Boosey & Hawkes

James MacMillan 50th birthday: international celebrations

(March 2009)

James MacMillan’s 50th birthday falls on 16 July 2009 and this year brings a wealth of celebratory performances.

BBC Philharmonic birthday concert and RNCM focus
The BBC Philharmonic rounds off its nine-year association with James MacMillan as its Composer/Conductor on 29 April with a 50th birthday concert at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. MacMillan conducts Symphony No.3: Silence inspired by a Shusaku Endo novel, the Maundy Thursday meditation with concertante cor Anglais The World’s Ransoming, and Symphony No.5 by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies who he succeeded in the BBC Philharmonic role.

MacMillan hands the Composer/Conductor baton to HK Gruber and from 2010 takes up a new position as Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic with concerts planned in Amsterdam and Utrecht and recordings on the BIS label.

The BBC Philharmonic’s birthday concert is a highlight within the MacMillan Resonances series in Manchester entitled Raising Sparks, with three days of events at the Royal Northern College of Music and the Bridgewater Hall. Concerts include a wind, brass and organ programme including Sowetan Spring and Le Tombeau de Georges Roualt (28 April), chamber music programmes (29 April) and a final concert featuring Cumnock Fair and the song-cycle Raising Sparks (30 April). MacMillan will be attending the series, and taking part in talks and student events. On 9 May musicians from the RNCM travel to the Wigmore Hall in London for a MacMillan study day, exploring his chamber music through concerts and discussions with the composer.

For further information visit the RNCM website.

St John Passion in Berlin and Amsterdam
James MacMillan’s St John Passion, which won acclaim at its premiere last year by the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under Sir Colin Davis, receives its German and Dutch premieres in the coming months. On 14 March the Berlin Konzerthaus plays host to the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir conducted by Simon Halsey in a scenic presentation of the Passion with a solo dancer paired with baritone soloist Mark Stone, choreographed by Lars Scheibner. On 3 and 5 April Davis conducts concert performances by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra recently announced the work’s US premiere, scheduled for 21 January 2010 conducted by Davis. The St John Passion was recently released on disc by LSO Live, recorded at the premiere with Christopher Maltman as soloist (LSO 0671).

The Sixteen tours MacMillan
Throughout 2009 The Sixteen tours MacMillan on a choral pilgrimage jointly celebrating its own 30th anniversary, MacMillan’s 50th birthday and the 350th of Purcell. Harry Christophers conducts the programme at 21 of the UK’s most beautiful cathedrals and churches, featuring MacMillan’s O Bone Jesu, A Child’s Prayer and two of the recent Strathclyde Motets. In the coming months tour locations include Cambridge (13 March), Oxford (14 March), the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London (17 March), Norwich (22 May), Liverpool (5 June), Lichfield on MacMillan’s birthday (16 July) and York (17 July).

The tour programme will be released on disc on the Coro label in April (COR 16069), followed by a further May release including the first recording of MacMillan’s Padre Pio’s Prayer together with On the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, The Lamb has come for us from the House of David and A New Song (COR 16071).

For full tour details visit The Sixteen's website.

MacMillan in Rotterdam
The De Doelen arts centre in Rotterdam has been celebrating MacMillan’s 50th throughout the 2008/09 season, including concerts by the Rotterdam Chamber Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic in Symphony No.3 and most recently Quickening with The Hilliard Ensemble and numerous choirs and conservatoire orchestras. The final MacMillan event on 28 April includes the world premiere of Who Are These Angels? for string quartet and male voices, performed by the DoelenQwartet and Ensemble Amarcord. The UK premiere is scheduled for November at the ‘sound’ festival in North East Scotland featuring the Edinburgh Quartet.

New staging of Parthenogenesis at ROH
Katie Mitchell directs a new staging of MacMillan’s Parthenogenesis at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Studio Theatre in London opening on 11 June. This music theatre work, developed with poet Michael Symmons Roberts and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, explores a documented instance of virgin birth in wartime Germany and the ever-topical themes of genetics and cloning. As well as conducting the stage performances with the Britten Sinfonia, James MacMillan takes part in an insight evening exploring Parthenogenesis on 12 June.

LSO MacMillan portrait 2009/10
The London Symphony Orchestra has announced that for the 2009/10 season its Artist Portrait will focus on MacMillan in celebration of his 50th. On 2 July an LSO St Luke’s concert with Nicola Benedetti as part of the City of London Festival provides an upbeat to the feature, including the UK concert premiere of From Ayrshire. The main Barbican season includes MacMillan’s trumpet concerto Epiclesis (1 November) and a return of St John Passion (28 February 2010), and culminates in the world premiere of a new violin concerto for Vadim Repin conducted by Valery Gergiev (12 May 2010).

Watch a video of James MacMillan introducing the LSO events at www.boosey.com/av.

Additional MacMillan 50th birthday events at summer festivals will be announced over the coming months.

> Weitere Informationen zum Werk: St John Passion

Photo: Eric Richmond / ArenaPAL

> Nachrichtensuche

Melden Sie sich an für Updates und Angebote per E-Mail

ZUR REGISTRIERUNG

CANDIDE -

Wiederaufnahme von Leonard Bernsteins musikalischer Farce an der Staatsoperette Dresden (ab 4. Nov.). Studienpartitur und Klavierauszug des Werkes sind im Handel erhältlich.

LESEN SIE MEHR

Orchester- und Bühnenwerke