Review of King’s Lynn Festival’s Contemporary Consort with Sir James MacMillan at Town Hall: Very special evening was full of magical music
Reviewer Andy Tyler shares his thoughts on King’s Lynn Festival’s Contemporary Consort with Sir James MacMillan...
A very special musical event took place recently during the King’s Lynn Festival; one of our finest and distinguished contemporary British composers Sir James MacMillan came to Lynn Town Hall with The Contemporary Consort to take part in a fascinating question and answer session with festival artistic director Ambrose Miller.
After answering questions about his life and work, The Contemporary Consort, consisting of Sarah Thurlow (clarinet), Clare O’Connell (cello) and Iain Farrington (piano) gave thrilling performances of three works by Sir James: After the Tryst (1988), Motets I and lI from Since it was the day of Preparation (2011), and Kiss on Wood (1994), as well as Debussy’s Sonata for piano and cello and his Premiere Rhapsodie for clarinet and piano.
All performances were passionate, profound and technically immaculate.
The consort’s members all lead full and professional musical careers.
Sir James’s musical language is influenced greatly by his Scottish heritage, Catholic faith, social conscience and close connection with Celtic folk music, blended with influences from Far Eastern, Scandinavian and Eastern European music.
It was only the night before Sir James appeared on BBC 4 television at that night’s Promenade Concert, live from The Royal Albert Hall, where a fine performance of his choral-orchestral work: Timotheus, Bacchus and Cecilia was given its UK premiere, commissioned specially to celebrate Sir Mark Elder’s final concerts as music director of The Halle Orchestra.
We were certainly honoured to have Sir James, now an important internationally renowned composer, and The Contemporary Consort, appear at our town’s much-loved festival and perform a specially arranged encore for us.
After the magical music the composer and contemporary consort members mingled informally with members of the enthused audience, answering many questions!
Review by Andy Tyler
