James MacMillan’s Inés de Castro

James MacMillan’s Inés de Castro, revised and revived with the Scottish Opera, Edinburgh.  Read Rupert Christiansen in the Telegraph here.  The romance of Inés and Pedro has inspired works of art for centuries.  Horrified by adultery (and its political consequences) the King of of Portugal had  Inés's head cut off, reputedly in front of her children (his grandchildren). There are stories that Pedro had her exhumed, and her corpse crowned in a semi-Satanic ceremony.  Nice Catholic kids studying Camões learned not only about great love but also about lust, murder and the macabre,

 The photos show the tombs of Pedro and Inés in the Mosteiro de Santa Maria de Alcobaça. Even the setting is dramatic. The tombs are in what seems to be a spartan, empty wing of the main building, reflecting  the desolation Pedro must have felt. Then, as you come close, the sculptures, among the finest in all Europe, reveal their glories. You could spend hours studying the detail and imagery. The romance is depicted, its tragedy, and its moral epilogue: souls descending into hell.  

I've wanted to hear MacMillan's Inés de Castro for twenty years  but short of travelling to Scotland, what's the chance   This is where the idea of a nationally aware arts organization (even if London based)  comes into play. Scottish Opera, no matter how hard it tries, can't hope to reach the rest of Britain on its own. MacMillan is one of the major names in British music, and his music is readily accessible.  This would be a chance for the BBC to deliver on Tony Hall's promise of making it a major force for the arts.  

But what do we actually get when we turn to the flagship BBC Arts ? There's a short clip of MacMillan talking about the opera, which is very useful, but no substitute for the music. Without context, it's pretty much meaningless.  The BBC Arts homepage is barely more than a collection of random clips.  The Space, its predecessor,  failed because it was disastrously mismanaged.  If the French and Germans can do umbrella arts web channels why can't the British? The BBC is in a better position to do this than anyone else, even if it drives Rupert Murdoch crazy, but it seems to have lost the plot, and learned nothing from the mess The Space descended to. 
 

Barbican 2014-15 (2) BBCSO plus

There's hope for classical music in London!  The Barbican 2014-2015 season is a lot stronger than it looks at first glance. It's a relief to get away from gimmicks and back to "own curated" series created by musicians rather than marketing men.

To prove the point, the Barbican is hosting a traverse of Carl Nielsen's symphonies, where Sakari Oramo will be conducting the BBCSO.  Starting on 11/10, (running til May)  the Nielsen series complements Rattle's Sibelius series with the Berliner Philharmoniker which runs from 10-12 February 2015. That's inspired programming ! It will be interesting to compare and contrast two of the greatest Scandinavian composers, performed by two of the best bands and conductors in the genre.

The BBCSO is perhaps the backbone of the Barbican because its resources are so big that it can draw on a wide range of conductors and specialities and forms. Plenty of mainstream concerts ahead, spiced up, in BBC tradition, with excursions into new-ish music.  They're doing a John Tavener Total Immersion on 8/10 supplemented with extra concerts by the Britten Sinfonia and the BBC Singers.

Even more important (and more my thing) is the Boulez at 90 on 21 March 2015. Hopefully Boulez will be present, but even if he's not, this will be not to be missed under any circumstances, since François-Xavier Roth is conducting Pli selon Pli, Notation I-IV and VII, Éclat/Multiples and Piano Sonata no 2. Roth is a quirky but very original conductor. I've not heard him do Boulez before but I think we can count on him. Read my account of  Pli selon Pli with Boulez, Hannigan and Ensemble Intercontemporain when they did it in October 2011, which may have beeen Boulez's last concert before his illness. Then on 28/4/15 Ensemble Intercontemporain themselves come to the Barbican conducted by Matthias Pinscher, doing Sur incises, Mémoriale, a Pintscher piece and a Boulez favourite, Debussy Syrinx. Unmissable. Barbara Hannigan is singing two concerts with the Britten Sinfonia on 6 and 7 May.

Wolfgang Rihm was the subject of a Total Immersion a few years ago (read more on this site)  Now he gets a second Total Immersion, based around the UK premiere of his Tutuguri on 31/1. Kent Nagano makes a rare UK appearance conducting the BBCSO which alone will be a draw. Hopefully, Rihm himself will be at the talks, because he's a character.
 
The BBC Singers are another of the assets that come with the BBC's association with the Barbican. This year, they're giving even more concerts than usual and some very challenging programmes too, including a keynote James MacMillan concert on 12/2/15, part of the year-long MacMillan series which also features the Britten Sinfonia. Even  more adventurously, they'll be singing Unsuk Chin's Alice in Wonderland on 8/3/15 in a Netia Jones video semi staging.I thought the original Munich straging (with the big eyeballs) was by far the best part of the opera, so who kmows? We might be lucky if the edition performed is the one by Lloyd Moore, first heard in Santa Fe; the thing with new music is that things take time to settle. For every Barry, Dean or Muhly who gets big money backing there must be many others writing good music that we don't get to hear. But the business has always been this way: it's nothing new.

Joyce DiDonato, Mathias Goerne and Ian Bostridge ensure that  vocal music will be well served this year. I'm also booking quicksmart for Smetana's Dalibor on 2nd May 2015. This was once a huge hit, conducted by Mahler, no less. Jirí Belohlávek returns to the BBCSO with his loyal Prague singers.  Belohlávek brought so much Czech repertoire to Britain that it was a dark day for true music lovers when he quit. Pretty boy pianists are a dime a dozen, but there are very few truly specialist conductors with such a passionate and idiomatic feel for unusual repertoire.

Tomorrow, I'll write about the Barbican's Early Music and Baroque plans for 2014-2015 and the Academy of Ancient Music. Please come back, because the Barbican is proving to be London's greatest centre for this repertoire.

Also see an overview of the Barbican 2014-15 season with an emphasis on the LSO and international orchestras

And a guide to the Barbican's Blockbuster Baroque season coming up

James MacMillan Clemency Edinburgh Festival

From Juliet Williams : Following last week's premiere of his new concert piece Since it was the Day of Preparation (review HERE) the Edinburgh Festival continues its tribute to national composer James MacMillan with the Scottish premiere  (as mentioned in Robert Hugill's review) of his short opera Clemency, which opened at the Royal Opera House last May. Like last week's performance, this work takes a religious theme, but here from the Old Testament rather than the New – the story of Abraham and Sarah being told that despite their advanced years, Sarah – previously childless – would bear a son.

Set in the present day, staged in a humble dwelling which could be in any Mediterranean or near eastern country, Abraham is initially seen as a humble figure; a regular guy. Mysterious visitors, looking like intinerant building workers, arrive and are made welcome according to the Jewish custom; they go on to announce that, 'One year from now we will return and Sarah will have borne a son'. A parallel with Since it was the day of preparation is the encounter with the divine, initially unrecognised, in a guise of the most ordinary folk, followed by a realisation which transforms.

The title, seemingly unrelated to this better-known scene, refers to the visitors' mission, which turns out to be one of vengeance. In a scene which may be more familiar to Jewish than to Christian listeners, Abraham pleads for mercy asking if, 'For fifty good deeds, the inhabitants of two towns would be spared?' In a scene which is the dramatic climax of the work, he then goes on to try to drive a better bargain on behalf of apparently unknown citizens, driving down the terms for the number of selfless acts or good deeds from fifty to 'five good men and true'. 

Christian listeners may see a foreshadowing of Christ as advocate in the forefather Abraham taking that role. Just as Sarah's persona is transformed by the at first improbable news of her approaching pregnancy, Abraham undergoes a personal transformation from the everyday figure of the opening scene to  take the courageous and surprising step of challenging the divine messengers; not once but repeatedly. Just as Abraham demonstrates the virtuous quality of hospitality, in arguing for that of mercy, the mantle of divine attributes seems to shift to him.

The final scene contrasts the spontaneous 'mercy' shown to Sarah and her husband contrasting with the seemingly harsh lack of the same meted out despite Abraham's intercessions on behalf of those living nearby. She sings:

“Months from now, with a babe in my arms,

Under these terebinths, on the cool grass,

I will sing, among the leaves, new songs

Of gratitude and terror, rescue and loss.

Will my newborn son see, as he blinks at the sky,

The thumbprints of smoke from a valley on fire?”

This is a short but intense and powerful work, and is well worth seeing. Its religious context contains emotions of universal human relevance. A further performance in Edinburgh is tomorrow (Sat 1^st  September) but it is repeated next weekend in Glasgow – details and booking on Scottish Opera's own website. American readers may be interested to know that there are plans for a future tour  of this work to Boston.

Cast : Janis Kelly (Sarah) Grant Doyle (Abraham) Christopher Diffey Adam Green, Eamonn Mulhall, The Orchestra of Scottish Opera Derek Clark (conductor)

James MacMillan premiere - Edinburgh Festival

Juliet Williams reports on the world premiere of James MacMillan's Since it was the day of preparation...  at the Edinburgh International Festival, with the Hebrides Ensemble and Synergy Vocals, Brindley Sherratt and William Conway (director and cello):

It was fitting that in this Year of Creative Scotland, the Edinburgh International Festival should honour James MacMillan's contribution to Scottish musical life with the premiere of a new work. 'Since it was the Day of Preparation' - co-commissioned by the Hebrides Ensemble who gave last night's performance in the historic setting of Greyfriars Kirk. This sets the final section of St John's Gospel from the removal of the body from the cross to the end of John's account, covering the period from Easter Eve until Pentecost.
 
The work is for a small group of singers and a small group of musicians, together with male soloist, variously baritone is in the original scoring but here the role was ably sung by the low operatic bass, Brindley Sheratt. Episodes of recitative for different vocal groupings, are interleaved with 'interludes' an extended cadenza for each instrument in turn and with other 'interludes' for the quintet as an ensemble (theorbo, cello, clarinet, horn and harp). These could in fact by excerpted and would stand on their own, either as short works showcasing each instrument, or possibly collectively. There are long passages for tenor (Andrew Busher) – who opens the entire work - and high baritone (Tom Bullard), not as described slightly confusingly in the programme, a bass, but very good, with a warm sweet tone. Both are very good, and the excellent acoustic meant every word was clearly audible, even at the back of the space.

Against this are placed periodically Latin liturgical texts, mainly from the Renaissance. The musical, liturgical and dramatic climax of the whole work comes early in the second act, when a piercing peal of sound from the clarinet symbolises the discovery of the empty tomb. This is an instrument MacMillan has written well for, and here his writing for it is at its finest. This vocal section, 'The Empty Tomb', is followed by an Interlude for that same instrument, perhaps pre-emininent amongst these and very ably played by Yann Ghiro, whose contribution to this performance was one of its highlights. The clarinet also features prominently in the ensemble interlude between the first two acts, which separates the burial scene from the discovery of the empty tomb; after quiet, dignified understated playing in the lower register by the other instruments, it enters to take the lead in a skirl-like dance which fades into a keening wail of mourning, being joined by the cello playing high in its register – a piece reminiscent of Tuireadh.

The difficulty of performing the role of Christ has been addressed previously here, in the context of the BBC Proms performance of Elgar's The Apostles. MacMillan creates a feeling of distance and otherwordliness by setting the soloists further back from the rest of the singers, and in this performance the use of the low bass voice added gravitas to the role. Brindley Sherratt's singing created an absolutely spine-tingling effect, further enhanced by the continuous use of bells whilst Christ's words were sung, recalling the effect of bells being used in the eucharistic prayers during a mass. Another of James MacMillan's religious works formed one of the programme items in Sunday's recital from the festival series at St Michael's Church. Kiss on Wood, for violin and cello, is also drawn from liturgy for Holy Week, this time an anthem for devotions on Good Friday. A small but powerful piece, it was ably and enjoyably performed there by Monika Geibel (violin) and Olja Buco (piano) – who also gave an excellent account of Elgar's Violin Sonata in E minor, Op 82 (both works influenced by wood as a material, as well as for a wooden instrument).

The Edinburgh Festival will be presenting more of of MacMillan's work next week in the shape of his Opera Clemency, one of a series of chamber operas commisioned by Scottish Opera and performed in turn on a nightly basis. Again a religious work, this time from the Old Testament rather than the New. I'll be reporting further for Opera Today. Since it was the Day of Preparation will be performed again in London during the autumn season this year. Last night's performers are also recording this work, to be released next Spring. Hebrides Ensemble can be heard again on tonight's Late Junction and at the Lammermuir Festival in east Lothian next month. Synergy Vocals will be returning to the Edinburgh Festival next year to perform Berio's Sinfonietta with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Brindley Sheratt will be appearing in a new production of Medea at the ENO.