Macmillan: Stabat Mater – The Sixteen

   in Choir & Organ (May, 2017)
Critics and audiences alike warmly received this major new work from MACMILLAN when it was premiered and toured in the autumn of last year by the same forces as on this CD. I attended a performance in Norwich which received a standing ovation from an audience I wouldn’t necessarily have thought was particularly conversant with MacMillan’s work. That’s not intended to be a patronising observation about Norwich audiences; rather, it suggests to me how MacMillan’s visceral approach to word-setting can generate genuine and immediate emotional involvement in his listeners. Standing in the tradition of the great settings of the Stabat Mater, MacMillan’s version lasts for around an hour (on the CD …