James MacMillan: Since it was the day of Preparation … by Delphian Records

JAMES

AC MILLAN ( b .

1959 ) SINCE IT WAS THE DAY OF PREPARATION …

1 Introduction [3:08]

Elizabeth Kenny theorbo

2 The Pierced Christ [3:20]

3 Interlude [2:36]

William Conway cello

4 The Burial [3:04]

5 Interlude (quintet) [4:18]

6 The Empty Tomb [2:43]

7 Interlude [4:07]

Yann Ghiro clarinet

8 The Appearance to Mary of Magdala [7:07] 9 Interlude [3:11] Gabriella Dall’Olio harp

B rindley S herratt Solo BaSS

12 The Appearance on the Shore of Tiberias [17:12] 13 Interlude [4:09]

Stephen Stirling horn

14 Conclusion (SATBar) & Postlude (quintet) [5:19] Total playing time [72:16]

S ynergy V ocal S

M icaela h a S la M Soprano

h eather c airncro SS alto

B enedict h y M a S tenor

to M B ullard Baritone

H ebride S e n S emble

W illia M c on W ay cello/director

yann G hiro clarinet

S tephen S tirlin G horn

G a B riella d all’ o lio harp

e liza B eth K enny theorBo

Recorded on 28-29 November 2015 at RSNO Centre, Glasgow

Producer/Engineer: Paul Baxter

24-bit digital editing: Adam Binks

24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter

Cover & booklet design: Drew Padrutt

Booklet editor: John Fallas

Cover image: after Rogier van der Weyden (1399/1400–1464), The Descent from the Cross, oil on oak panel (220cm x 262cm), Museo del Prado, Madrid Photography © Tim Morozzo Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK www.delphianrecords.co.uk

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The composition of music to accompany, describe and interpret the narrative of the Passion and burial of Christ, whether in a liturgical or a para-liturgical context, is undoubtedly one of the great challenges for any composer working within the Christian tradition. James MacMillan, a practising Roman Catholic, has so far taken up this challenge twice, setting the Passion according to both St John (2007) and St Luke (2013), and thus joining an illustrious line of composers which stretches from the authors of polyphonic settings of the turbae such as William Byrd, through the monumental works by Bach, and on to Krzysztof Penderecki and Arvo Pärt. Fewer composers, however, have dealt with the narrative of the Resurrection: exceptions include Jonathan Harvey, Sofia Gubaidulina, John Tavener and the present author.

With Since it was the day of Preparation …, MacMillan also moves beyond the Passion narrative into the period following the Crucifixion. As the composer himself has written:

On completing my St John Passion in 2007 I was immediately intrigued with the possibility of writing another work based on the text that comes immediately after the death of Christ in St John’s Gospel. The title of this new work is the first sentence after Jesus gives up his spirit. The work sets the final section of St John’s Gospel (in the Revised Standard Version), through the Resurrection to the final conclusive remarks.

The work is scored for a solo bass taking the role of Christ, four further solo voices in consort, and an unusually constituted ensemble of five instruments: clarinet, horn, cello, harp and theorbo. It is divided into three substantial sections, which contain within them what the composer describes as solo ‘motets’ for the five instruments (theorbo and cello in Part I, clarinet and harp in Part II, and horn in Part III), and each of these sections concludes with a quintet for the full ensemble. The motets have also been described by the composer as ‘cadenzas’. This seeming paradox in fact underlines the ambiguous, genre-stretching nature of these sections of the piece; for, while the motet is traditionally polyphonic and these are not, it is also a genre given to reflection on a given situation or person – a feast, an event that takes place during the larger narrative, a saint – and this is emphatically a characteristic here, as too is the virtuosity of a cadenza. In the end one might describe them as monologues, or perhaps soliloquies; at all events, they provide extended points of deep reflection, both musical and theological, on the unfolding of the story.

Part I opens with the first of them: a melancholy, haunting prelude for solo theorbo. It has an improvisatory character, suggesting the realisation of a figured bass, and makes use of the polyphonic capacities of the instruments of the lute family, but it also explores other aspects of the instrument,

notably bell effects and note clusters in the lower registers. It is followed by a tenor solo, which sets the scene for the Deposition of Christ with melodic writing that is at once florid and suggestive of plainchant recitation in the Latin tradition – yet another paradoxical combination of traditions so characteristic of this score. The monologue for solo cello that follows this is unsettled and questing, ranging rapidly from top to bottom of the instrument’s range in flurries of rapid grace notes.

The Deposition itself, the receiving of the body of Christ from Pilate by Joseph of Arimathea, is described by solo baritone, in a passage that once more suggests plainchant recitative, but which develops its opening melodic tag by making considerable play with major and minor thirds. The singer’s final words (‘There they laid the body of Jesus’), once more echoing a chant cadence, are subsumed into the piece’s first ensemble music, of a spellbinding polyphonic modal beauty and marked by the composer, lest there be any doubt, ‘Prayerfully’. This is transformed into an unexpected dance-like Allegro in octaves, which gradually fades away, ending in an unequivocal A minor.

Part II opens with a dramatic telling by the male consort singers of the arrival of Mary Magdalene at the tomb. They are joined by the alto, singing in Latin, whose impetuous intervention anticipates the text that the men, in English, will sing only later (‘They both ran, but the other

disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first’). The alto and tenor continue the English narrative, to be joined by the baritone again, and now also the soprano. The Latin verse is in fact a middle stanza of the hymn ‘O filii et filiae’, now known to have been written by the fifteenthcentury preacher Jean Tisserand, whose first verse briefly but powerfully encapsulates the Easter message: ‘O sons and daughters, the heavenly King, the King of glory, has risen from the dead today.’ The alto intones this earlier stanza of the hymn, repeating the first phrase on a rocking minor third, before joining the men to continue the English narrative; the soprano also joins them in the narration, as the disciples enter the empty tomb.

A lengthy solo clarinet motet follows, alternately keening and strident. The clarinet remains, reiterating its final E as though stuttering, as the vocal quartet, in a style suggesting Renaissance polyphony, describes, in Latin (the words again from Tisserand’s hymn), the Angel speaking to the women. This episode is then enacted in English by the same four singers, the men now representing the angels and the soprano Mary Magdalene. Christ sings for the first time in this section, revealing himself to Mary with an ascending minor seventh (F to E flat) which initially sets the word ‘Woman’ and then, on repetition, the name ‘Mary’, to the accompaniment of harp arpeggios and bells: like Bach, MacMillan emphasises Christ’s words by ‘haloing’ them with a special scoring.

This revelation of the Resurrection, the soprano intoning high in her register Mary Magdalene’s announcement – ‘I have seen the Lord’ – is followed by a harp motet which exploits both the traditionally gentle and the more percussive aspects of the instrument. There follows another bilingual section, with verbal correspondences again established between Tisserand’s hymn and the Biblical account of Christ’s appearance to the disciples. As the gift of the Holy Spirit is bestowed upon them, MacMillan interpolates a further Latin text – the first verse of the Pentecost hymn ‘Veni Creator Spiritus’. The narration of Christ’s appearance was mellifluous, though Christ’s own words were set in rather more angular style. The incredulity of Thomas, by contrast, is set to much more agitated music, recalling the opening of Part II. The role of Thomas is given to the tenor, and the wide-ranging, defiant character of the music clearly suggests Thomas’s refusal to believe until he has seen Christ in person.

The subsequent postlude for ensemble is initially marked ‘Slowly, sadly’, but then builds up into a far more volatile reflection on the events just past, with some particularly effective writing for theorbo and harp together, as though they formed a single gigantic, symbiotic instrument. The calm of the final bars is ambiguous, an indication that the narrative is not yet over: the implications of the Resurrection are far-reaching indeed.

Part III begins ferociously, harp and horn glissandos introducing a brief, buzzing prelude to the recounting of the miracle of the draught of fishes, again with many references to the musical vocabularies of the Renaissance and Baroque. The narrator once more has recourse to a kind of amplified chant recitative style, but this time overtly suggestive of Baroque recitative as employed by Bach or Handel, emphasised by the use of chord sequences introducing new textual phrases. The return of the music of the prelude acts as a transition from the emptiness of the fishermen’s nets at their first attempt to the appearance of Christ on the shore. An important theological point is made by the reiteration of the phrase ‘We will go with you’, first used by the disciples who accompany Peter as he goes fishing, and then repeated (parenthetically, as it were, sung by the female voices) so as to indicate their following Christ, the fisher of men. The impetuous Peter has already jumped into the water to swim to shore.

The music of the prelude once again accompanies a transition, this time from the sea to dry land, and then, more briefly, after the disciples have recognised Christ on this, his third appearance after the Resurrection, to the questioning of Peter. Peter’s responses to Christ’s triple question, ‘Do you love me?’, are underpinned by pre-echoes of the words ‘Tu es Petrus’, before Christ – in music of great intimacy, accompanied only by theorbo so that

it suggests a Renaissance lute song – foretells Peter’s death. The complete statement of ‘Tu es Petrus’ – ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church’ – is then given to the four-voice consort, with ‘the gates of Hell shall not prevail against her’ sung in uncompromising octaves and underpinned by apocalyptic blasts on the horn.

The following section, from ‘I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven’ to the discussion of the betrayal at the Last Supper, is MacMillan’s most extended essay in Renaissance-inspired imitative polyphony, the five voices ‘shadowed’ by the horn, and ending in a dramatic statement of the question ‘What is that to you?’. The Resurrection is already foreshadowed here, through the incorporation in the midst of the English-texted narrative of the Latin hymn ‘Salve festa dies’, by St Venantius Fortunatus. Venantius was a bishop and hymnographer, and this verse is taken from his long poem Tempora florigero rutilant, formerly used as a processional before the Paschal Mass, and well known in England in Vaughan Williams’ setting of the English translation, ‘Hail thee, Festival Day’, written for the English Hymnal

A clangorous tumult of bells ends this section, dissolving into a soliloquy for the horn. This is the most extensive of the five motets that punctuate the work, and explores the full range of the instrument, not only in terms of

its technical capacity, but in writing that offers a reflection on the full range of emotions and spiritual states experienced during the course of the work as a whole. It moves from contemplative calm and sadness to glorious optimism and suggestions of the last trump. Since it was the day of Preparation … ends with a brief epilogue for the vocal quartet, framing the narrative but also leaving us in no doubt as to its universal implications:

This is the disciple who is bearing witness to these things, and who has written these things; and we know that his testimony is true. But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

This being so, MacMillan leaves words behind and ends with an outstandingly beautiful, yearning coda for ensemble, in effect an extended modal cadence moving from G major/ minor to A minor, and dissolving into unspoken nostalgia on the high A of the cello.

Ivan Moody is a composer, musicologist, and Orthodox priest of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Portugal. Currently a researcher at the Universidade Nova in Lisbon, he was previously Professor of Church Music at the University of Eastern Finland.

2 Tenor

Since it was the day of Preparation, in order to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the sabbath (for that sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him; but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness – his testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth – that you also may believe. For these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled, ‘Not a bone of him shall be broken.’ And again another scripture says, ‘They shall look on him who they pierced.’

John 19: 31-37

4 Baritone

After this Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him leave. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who had at first come to him by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds in weight. They took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had ever been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, as the tomb was close at hand, there they laid the body of Jesus.

John 19: 38-42

6 Tenor, Baritone

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’ Peter then came out with the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first; and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he didn’t go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb;

Alto, Tenor, Baritone

he saw the linen cloths lying there, and the napkin, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.

Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone

Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

Tenor, Baritone

Then the disciples went back to their homes.

John 20: 1-10

Alto Et Joannes Apostulus

Cucurrit Petro citius, Monumento venit prius.

O filii et filiae, Rex caelestis, Rex gloriae, Morte surrexit hodie.1

And John the Apostle Ran faster than Peter And came to the tomb before him. O sons and daughters, The heavenly King, the King of glory, Has risen from the dead today.

Jean Tisserand (d. 1494), O filii et filiae

Alto

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her,

Tenor, Baritone

Woman, why are you weeping?

Alto

She said to them,

Soprano

Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.

Alto

Saying this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her,

Christus

Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?

Alto

Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him,

Soprano

Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.

Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone

In albis sedens Angelus Praedixit mulieribus:

In Galilaea est Dominus.2

Tisserand, O filii

An angel seated and dressed in white Proclaimed to the women: ‘The Lord is in Galilee.’

Alto

Jesus said to her,

Christus

Mary.

Alto

She turned to him and said,

Soprano Rabboni!

Alto

Jesus said to her,

Christus

Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.

Alto, Tenor, Baritone

Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples,

Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone

‘I have seen the Lord’;

Alto, Tenor, Baritone

and she told them that he had said these things to her.

John 20: 11-18

Soprano, Alto

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them,

Christus Peace be with you.

Soprano, Alto

When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again,

Christus

Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.

Soprano, Alto

And when he had said this he breathed on them and said to them,

Christus

Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.

Tenor

Discipulis astantibus, In medio stetit Christus, Dicens:

Tenor, Baritone Pax vobis omnibus.3

Tisserand, O filii

(Tenor, Baritone Pax vobis omnibus.)

Tenor, Baritone

Veni Creator Spiritus …

Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone

Veni Creator Spiritus, Mentes tuorum visita: Imple superna gratia Quae tu creasti pectora.4

Hymn at Pentecost

Soprano, Alto

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin,* was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him,

Soprano, Alto, Baritone

‘We have seen the Lord.’

Soprano, Alto

But he said to them,

Soprano, Alto, Baritone

‘Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.’

Soprano, Alto

Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and said,

Christus

Peace be with you.

Soprano, Alto

Then he said to Thomas,

Christus

Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing.

Tenor

Ut intellexit Didymus,*

Quia surrexerat Jesus, Remansit fere dubius.5

Tisserand, O filii

With the disciples standing by, Jesus stood in the middle Saying, ‘Peace be with you all.’

Come, Creator Spirit, Visit the minds of your people: Fill the breasts you have created With grace from above.

3 4 5

When Thomas learned That Jesus had risen, He stayed behind, almost doubting it.

[Didymus = ‘twin’ in Greek; Thomas = ‘twin’ in Aramaic] *

Soprano

Thomas answered him,

Tenor

My Lord and my God!

Soprano, Alto

Jesus said to him,

Christus

Have you believed because you have seen me?

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.

Soprano, Alto

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.

John 20: 19-31

PART III

Baritone

After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them,

Tenor

I am going fishing.

Baritone

They said to him,

Soprano, Alto

We will go with you.

Baritone

They went out and got into the boat; but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them,

Christus

Children, have you any fish?

Baritone

They answered him,

Soprano, Alto, Tenor No.

Soprano, Alto (mm – mm – ) (mm – mm – )

Soprano, Alto, Tenor (mm – mm – )

Baritone

He said to them,

Christus

Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.

Soprano, Alto, Tenor (mm – mm – mm)

Baritone

So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, for the quantity of the fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter,

Tenor

It is the Lord!

Baritone

When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his clothes, for he was stripped for work, and sprang into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off. When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread. Jesus said to them,

Christus

Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.

Baritone

So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them; and although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them,

Soprano, Alto

(We will go with you …)

Soprano, Alto, Tenor (mm – mm – mm)

Christus

Come and have breakfast.

Baritone

Now none of the disciples dared ask him,

Soprano, Alto, Tenor

Who are you?

Baritone

They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Soprano, Alto

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter,

Christus Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

Soprano, Alto

He said to him,

Tenor

Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.

Soprano, Alto

He said to him,

Christus Feed my lambs.

Soprano, Alto, Tenor (mm – mm – mm)

Baritone (Tu es Petrus …)

Soprano, Alto

A second time he said to him,

Christus Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Soprano, Alto

He said to him,

Tenor

Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.

Soprano, Alto

He said to him,

Christus Tend my sheep.

Soprano, Alto

He said to him the third time,

Christus

Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Soprano, Alto

Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him,

Tenor Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.

(Tu es Petrus …)

Baritone (Tu es Petrus …)

Soprano, Alto

Jesus said to him,

Christus

Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you would; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go.

Soprano, Alto

(This he said to show by what death he was to glorify God.) And after this he said to him,

Christus Follow me.

Baritone (Tu es Petrus …)

Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone

Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam: et portae inferi non praevalebunt adversum eam. Et tibi dabo claves regni caelorum.6

Matthew 16: 18-19

You are Peter, and upon this rock [petrus = both Peter’ and ‘rock’] I will build my church: and the gates of Hell will not have dominion over it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven.

Baritone

Soprano, Tenor, Baritone

Peter turned and saw following them the disciple whom Jesus loved, who had lain close to his breast at the supper and had said, ‘Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?’ When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, what about this man?’ Jesus said to him,

Christus

If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!

Soprano, Tenor, Baritone

The saying spread abroad among the brethren that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but,

Christus, Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone

If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?

John 21: 1-23

Alto

Salve festa dies, toto venerabilis aevo, Qua Deus infernum vicit et astra tenet. Ecce renascentis testatur gratia mundi Omnia cum Domino dona redisse suo.7

Venantius Fortunatus (c.530–c.600/609)

Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone

John 21: 24-25

Translations from the Latin are by Edward Tambling (Tisserand, Venantius) and Henry Howard, with grateful thanks.

Biographies

With programmes that are diverse, imaginative and inspiring, Hebrides Ensemble has established itself as one of the foremost chamber music collectives in the UK. Cofounded and led by its artistic director, the cellist and conductor William Conway, the Ensemble is renowned for its fresh and intelligent approach to programming, which places contemporary music at the heart of a diverse range of repertoire.

audiences around the world to be part of every performance the Ensemble gives, using live streaming, Twitter feeds and cutting-edge digital technology.

Among other accolades, Hebrides Ensemble’s outstanding achievements were acknowledged by the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards in 2009, with a nomination in the Chamber Music category.

Hail, festive day, respected by every age, On which God triumphs over Hell and holds the stars. See, the grace of the earth’s regrowing stands witness

To all its gifts having been given with the Lord.

The Ensemble’s flexibility is its strength. It draws its performers from a pool of the most outstanding musicians in the UK and beyond, ensuring the exceptional performance standards for which it has become renowned. This is an international ensemble with its roots in Scottish culture, a collective committed to supporting the next generation of performers and composers, particularly those with links to Scotland. In recent years it has commissioned and premiered new works from composers including Sally Beamish, Hafliði Hallgrímsson, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Sir James MacMillan, Alasdair Nicolson, Alasdair Spratt, William Sweeney and Martin Suckling.

In 2015 the Ensemble broke new ground by becoming the first professional ensemble to simultaneously connect musicians in Edinburgh to London and Italy in real time. As Hebrides Ensemble celebrates its twenty-fifth birthday in 2016, it launches the next phase of its pioneering digital strategy, which will allow

William Conway began his career as a cellist in his home city of Glasgow. Following studies at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, the Royal College of Music and with Ralph Kirshbaum he was appointed principal cello of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, where he gave many performances as soloist and director including the first performance of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Strathclyde Concerto No 2 for cello, which he also recorded. He returned to the SCO as soloist in 2004 to perform this work as part of Max’s 70th birthday celebrations.

His strong commitment to contemporary music has resulted in many concertos and solo works written for him, including the present work by James MacMillan, of which he is the dedicatee. William has also played for many music and dance collaborations – most notably with Rudolf Nureyev at the Edinburgh International Festival – and throughout his career he has held the post

of principal cello with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, working with many great conductors including Karajan, Giulini, Maazel, Haitink, Harnoncourt and Abbado.

Born in Lancashire, bass Brindley Sherratt studied at the Royal Academy of Music, of which he is now a Fellow and Visiting Professor.

As Artistic Director of Hebrides Ensemble he combines his two passions – conducting and cello-playing. The Ensemble has commissioned over seventy works in the last twenty years, as well as giving notable performances of major twentieth-century works such as The Soldier’s Tale (Stravinsky), Pierrot lunaire (Schoenberg), and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ chamber operas The Martyrdom of St Magnus and Le Jongleur de Notre Dame. Hebrides Ensemble has also recorded a CD of chamber music by Messiaen, and appeared at Wigmore Hall and at the Edinburgh International Festival, Aldeburgh, St Magnus and other major festivals.

William is Artistic Director and Head of Strings and Chamber Music at St Mary’s Music School, and works regularly with young musicians – notably at the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and Australian Youth Orchestra. As a conductor he has also led many professional orchestras in Europe and America in wide-ranging repertoire. His concerts have attracted praise not only for the quality of performance but for the imaginative and exciting programming. He plays on a cello from 1695 by Giovanni Tononi of Bologna.

Highlights on the opera stage include Gremin (Eugene Onegin), Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte) and Sparafucile (Rigoletto) at Covent Garden; Sarastro at the Vienna State Opera, the Hamburg State Opera and for the Netherlands Opera; Geronte de Revoir (Manon Lescaut) at the Metropolitan Opera; the Doctor (Wozzeck) for the Lyric Opera of Chicago; Claggart (Billy Budd) at the Glyndebourne Festival and for the Teatro Real in Madrid; Arkel (Pelléas et Mélisande) at the Opernhaus Zurich; and Bottom (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. His many roles for the English National Opera have included Sarastro, Pimen (Boris Godunov) and Fiesco (Simon Boccanegra). He has also sung Banco (Macbeth) for the Opéra de Bordeaux; Pimen for the Opéra de Nice; Balducci (Benvenuto Cellini) and Hobson (Peter Grimes) in Salzburg; Rocco in Seville; Pogner (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) for the Welsh National Opera; and Fasolt (Das Rheingold) and Filippo (Don Carlo) for Opera North.

In demand on the concert platform, he has appeared at the Bregenz, Edinburgh, Lucerne, Salzburg and Three Choirs festivals and at the BBC Proms, and works regularly with such conductors as Harry Bicket, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Mark Elder, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Daniel Harding, Louis Langrée, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Sir Antonio Pappano.

Synergy Vocals (Micaela Haslam director) consists of an elite pool of singers able to deliver a broad repertoire in a variety of styles. The group specialises in close-microphone singing and is often associated with the music of Steve Reich, Louis Andriessen, Luciano Berio and, latterly, Steven Mackey. Synergy Vocals performs regularly with Ensemble Modern, Ictus, Ensemble InterContemporain, AskoǀSchönberg, London Sinfonietta, Hebrides Ensemble and the Colin Currie Group, and has given concerts all over the world with orchestras and ensembles including the Boston, Chicago, St Louis, New World and San Francisco Symphony orchestras, the Los Angeles, Brooklyn and New York Philharmonic, Remix, Nexus, Steve Reich & Musicians, Percussions Claviers de Lyon, the Tempo Reale Ensemble, the London, Shanghai and Sydney symphony orchestras and all five BBC orchestras in the UK. The group has also collaborated with several dance companies, including the Royal Ballet (London), Rosas (Brussels), and Opéra de Paris.

Recent world premieres include Steve Reich’s Three Tales and Daniel Variations, Steven Mackey’s Dreamhouse, Louis Andriessen’s video opera La Commedia, David Lang’s Writing on Water and the present work by James MacMillan, as well as the UK premiere of Luigi Nono’s monumental Prometeo at the Southbank Centre, London.

As well as live concerts and recordings, the group has undertaken educational and outreach projects in the UK, the Netherlands, the USA (including at Princeton University, Eastman College, Oberlin College and for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra) and South America, coaching vocal ensembles and workshopping new works for voices. Micaela Haslam also coaches ensembles for Steve Reich in the preparation of his Music for 18 Musicians, most recently in Buenos Aires for the Latin American premiere of the piece, with the composer at the piano.

Further details about the group’s history and current activities can be found at www.synergyvocals.com.

James MacMillan: Visions of a November Spring

Edinburgh Quartet

DCD34088

Spanning James MacMillan’s chamber music output from 1982 to 2011, these marvellously idiomatic, intensely virtuosic performances by the Edinburgh Quartet – in a new line-up under the dynamic leadership of Tristan Gurney – provide three snapshots of his evolving style: an intriguing tissue of Wagnerian referentiality; a burst of youthful energy with touches of the visionary; and the sovereign integration of folk and discursive elements in String Quartet No 3. A moving short tribute, For Sonny, shows another side to this ceaselessly inventive composer’s output.

‘I am astonished by these players, by their complete immersion in MacMillan’s sound-world, their nerve and by their communicative power … The sound, I should add, is fabulously real and present’ — International Record Review, November 2014

MacMillan/MacRae: Piano Works

Simon Smith

DCD34009

The debut of pianist Simon Smith, in a programme of works by two leading Scottish composers. The disc includes the complete piano oeuvre to date of James MacMillan, and also features the world premiere recording of Stuart MacRae’s Piano Sonata. In a rendering that the composer has called ‘extraordinary’, this performance spills forth in a fiery display of technical virtuosity.

‘an outstanding player with a huge expressive range … Both composers are fortunate indeed to have such an advocate’

— International Record Review, May 2003

Scotland at Night Laudibus / Mike Brewer

DCD34060

Crack chamber choir Laudibus takes on an inventive programme of settings of Scottish poetry by some of today’s leading composers. The texts range from John Barbour and Henry the Minstrel to Alexander McCall Smith, with two Burns settings by James MacMillan nestled at the heart of the disc. From their ethereal tenderness to the muscular angularity of Ronald Stevenson’s A Medieval Scottish Triptych, Laudibus responds with affection, athleticism and an extraordinary expressive range.

‘The throbbing intensity of “So Deep” – a setting of My Luve’s like a red, red rose – and the mystical resonances in “The Gallant Weaver” are surely among the most treasured and most heartfelt of MacMillan’s works … unshakably good’

— The Scotsman, August 2009

Advent at Merton Choir of Merton College, Oxford / Benjamin Nicholas & Peter Phillips DCD34122

The beginning of Advent is celebrated with a particular solemnity at Merton. For its second recording, the choir explores the musical riches that adorn this most special time in the church’s year, centring on a newly commissioned sequence of Magnificat antiphons from seven leading composers including Howard Skempton, Ēriks Ešenvalds and Sir John Tavener. These are complemented by ‘O Radiant Light’, from James MacMillan’s Strathclyde Motets cycle, setting an English version of one of the same texts, and by a first recording of his unpublished Advent Antiphon

‘an immensely accomplished and responsive mixed-voice choir … Delphian’s recorded sound is beautiful’

— International Record Review, December 2012