Martyn Brabbins and the Nash Ensemble here offer a superb recording premiere of a major work by James MacMillan. Like much of his music, it has a religious base. The big difference this time is that whereas his source of inspiration generally lies at the heart of his Roman Catholicism, this time is it the Jewish tradition. RaisingSparks, a 35-minute cantata on the theme of creation and redemption, is inspired by a poem by Michael Symmons Roberts and by the writing of the Jewish author, Menahem Nahum; the work takes one inexorably through a kaleidoscopic sequence of symbolic images, with one vivid simile piled on another in Roberts's striking language.
MacMillan, for whom the poems were written, responds to the poet's verbal colour with musical ideas, often onomatopoeic but always striking and dramatic, within a taut musical structure.
The vocal line, though taxing, is more lyrical than in many new works, superbly sung by Jane Rigby, while the instrumental accompaniment is endlessly inventive, with the piano (the masterly Ian Brown) generally the central instrument in the ensemble, with the fifth of the songs accompanied simply by the occasional note sounded on the piano and no more. Otherwise Brown leads the Nash players in a totally committed performance, very well recorded.
The four piano works which come as coupling find the pianist John York just as dedicated. The Piano Sonata of 1985 in three movements is much the most demanding, far grittier than the rest, inspired by the extreme winter of that year.
It remains so potent in MacMillan's mind that he used it as the basis for his Second Symphony of 1999. The first of the piano pieces, For Ian, then brings release into pure tonality and lyricism, a strathspey full of Scottish-snap rhythms.
After that Birthday Present seems a sombre gift, musically striking nonetheless, and the final Barncleupédie (1990) rounds things off lightheartedly.
Backing up a masterly major work, these are occasional pieces which readily earn their place.