Barbican Hall, London
Roderick Williams and Rhian Lois were the perfectly matched vocal soloists as James MacMillan conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in a ferociously committed performance of his own Christmas story
Many composers today maintain a safe distance from the intimidating associations of “symphony”, “concerto”, and other venerable classical genres. Scottish composer James MacMillan is not among them. His vast catalogue includes multiple symphonies, concertos and two passions – St Luke and St John – as well as his Christmas Oratorio, which was premiered in 2021. JS Bach’s 1734 version has become a festive classic, but MacMillan’s piece is no homage: although this 21st-century Christmas Oratorio speaks many musical languages, Bach’s is emphatically not among them.
Instead, it flits from delicately scored passages of chamber music to full-throttle climaxes for choir and orchestra, from percussive modernist spikiness to smooth, Brittenish almost-tonality, from pastiche renaissance polyphony to surging Hollywood film score. “I’m getting a lot of Harry Potter,” reported a bemused friend during the interval.
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