NOTE • Click on the button and you can buy the disc or read the booklet details • You can also access each track which you may then sample or down load. • Further Information.

Fourteen Little Pictures for piano trio and the First Cello Sonata are the most ambitious works in this cross-selection of MacMillan’s recent chamber music, at least up to 1999, for he has composed a Second Cello Sonata as well as several other short chamber pieces in the meantime.

A commission from the BBC to mark the 25^th anniversary of the trio founded by Peter Frankl, György Pauk and Ralph Kirschbaum, Fourteen Little Pictures is actually much more than a mere suite of short, contrasted episodes. Actually, MacMillan tightly organised his material which, in spite of huge dynamic or emotional contrasts, is based on several linking elements strengthening the overall structure of this single movement piece playing for more than twenty minutes. The music’s emotional palette often draws on extremes, ranging from utter, almost folk-like simplicity to unbridled ferocity. The composer nevertheless keeps the whole proceeding under tight control and demonstrates once again his formal mastery in developing long-term structures.

Much of the same can be said of the First Cello Sonata although, on the whole, it is a much more complex and intricate piece, as well as emotionally more elusive. Once again, the music runs the whole gamut of MacMillan’s expressive palette in which jigs and folk rhythms make fleeting appearances and are often confronted with or opposed to more abrasive outbursts, sometimes almost unreconcilably so as in the first movement when the cello’s sorrowful song is counterpointed by a lively Jig heard from afar, as in a dream. (This episode is briefly restated at the close of the second movement.)

Kiss on Wood was originally written for violin and piano, and the present arrangement for cello and piano was made by the composer for Raphael Wallfisch. It is a paraphrase on a Good Friday versicle sung when the Cross is slowly unveiled and before the people are invited to kiss the wood of the Cross. A most moving short work representative of MacMillan’s religious concerns often at the heart of his music.

Three short miniatures for piano complete this comprehensive survey of MacMillan’s chamber music, superbly played by Raphael Wallfisch and John York who have a long working association with MacMillan, and by members of The Nash Ensemble who deliver a wonderful reading of Fourteen Little Pictures, a major work in the composer’s output in spite of its rather deceptive, diminutive title. Warmly recommended.

Hubert Culot

CD Price: £ 11.50 Post-free Air Mail World-wide
- Download Price:
£ 7.11
Buy CD:
Download all tracks:

FREE SOUND SAMPLES
(minimum 30 secs)

14 Little Pictures

Angel

Lumen Christi

Cello Sonata no.1
Mvt. 1: Face

Cello Sonata no.1 Mvt 2: Image

A Cecilian Variation for JFK

Kiss on Wood


You require QuickTime to listed to samples.

Get a free QuickTime download here

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION • You can sample only 30 seconds (or 15% if that is longer) of a given track. Select from the View tracks list. Each sample will normally start from the beginning but you can drag the slider to any position before pressing play. • PLEASE NOTE: If you are behind a firewall and the sound is prematurely terminated you may need to register Ludwig as a trusted source with your firewall software. •You will need Quicktime to hear sound samples. Get a free Quicktime download here • If you cannot see the "Sample All Tracks" button you need to download Flash from here.

Return to Index