SKU: HL.49010417
ISBN 9783795762322. UPC: 841886017467. 5.25x7.5x0.098 inches. German.
Text in German.
SKU: HL.48024551
ISBN 9781784544393. UPC: 888680916695. 7.25x10.0x0.472 inches. Text: Jacopone de Todi.
Composed in 2015, Stabat Mater was commissioned by the Genesis Foundation for Harry Christophers and The Sixteen. Scored for mixed chorus and string orchestra, it is a long-awaited sequel to the early masterpiece Seven Last Words from the Cross (1993), for the same forces; indeed, the later work begins with the pianissimo 'dying breaths' with which the earlier score so unforgettably closes. Cast in four movements, Stabat Mater has a duration of 53 minutes. Following the premiere London's Financial Times commented that the composer speaks of a 'painful world of loss, violence, and spiritual desolation'. Both sides of MacMillan are to be found here, the devotional and the painter of bold, dramatic canvases - the former in the ethereal writing for solo and ensemble voices, the latter in the lacerating blows and feverish anxieties depicted in the string ensemble..
SKU: HL.48024806
ISBN 9781784543792. UPC: 888680978648. 8.25x11.75 inches.
Scored for baritone solo, small 'narrator' chorus, large chorus and orchestra, MacMillan's first Passion setting was composed in 2007. Lasting 87 minutes the work is divided into two parts, with 10 movements overall. As Paul Spicer has commented, “The originality of the St John Passion lies in MacMillan's ability to mix old with new, rather in the manner of Bach in his day. There are passages of sumptuous polyphony and there is a fresh look at the text where passages of Latin are interspersed with the Gospel story in English. In movement seven ('Jesus and his Mother'), MacMillan introduces not only part of the Stabat Mater but also his own words ('Lully, lulla, my dear darling'). The final movement, which is purely orchestral, is a kind of via doloroso march with a Scots lament over quite brass chords. The string writing here, with its elegiac cello lines, is deeply reminiscent of the early 20th-century English school. This should be the War Requiem of the 21st century.&rdquo.
