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In September the BBC Philharmonic kicked off its new relationship with James MacMillan with a week-long city-wide festival built around the composer/conductor.
MacMillan in Manchester featured two major concerts at the Bridgewater Hall and the Royal Northern College of Music, recordings and workshops. Works performed during the festival included Veni, Veni, Emmanuel (with percussionist Colin Currie) Brittania, Magnificat, Into the Ferment, Exsultet, They saw the stone had been rolled away, Raising Sparks, Cumnock Fair and his Second Symphony. In addition to conducting the BBC Philharmonic, MacMillan led several student ensembles in performances of his works, and gave composition workshops. “...the overwhelming impression of the three MacMillan works together was the range of his invention. There was not a moment that lacked a burning intensity. We can safely predict that MacMillan’s tenure with the BBC Philharmonic will be a continued triumph.” (The Guardian)
Earlier in the month, MacMillan conducted the world premiere of his newest work, Parthenogenesis, at the Cambridge Corn Exchange. Lisa Milne, Christopher Purves and actress Anastasia Hille joined forces with the Britten Sinfonia for this exciting new music-theatre piece with a libretto by Michael Symmons Roberts.
In August the Edinburgh Festival, which has featured much of MacMillan’s music over the years, presented MacMillan as a conductor in an all-Britten programme by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra with soloists Ian Bostridge, Lisa Milne and Catherine Wyn-Rogers.
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