Page 195 - FINAL_The Sixteen Coverage Book 40th Anniversary Year

19 August 2019

Otherworldly: James MacMillan’s new choral symphony is

premiered in Edinburgh
The composer’s Fifth, performed at Usher Hall, is a spiritual contemplation of the Holy

Spirit

Harry Christophers conducts James MacMillan's Symphony No.5 at Usher Hall, Edinburgh © Ryan
Buchanan Photography

It would not be festival time at Edinburgh without the sound of bagpipes on arrival at Waverley station, a
centuries-old welcome to the Scottish capital. In recent decades, though, classical music in the city and
beyond has gained its own significant Scottish voice.

James MacMillan, born in Ayrshire in 1959, first came to notice around 1990, and through a combination of
flair and hard work (Macmillan diligently keeps up a stream of new pieces) has become one of the leading
composers of his generation.

This has not gone unnoticed at his home country’s foremost arts festival. MacMillan has been the themed
composer several times, including in 1996, when his opera Inês de Castro was given its premiere at
Edinburgh, and this year saw a clutch of concerts featuring his music, headed by the premiere of his new
symphony.

MacMillan stands out from today’s composers in two salient respects. First, he is a proud Scot, who often
draws on Scottish themes for inspiration (even if the music that comes out sounds entirely international).
Second, he is deeply immersed in the Catholic faith and sacred music is the most characteristic, and often
best, strand of his work.

The late afternoon concert that acted as a prelude to the new symphony offered a pair of virtuoso orchestral
works, one representing each side of his personality. A Scotch Bestiary is like a wild, modern version of
Saint-Saëns’s Carnival des animaux, in which a menagerie of hyena, monkey, cuckoo and jackass (not to
mention “Scottish patriots”) howl and screech, aided by a solo role for organ. Then Woman of the

194