# James McMillan CD recommendations?



## poptart (Jul 15, 2013)

I've recently become aware of composer James McMillan. From what I can find on Youtube it's mostly religious and choral, but being new to his music I wondered if anyone can give a personal recommendation for any of the bewildering array of his CDs available. All comments gratefully received.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Perhaps this helps :

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/c/MacMillan/all/1


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I started with Veni, Veni Emmanuel, a percussion concerto. Still love it. Got the original version by Evelyn Glennie on the Catalyst label, but I see there is also a CD on Naxos.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Sir Colin's two MacMillan disc's on LSO Live are not bad at all!



















But as ArtRock said above "Veni veni" with Eve Glenne is a percussion staple that anyone interested in MacMillan's work should sample and own! 
(Most of his self conducted releases on Chandos and Bis are fine, but I often find his emphasis on christanity/catholisism overbearing! :devil

/ptr


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I'd also recommend Tryst for chamber orchestra - there's a recording on Koch Schwann with Jerzy Maksymiuk conducting the BBC Scottish SO. Tryst is twinned with the above-referenced The Confession of Isobel Gowdie, one of MacMillan's better-known orchestral works.


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## Medtnaculus (May 13, 2015)

He has an outstanding piece for brass band titled Jebel. Dunno if it's available anywhere, though.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

For something rather more different than the above, try his second piano concerto. The first movement started off as a ballet but he then added the other two movements. It is a very approachable work, one that leave you humming some of its themes. There is a good Chandos disk of it which also has _A Scotch Bestiary_. Its subtitle - Enigmatic variations on a zoological carnival at a Caledonian exhibition for organ and orchestra - gives an idea of what to expect.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Though I certainly need to hear more of MacMillan's work, he's one of my favourite living composers.
My immediate thoughts are to go for The Confession of Isobel Gowdie and Veni, Veni Emmanuel, mentioned above.

Also try his Seven Last Words from the Cross, a powerful choral work. This is one of his more intense religious works; MacMillan's Catholicism is central to his music, and a lot of people resist it. I don't share his beliefs but the music works for me.

An album released last year that really impressed me was one of music for string quartet, performed by the Edinburgh Quartet (Delphian Records).
And this year saw the release on Harmonia Mundi of his fine oboe concerto, performed by Nicholas Daniel (along with some Vaughan Williams).


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## poptart (Jul 15, 2013)

Thanks so much for all your suggestions, you have certainly given me a lot to work through. I've made a start by ordering The World's Ransoming/Confession of Isobel Goudie and Miserere/Tenebrae Responsories/Strathclyde Motets.

Funny thing happened after I had listened to the Strathclyde Motets yesterday. Went to make the evening meal, switched on the radio and what should be playing but ..Strathclyde Motets. Took that as divine intervention.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

I've been looking through old magazine articles recently, and came across one on MacMillan in a _BBC Music Magazine_ of 2006.
This comment is a reasonable summation of his music, I think:


> His aim has always been to reach beyond what he calls the 'new music ghetto', but without turning his back on what the great modernists achieved. His music is full of the things that often make new music seem difficult and off-putting: fierce dissonance, lurching irregular rhythms, scalding orchestral sounds involving high brass and clattering percussion. And the textures are often as complex and many-layered as a piece by Charles Ives. But because these devices are put at the service of raw emotional expression, audiences have taken them in their stride.


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