MACMILLAN CONDUCTS MACMILLAN
LONDON
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Performers
- James MacMillan
- conductor
- David Childs
- euphonium
- Britten Sinfonia
Programme
- Bacewicz
- Concerto for strings (15')
- James MacMillan
- Euphonium Concerto: Where the Lugar meets the Glaisnock (English premiere) (25')
- Beethoven
- String Quartet Op.131 (arranged for string orchestra) (40')
Britten Sinfonia continues its close relationship with the music of Sir James MacMillan as the composer conducts his euphonium concerto, premiered in Cardiff in 2025.
James MacMillan brings together the sounds of the orchestra and brass band as he looks back to his upbringing in the small coal-mining Ayrshire town of Cumnock. The concerto is dedicated to both tonight’s soloist, David Childs, and MacMillan’s euphonium-playing grandfather.
The evening begins with a mid-century neoclassical concerto grosso by Grażyna Bacewicz, dubbed “The First Lady of Polish Music”, and ends with an arrangement, in the 200th anniversary year of his death, of Beethoven’s extraordinary late quartet – said to be his favourite and made up of seven uninterrupted movements.
