Page 190 - FINAL_The Sixteen Coverage Book 40th Anniversary Year

Seen and Heard International

18 August 2019

Trio of Edinburgh Concerts Climaxes with First Performance of
James MacMillan’s New Symphony

United Kingdom Edinburgh International Festival [8] – Beethoven, Dvořák, MacMillan: Edinburgh,
17.9.2019. (SRT)

First performance of Sir James MacMillan’s Fifth Symphony (c) Ryan Buchanan
I – Nash Ensemble, Queen’s Hall.
Beethoven – Clarinet Trio in B-flat
MacMillan – Fourteen Little Pictures
Dvořák – Piano Trio in E minor ‘Dumky’
II – Stephen Farr (organ), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Joana Carneiro (conductor), Usher Hall.
MacMillan – A Scotch Bestiary (Scottish premiere); Woman of the Apocalypse (Scottish premiere)
III – The Sixteen, Genesis Sixteen, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Harry Christophers (conductor), Sir James
MacMillan (conductor), Usher Hall.
MacMillan – Symphony No.2; Symphony No.5 ‘Le grand inconnu’ (world premiere)

No one’s officially labelling it as such, but this was effectively the EIF’s James MacMillan day. The
composer turned 60 last month, and the whole of this week has seen a celebration of MacMillan’s
music; but it reached a climax today, with two back-to-back concerts of his music in the evening,
culminating in the world premiere of his Fifth Symphony.

The day had a tough beginning, though, with the fairly implacable world of his 1997 Fourteen Little
Pieces for piano trio. The title is deceptive: for one thing the pieces are all woven together into a

189