MacMillan “St. John Passion” premiere in Boston

Tonight marks the U.S. premiere of James MacMillan’s St. John Passion (not an SDG project), presented by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The BSO has a great collection of video and audio footage contextualizing this MacMillan piece at http://www.bso.org/bso/mods/content1.jsp?id=40900010  Also worth checking out is the collection of composer interviews currently featured on the BSO’s YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/bostonsymphony, which includes a brief bio on MacMillan and interviews with composers John Harbison and Osvaldo Golijov. Harbison comments on the musical history of the Passion genre. Golijov comments on the challenge of composing his acclaimed St. Mark Passion as a Jew approaching the Passion story.

In the video below, an interviewer asks MacMillan if he considers him (the interviewer) to be “Satan…the Devil in disguise”, a reference to MacMillan’s comments on anti-religious sentiment in the media. Interesting comments follow. What a way to kick off an interview!

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More on MacMillan’s media/religion-related comments here.

January 21, 2010 | Filed Under Interviews, Videos, New Music | Leave a Comment