised form, this three-movement work is an exploration and reflection on the

concept of the Holy Spirit, with texts which incorporate repetitions of the words for
breath in Hebrew (ruach), Greek (pneuma) and Latin (spiritus) – as well as poetry by

John of the Cross and some scripture.

But these came late in the compositional process, reveals an untypically puzzled
MacMillan. “The funny thing is I wasn’t really sure what I was doing. I started out

without any real knowledge of what text I would set. I had ideas in my mind certainly, to
do with the Holy Spirit, or what breath, fire and water might sound like as music. It

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