James MacMillan: Quickening

  
A large-scale work scored for counter-tenor, two tenors and baritone, children's choir, SATB choir and orchestra, exploring themes of birth, new life and new impulses. The writing is at one turn intimate and private, at the next epic and celebratory. The text is by Michael Symmons Roberts and the piece was commissioned by the BBC Proms, first performed in 1999. Difficulty: 5-6