I don't often read the BBC Music Magazine these days, but a copy of it
caught my eye on the news-stand as I pushed my trolley round a supermarket
this evening on my way home from work.  I stopped for a quick read and
was delighted to learn that BIS are releasing a CD of the BBC Radio 3
broadcasts of James MacMillan's "Triduum" Easter Trilogy - "The World's
Ransoming", which is a cor anglais concerto in all but name, the cello
concerto that Rostropovich premiered a couple of years ago, and the
symphony "Vigil".

I heard "The World's Ransoming" a few years ago, and it's a very fine
piece.  It was written for the LSO's cor anglais specialist, Christine
Pendrill, and she is the soloist on the recording, although the orchestra
is the BBC Scottish under the excellent Osmo Vanska.  I also heard the
premiere of "Vigil" in autumn 97.  I felt then that it wasn't completely
successful, but it's amazing how much of it has stayed in my mind and I can
recall after only one hearing.  Says something for the impact it made.
Despite my well-known enthusiasm for MacMillan's music, I still haven't
heard the cello concerto.

I've immediately put this recording at number one on my "must buy" list.
According to the magazine it's available now, so I shall head for Oxford
Street on Saturday to get my hands on a copy.  Ilford, the part of London
where I live, has many virtues but a decent record shop is not one of
them!  I expect I'll report on my reactions to the disc when I've had
a few listens, but in the meantime I urge everyone with an interest in
contemporary music to have a serious think about getting hold of it.  BIS
and the BBC are to be congratulated in getting together to release these
recordings (last time I spoke to MacMillan a few months ago he said he
didn't have much hope of any of these pieces getting a commercial recording
in the immediate future!), and there's no better way to encourage them to
do more of the same than by buying the disc.  If enough of us do it, we
might get them to release the clarinet concerto "Ninian" (IMO MacMillan's
masterpiece to date) and the opera "Ines de Castro".  And "Tuireadh" in
both versions, and "Epiclesis", and plenty more . .  .

Ian
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