CHAN 10092 BOOK.Qxd 23/4/07 10:52 Am Page 2
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
CHAN 10092 Front.qxd 23/4/07 10:51 am Page 1 CHAN 10092 CHANDOS james macmillan into the ferment • the berserking • britannia premiere recording martin roscoe piano CHAN 10092 BOOK.qxd 23/4/07 10:52 am Page 2 James MacMillan (b. 1959) 1 Britannia (1994) 12:42 The Berserking (1989)* 31:22 Andrew FarringtonAndrew A Concerto for Piano and Orchestra 2 e = 140+ Energico – 9:10 3 q = 60 – 12:52 4 e = 104 9:20 premiere recording Into the Ferment (1988, revised 2002) 23:27 for ensemble and orchestra 5 ‘The Storm’ – 1:43 orchestra and ensemble 6 ‘Here are we met, three merry boys’ – 2:26 3 orchestral trombones and ensemble 7 ‘In dispraise of whisky’ – 1:56 orchestra only 8 ‘We are na’ fou’!’ – 3:03 ensemble only James MacMillan 9 ‘It is the moon, I ken her horn’ – 2:57 orchestra and ensemble 3 CHAN 10092 BOOK.qxd 23/4/07 10:52 am Page 4 MacMillan: Into the Ferment etc. Listeners who know James MacMillan But the central idea behind all three works is 10 ‘Three merry boys again’ (sometime later) – 2:25 through his most popular works – such as not religious exultation, but other, much more orchestra only The Confession of Isobel Gowdie (1990) for worldly kinds of intoxication: the hyped-up, 11 ‘Wha’ first shall rise to gang awa’’ – 2:58 orchestra or the percussion concerto Veni, Veni, alcohol-fuelled exhilaration of a football crowd ensemble only Emmanuel (1992) – will no doubt have a clear in The Berserking (1989), the swaggering self- 12 ‘Man to man… shall brithers be…’ – 3:41 understanding of this composer’s central beliefs aggrandisement of militant nationalism in orchestra only and concerns. He is a devout, but by no means Britannia, and the joys of sociable whisky- 13 Finale 2:18 otherworldly Roman Catholic. His beliefs have tasting in Into the Ferment. orchestra and ensemble been strongly influenced by Latin American The initial stimulus for The Berserking TT 67:54 liberation theology, as well as by more came whilst MacMillan was watching a football humanistic brands of left-wing thinking. He is match between his own team, Glasgow Celtic, Martin Roscoe piano* Scottish born and raised, and while his and Partisan Belgrade. Celtic, MacMillan tells Catholicism in some ways marks him out from us, ‘turned in a characteristically passionate, BBC Philharmonic the majority in modern Scotland (still very much frenzied, but ultimately futile display’. The Yuri Torchinsky leader a Protestant culture), he has a deep love for his whole thing struck MacMillan as a vivid James MacMillan country’s exceptionally rich folk traditions, and a illustration of ‘the Scots’ seeming facility for keen, at times painful awareness of what its shooting themselves in the foot in political people have suffered at the hands of its and, for that matter, in sporting endeavours’. It powerful neighbour to the south. reminded him of stories of the ancient Celtic But the three pieces recorded here broaden and Viking ‘Berserkers’, warriors who would that understanding – and in possibly work themselves into an aggressive frenzy on surprising directions. MacMillan’s humanism mead and ‘magic mushrooms’ and plunge radiates through the closing pages of Into the headlong into wild, often suicidal attacks. In Ferment (1988, rev. 2002), and Celtic the opening of The Berserking we can follow influences can be heard quite clearly in all the gradual, carefully orchestrated build-up as three works. The note of protest – familiar woodwind and brass click their keys and from The Confession of Isobel Gowdie – valves rhythmically, soon joined by strings sounds again momentarily in Britannia (1994). pounding, slapping and tapping their 4 5 CHAN 10092 BOOK.qxd 23/4/07 10:52 am Page 6 instruments with hands and bows – in fact Here the strings lead the way. The third section especially in the lovely violin solo that into Burns’s ‘three merry boys’. Whisky is doing just about everything except producing returns to masculine frenzy, building in repeatedly interrupts the strutting theme from praised – or rather ‘dispraised’ – to the tune notes the normal way! When the tension intensity to an explosive climax underlined by Cockaigne. MacMillan does not take sides – at of a Scottish jig, after which the solo reaches its height, pitch at last erupts onto the three snare drums. But this fades, and a very least not national-ethnic sides. His vision of the ensemble portrays drink-sodden mood swings, scene, with tightly repetitive figures alternating different kind of music emerges from the dust British Isles is of a land full of musical riches – along with the boys’ protestations that they between full orchestra and solo piano. The and rubble: rhythmically even freer than the appropriate for a work partly commissioned by are not really drunk (‘We are na’ fou’!’). The whole first section of The Berserking slow movement’s ecstatic heterophony – piano, the Association of British Orchestras. But moon beckons in a beautiful orchestral expresses what MacMillan calls ‘misdirected celesta and harp are directed to play ad lib., MacMillan also shows the obverse side: in his nocturne, then the revelry starts again, rising energy’: music that seems full of sound and rubato, senza misura (‘without beat’) – it is also own words, ‘xenophobia and its negative, to virtuoso displays of boasting from solo fury, but is incapable of going anywhere or much calmer, resembling a child’s music box unsavoury brand of nationalism’. horn, trumpet and trombone. But the resolving itself. slowly winding down. At the end, when The final message of Into the Ferment is rodomontade sputters out, and strings lead a Exhilarating as this first section is, there is violence has exhausted itself, a kind of timeless unequivocally positive, even though the simple but eloquent hymn. ‘Behind the also, MacMillan admits, ‘something pathetically purity prevails. depictions of convivial drunkenness in the frivolity’, MacMillan tells us, ‘there is a serious masculine’ about it. In such case the following Subversive humour, often in the background earlier stages would once have demanded a message – that friendship and brotherhood slow section (roughly corresponding to the in The Berserking, leaps to the fore in more respectably ‘moral’ conclusion – are being strengthened by this occasion.’ The central slow movement of a classical or Britannia. The work soon develops into a crazy especially in a work written for impressionable result of the ‘ferment’ is ultimately an romantic concerto) offers a contemplative Ivesian collage of folk tunes, drinking songs youngsters (Into the Ferment was affirmation of humane values, celebrated with ‘feminine’ counterbalance. This soothing, lyrical and military band music. Listeners may catch commissioned by The Scottish Chamber fireworks as soloists and orchestra re-combine music has an almost improvisatory quality, the passing hints of ‘Roll out the barrel’, Orchestra and the Ayr Schools Symphony for a short, rousing Finale. effect enhanced by elements of Celtic folk ‘Lilliburlero’, ‘God save the Queen’ and the Orchestra). Based on Robert Burns’s poem melody, but it is in fact carefully constructed. swaggering march theme of Elgar’s Cockaigne. Willie brew’d a peck o’ maut (each section © 2003 Stephen Johnson Based on a modal melodic series of eighteen But not long after the beginning there are two bears a quotation from this or other Robert notes, it starts with note 1 (piano), gradually fleeting memories of the impassioned string Burns poems), and scored for youth orchestra Willie brew’d a peck o’ maut adding new notes, i.e.: 1, 2; 1, 2, 3; 1, 2, 3, 4 threnody in The Confession of Isobel Gowdie, plus a concertante ensemble of fourteen O Willie brew’d a peck o’ maut, and so on. At the heart of this section MacMillan’s ‘requiem’ for an early martyr of professionals, it depicts the festivities of three And Rob and Allan cam to see; MacMillan echoes one of the most Scottish Protestant paranoia. There is plenty of friends, Rob, Allan and Willie, who get Three blyther hearts, that lee-lang night, extraordinary sounds in European folk music: coarse knockabout comedy, turning more together one evening to test Willie’s latest Ye wad na found in Christendie. the unaccompanied psalm singing native to the violent towards the close, but there are also home-brew. Into the Ferment, like Malcolm Chorus: Scottish Hebridean Islands, in which the recollections of the ‘feminine’ lyrical rapture of Arnold’s great Burns-inspired tone poem Tam We are na’ fou’! We’re nae that fou’, staggered entries of voices on the same basic the slow central section of The Berserking – O’ Shanter, opens with a vivid evocation of a But just a drappie in our e’e! melody create an overlapping texture, a kind of Celtic elements again, but the listener may also storm brewing; then the three orchestral The cock may craw, the day may daw, free-floating ecstatic polyphony (heterophony). be reminded of the music of Vaughan Williams, trombones effortlessly transform themselves And aye we’ll taste the barley-bree! 6 7 CHAN 10092 BOOK.qxd 23/4/07 10:52 am Page 8 Here are we met, three merry boys, the Royal Northern College of Music in Hall as well as touring all over the world international orchestras including the New Three merry boys I trow are we; Manchester, and has been awarded an and recording programmes for BBC Radio 3. York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, And mony a night we’ve merry been, Honorary Doctorate of Music from the It has built an international reputation for Boston Symphony Orchestra, Montreal And mony mae we hope to be! University of Hull. outstanding quality and committed Symphony Orchestra and Rotterdam It is the moon, I ken her horn, performances over an immensely wide- Philharmonic Orchestra.