MacMillan: The Confession of Isobel Gowdie

“Sir Colin Davis and the LSO bring out the mainstream qualities of James MacMillan's orchestral music. With such assured playing, you're more conscious than ever of the ways in which both these works offer new angles on that archetypal battle between good and evil in which rampant percussion and snarling wind and brass fail to prevail against aspiring strings.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2008

“The Confession of Isobel Gowdie, inspired by the brutal witch-hunts that took place in post-Reformation Scotland, has become of the composer's signature works since its enthusiastic reception at the Proms in 1990. The composer's Third Symphony… here recorded for the first time. ...is a hauntingly ambivalent study at both the musical and philosophical levels, with themes and textures arising seemingly from their own absence, interacting and developing, then being allowed to return to their origins. Both works are conducted by MacMillan with the kind of passion that characterises so much of his work as a composer, internalised yet compellingly communicative. The BBC Philharmonic responds in kind with the most committed of performances...” BBC Music Magazine, May 2005 *****

“The development of MacMillan’s art, which these two works personify, is one of the more exciting in British music in recent years, and this record joins the earlier Chandos releases of his music as an issue of major importance.” International Record Review

“The emotional power of the writing is irresistable, as well as the colour and variety of the instrumentation...This performance, conducted by the composer, brings out the vividness of the writing as well as the concentration of argument.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“Whistles and whoops greeted this invigorating première.” The Telegraph, December 2007 (on the Higdon)

“Exciting music, excitingly performed; from Alsop you expect nothing else.” The Times, February 2007 (on the MacMillan)

“…a moving, compelling performance, and coupled with strong accounts of the phenomenal Adès Chamber Symphony… and Jennifer Higdon's essentially old-fashioned but well-wrought Percussion Concerto, this disc would make an excellent present for an open-minded new music agnostic.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2009 *****

“Vivid accounts of visceral, career-launching contemporary works. Where Adès intrigues listeners, James MacMillan fairly bludgeons them into submission with The Confession of Isobel Gowdie… Marin Alsop, moreover, has its measure far more than Sir Colin Davis, while the LPO give everything in an account that should convince those hearing the piece for the first time.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2009

“Not the least notable aspects of this CD are the two works, both dating from 1990, that launched their composers' careers. In Thomas Adès's Chamber Symphony, an often oblique musical syntax binds fragmentary ideas and textures into a cumulative whole; its motifs moving purposefully through a 'slow movement' and 'scherzo' before finding repose in an exquisite coda. All the more pity, then, that this vivid but fallible reading does not quite match that by the composer.
Where Adès intrigues listeners, James Mac- Millan fairly bludgeons them into submission with The Confession of Isobel Gowdie, though this depiction of a 17th-century Scottish woman tortured then burnt at the stake for witchcraft could hardly afford to be self-effacing. And the initial accumulation of intensity, spilling over into an extended onslaught then recalling the opening in expressively heightened terms before the accusatory final crescendo, is nothing if not powerful. Marin Alsop has its measure, while the LPO give everything in an account that should convince those hearing the piece for the first time.
Jennifer Higdon's Percussion Concerto (2005) might also be found engaging on first hearing.
The solo part, dispatched with aplomb by Colin Currie, is disappointingly limited in its invention and rhythmic profile, while the orchestral part – a mild distillation of Stravinskian and Coplandesque gestures – is unlikely to set the pulse racing. The sound and booklet are on a par with earlier LPO releases, however, making this disc well worth investigating for the Mac- Millan alone.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010