MacMillan: Symphony No. 4 & Viola Concerto
Lawrence Power (viola), BBC Philharmonic, Martyn Brabbins
MacMillan’s Fourth is notable for its curious use of colour and texture…In some ways, the Viola concerto is similar in character and style to the Fourth Symphony and the pairing works well here....
MacMillan: Symphony No. 4 & Viola Concerto
Lawrence Power (viola), BBC Philharmonic, Martyn Brabbins
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MacMillan’s Fourth is notable for its curious use of colour and texture…In some ways, the Viola concerto is similar in character and style to the Fourth Symphony and the pairing works well here....
About
MacMillan’s viola concerto was written for Lawrence Power, who brings a unique authority to this, its first recording. The fourth symphony—a major addition to the repertoire—is a generous and appropriate coupling, both works incorporating and alchemically transforming musical elements from the distant past.
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Awards and reviews
July 2020
MacMillan’s Fourth is notable for its curious use of colour and texture…In some ways, the Viola concerto is similar in character and style to the Fourth Symphony and the pairing works well here. Soloist Lawrence Power, the work’s dedicatee, is sublime.
Nov/Dec 2020
The dramatic shape of the work is completely convincing and is full of fresh and engaging moments including (like the Fourth Symphony) evocations of viol consort music and psalm tones, an extended flute solo inspired by the Japanese shakuhachi, and some of the ecstatic orchestral outbursts that always make a MacMillan orchestral piece exhilarating.
August 2020
Both the solo viola’s effervescent and introspective qualities are brought vividly to the surface in a subtly graded and nuanced performance by Lawrence Power. By comparison, MacMillan’s Symphony No 4 at times resembles a supercharged concerto for orchestra, with each instrument given its moment to shine (including solo viola).
September 2020
Viola concerto is a 21st-century classic in the hands of a passionate advocate ... Power has made the piece thoroughly his own
