Marin Alsop conducts MacMillan, Adès and Higdon

…a moving, compelling performance, and coupled with strong accounts of the phenomenal Adès Chamber Symphony… and Jennifer Higdon's essentially old-fashioned but well-wrought Percussion Concerto,... — BBC Music Magazine, January 2009, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 29th Sep 2008
Catalogue No: LPO0035
Label: LPO
Length: 60 minutes

Grammy Awards

52nd Awards (2009)

Best Contemporary Classical Composition

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MacMillan: The Confession of Isobel Gowdie

Work length24:15

Album only

Marin Alsop, London Philharmonic Orchestra

Adès: Chamber Symphony

Work length12:39

$4.00

$5.20

Marin Alsop, London Philharmonic Orchestra

Track length5:34

$1.00

$1.30

Track length3:26

$1.00

$1.30

III

Track length1:50

$1.00

$1.30

Track length1:49

$1.00

$1.30

Higdon: Percussion Concerto

Work length23:30

Album only

Marin Alsop, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Colin Currie

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These live recordings of three modern classics reflect the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s strong commitment to contemporary composers. The first two are breakthrough works from 1990 by British composers Thomas Adès and James MacMillan, the third a spectacular concerto by Jennifer Higdon, one of America’s most successful composers. Marin Alsop and Colin Currie give impassioned performances revealing the full range of emotions contained in the music. Marin Alsop has made many previous recordings with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. These include the entire set of Brahms symphonies and a number of contemporary works by the orchestra’s Composer in Residence Mark-Anthony Turnage.

Reviews

January 2009

…a moving, compelling performance, and coupled with strong accounts of the phenomenal Adès Chamber Symphony… and Jennifer Higdon's essentially old-fashioned but well-wrought Percussion Concerto, this disc would make an excellent present for an open-minded new music agnostic.

2010

Not the least notable aspects of this CD are the two works, both dating from 1990, that launched their composers' careers. In Thomas Adès's Chamber Symphony, an often oblique musical syntax binds fragmentary ideas and textures into a cumulative whole; its motifs moving purposefully through a 'slow movement' and 'scherzo' before finding repose in an exquisite coda. All the more pity, then, that this vivid but fallible reading does not quite match that by the composer.
Where Adès intrigues listeners, James Mac- Millan fairly bludgeons them into submission with The Confession of Isobel Gowdie, though this depiction of a 17th-century Scottish woman tortured then burnt at the stake for witchcraft could hardly afford to be self-effacing. And the initial accumulation of intensity, spilling over into an extended onslaught then recalling the opening in expressively heightened terms before the accusatory final crescendo, is nothing if not powerful. Marin Alsop has its measure, while the LPO give everything in an account that should convince those hearing the piece for the first time.
Jennifer Higdon's Percussion Concerto (2005) might also be found engaging on first hearing.
The solo part, dispatched with aplomb by Colin Currie, is disappointingly limited in its invention and rhythmic profile, while the orchestral part – a mild distillation of Stravinskian and Coplandesque gestures – is unlikely to set the pulse racing. The sound and booklet are on a par with earlier LPO releases, however, making this disc well worth investigating for the Mac- Millan alone.

February 2009

Vivid accounts of visceral, career-launching contemporary works. Where Adès intrigues listeners, James MacMillan fairly bludgeons them into submission with The Confession of Isobel Gowdie… Marin Alsop, moreover, has its measure far more than Sir Colin Davis, while the LPO give everything in an account that should convince those hearing the piece for the first time.

December 2007

Whistles and whoops greeted this invigorating première.

February 2007

Exciting music, excitingly performed; from Alsop you expect nothing else.

Marin Alsop conducts MacMillan, Adès and Higdon

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