He's Scottish You Know

Music from contemporary Scottish composer James MacMillan by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the composer himself. The pieces are Britannia, The Beserking ( which features a solo piano part played by Martin Roscoe ) and Into The Ferment. MacMillan's music always seems to be considered in terms of his Scottishness and his Catholicism. The works on this cd concentrate more on the former, although Britannia broadens out to cover the whole of the UK. A bit like some of Charles Ives's pieces, it throws in numerous quotations from folk and old time popular song; Roll Out The Barrel, Knees Up Mother Brown, God Save The Queen, Liliburlero can all be discerned amongst an orchestral riot. Elements of that approach also infect The Beserking with its' football song influences. I'm not sure this piece hangs together too well, the soft quiet piano interludes interspersed with loud dissonant orchestral interruptions sounds wilful rather than thought through at times. Into The Ferment is based on some Robert Burns verses, although it is an instrumental work. For me this works better than The Beserking while demonstrating many of the same traits.