James MacMillan
Composer/Conductor
“A towering performance by the BBC Philharmonic under the composer James MacMillan. He is proving a conductor of daunting ability.” The Sunday Times
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Programme notes
Sunday 27 April 2008, 7.30pm
James MacMillan (born 1959)
St John Passion (The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to St John)
World premiere
After writing my Seven Last Words from the Cross in 1993, I always knew that the inevitable next step would be a setting of one of the Gospel Passion narratives. It has since been my ambition to tackle such a project. I decided on St John's text, as it is the version with which I am most intimately acquainted, hearing it recited or sung every Good Friday in the Catholic liturgy. In fact, since my student days in Edinburgh I have regularly participated in the Gregorian or Dominican chanting of the Crucifixion story on that day. This simple music has had an overiding influence on the shape and character of my own Passion setting.
The scoring is for one principal soloist, Christus - a baritone, a chamber choir which carries the Narrator's words, a large chorus which takes all the other text, including the characterisation of the other amin players in the drama, and orchestra. The instrumental aproach was to make a sparse and lean texture, (so there is limited percussion, no harps or the usual keyboards, although there is a chamber organ), while maintaining the potential for full dramatic climaxes where necessary.
I have divided the work into ten movements. At the end of movements 1-9, I have interpolated a Latin text which takes something of the general theme and development of the storm and allows time for a more objective and detached reflection. The final movement is purely instrumental - a song without words.
I have a love of litugical music, and specifically, of the cool purity of chant. As well as this, I love opera, and the composition of this Passion has come immediately after my new piece for Welsh National Opera, The Sacrifice. I was aware of the inevitable effect that this piece was having on the progress of my St John narrative. In fact some of the opera music has drifted quite naturally into the new sphere. I was also aware of the paradoxical tension created between two highly contrasted musical contexts - liturgical chant and music drama. Balancing, creating opposition sometimes, and at other times elisions and cross-fertilsations between the two, became the delight in composing this work.
My St John Passion is dedicated to Sir Colin Davis in his 80th birthday year, as a token of my admiration and appreciation for one of this country's greatest musicians, and for the wonderful music-making he has given us throughout his life.
Programme note © James MacMillan