Macmillan English

Sir James MacMillan (b. 1959) - String Quartets - Royal String Quartet (2018) {Hyperion CDA68196}
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© 2018 Hyperion Records | CDA68196
Classical / Contemporary Classical / Chamber Music / Strings

Scottish composer James MacMillan is known for big public works, some of them inspired by his Catholic faith. But he is also the composer of a good deal of chamber music, largely avoiding the Scottish traditional influences present in his other work. Some is more abstract than his choral and orchestral pieces, although the String Quartet No. 2 ("Why is this night different?"), recorded here, is inspired by a Jewish Passover Seder observance. Chronologically that's the middle of the three works on the album; the earliest one, Visions of a November Spring, was one of the pieces that made MacMillan's reputation in the early 1990s, and it introduces the contrasts of light and dark that run through many of his works.

Edward Watson takes the role of Crown Prince Rudolf in Kenneth MacMillan's compelling ballet, which lives out the final eight years of Rudolf's life and its relentless downward spiral of political intrigue, drugs and murder. The ballet culminates with a suicide pact at a hunting lodge between Rudolf and his 17-year-old mistress, Mary Vetsera. “…while Mara Galeazzi as Mary Vetsera nearly stole the show with her natural conviction, exuberance and authoritative technique, the evening belonged to Watson as Rudolf, one of the most challenging male roles ever created.” Sunday Express

In 1974, British choreographer Kenneth MacMillan in turn decided to focus on the two protagonists for an ambitious ballet that could translate the feelings and emotions of two souls abused by the accidents of life and their own personal weaknesses. In short, how a young girl on her way to a convent manages to elope with the young student with whom she has just fallen in love, only to leave him to escape destitution and finally allow herself to be persuaded by her brother Lescaut to yield to the advances of wealthy “protectors”. Accused of prostitution and deported to Louisiana, Manon is rescued by Des Grieux. Driven to murder by Manon’s jailer, he escapes with her into the marshes where the young girl ultimately succumbs. Although sincere, the love that Manon and Des Grieux share for each other cannot stand up to the vagaries of existence. As a result, neither is able to escape moral or social decline. Rather than reuse the score of Massenet’s opera, MacMillan entrusted Leighton Lucas with the task of arranging a series of extracts taken from a selection of the French composer’s operatic, symphonic and vocal scores… The end result was a huge success from its debut performance in London in 1974 onwards.