マクミラン: 交響曲第5番 《ル・グランタンコニュ》

ザ・シックスティーン新録音!
マクミランの合唱交響曲世界初録音!

1979年にハリー・クリストファーズが結成し、40年以上にわたって世界最高峰の水準を維持し続けてきた合唱界の至宝、ザ・シックスティーン。スコットランドのリーディング・コンポーザー、ジェイムズ・マクミラン(b.1959)とは「ミゼレーレ」(COR16096)、「スターバト・マーテル」(COR16150)で世界初演&初録音を行い大きな成功を収めてきました。新たなマクミランとのコラボレーションは、ジェネシス財団の委嘱により、ハリー・クリストファーズとザ・シックスティーンのために書かれた合唱交響曲。2019年8月にエディンバラ国際音楽祭で行われた世界初演が絶賛され、バービカン・ホールで行なわれたロンドン初演のライヴ・パフォーマンスがこのCDに収録されています。
東京エムプラス

Rapturous reports have been coming out of Britain about James MacMillans Symphony No. 5: Le grand inconnu, or The Great Unknown. The reports are true. This is a sacred choral symphony unlike anything that has been heard for many years, and it is of great interest to listeners of any spiritual outlook. MacMillans sacred music has mostly had a personal and devotional tinge, but the Symphony No. 5 is something else entirely: a sprawling, sonically vast work embodying, as the title suggests, the most abstract of Christian concepts, the Holy Spirit. Mahler might come to mind for the sheer sweep of the thing, but Holst is a better comparison, with his valiant attempts to slip the surly bonds of earth. MacMillans three movements are titled Ruah, Zao, and Igne vel igne (Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, respectively, for Breath, Living Water, and Fire or Fire). Conductor Harry Christophers The Sixteen choir intones these terms at the beginnings of the three movements, which then expand into biblical passages (some sung by soloists) and prayers of St. John of the Cross, but the heart of the work is in the instrumentation -- whether or not that is paradoxical for a sacred work depends on ones outlook. There is a dizzying variety of sounds, including breathing by the choir and some brilliant work on natural horns. Generally, each movement works toward the kind of choral consonance for which MacMillan is generally known, but the journey to that point involves numerous twists and turns. Larger structures of this kind have never been Christophers specialty, but he keeps everything on track, and the Britten Sinfonia manages the technical demands. The Sun Danced, for soprano, chorus, and orchestra, depicts an apparition of bizarre solar phenomenon prophesied in 1916 by the same Portuguese children who proffered Three Secrets of Fatima; its another big, mystical work that makes a perfect curtain-raiser here. It will be interesting to hear the worlds top symphony orchestras essay the MacMillan symphony, as they surely will, but there will also always be much to recommend in this world premiere recording.