Page 222 - FINAL_The Sixteen Coverage Book 40th Anniversary Year
P. 222
the arts desk
15 October 2019
Bevan, The Sixteen, Genesis Sixteen,
Christophers, Barbican review - MacMillan
transcends again
****
Thoughtful showcasing of UK and London premieres for the Scotish composer's
latest
by David NiceTuesday, 15 October 2019
James MacMillan with Mary Bevan and Harry Christophers after the performance of 'The Sun Danced'Both images by Mark
Allan/Barbican
Verdi, Elgar, Janáček, John Adams - just four composers who achieved musical transcendence
to religious texts as what convention would label non-believers, and so have no need of the
"forgiveness" the Fátima zealots pray for their kind in James MacMillan's The Sun Danced.
Verdi, Elgar, Janáček, John Adams - just four composers who achieved musical transcendence
to religious texts as what convention would label non-believers, and so have no need of the
"forgiveness" the Fátima zealots pray for their kind in James MacMillan's The Sun Danced. Dodgily
championed by fellow conservative Damian Thompson - ouch - as "fearless defender of
the Catholic faith and Western civilization" (for which I read, no Muslims in Europe, please),
MacMillan is rather nauseatingly cited as a composer with a direct line to his Catholic God (he
doesn't claim that himself); but, dammit, he does hit the transcendental and the other-worldly an
awful lot. Call it musical inspiration from a mysterious source if you like, but it's the real thing, and
puts him alongside the above doubters.
The Big One on last night's fascinating Barbican programme, commissioned by the Genesis Foundation for
Harry Christophers and the Sixteen and first heard at the Edinburgh Festival (where The Arts Desk's Christopher
Lambton received it ecstatically), was his Fifth Symphony. subtitled "Le grand Inconnu", a French phrase for the
mystery of he Holy Spirit. Certainly this elusive theme is hauntingly caught at the onset by the coming to being of
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