James MacMilllan Christmas Oratorio (Live) Lucy Crowe, Roderick Williams, London Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir & Mark Elder

• James MacMillan (b. 1959): Christmas Oratorio:
• 1 MacMillan: Christmas Oratorio: Sinfonia 1 (Live) 04:16
• 2 MacMillan: Christmas Oratorio: Chorus 1 (Live) 06:57
• 3 MacMillan: Christmas Oratorio: Aria 1 (Live) 05:35
• 4 MacMillan: Christmas Oratorio: Tableau 1 (Live) 12:27
• 5 MacMillan: Christmas Oratorio: Aria 2 (Live) 06:09
• 6 MacMillan: Christmas Oratorio: Chorus 2 (Live) 05:08
• 7 MacMillan: Christmas Oratorio: Sinfonia 2 (Live) 04:12
• 8 MacMillan: Christmas Oratorio: Sinfonia 3 (Live) 04:10
• 9 MacMillan: Christmas Oratorio: Chorus 3 (Live) 05:14
• 10 MacMillan: Christmas Oratorio: Aria 3 (Live) 07:18
• 11 MacMillan: Christmas Oratorio: Tableau 2 (Live) 11:59
• 12 MacMillan: Christmas Oratorio: Aria 4 (Live) 08:44
• 13 MacMillan: Christmas Oratorio: Chorus 4 (Live) 05:57
• 14 MacMillan: Christmas Oratorio: Sinfonia 4 (Live) 05:57
• Total Runtime 01:34:03

Info for James MacMilllan Christmas Oratorio (Live)

This recording captures the UK premiere performance of the work, which was given at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall on 4 December 2021. It features the London Philharmonic Choir, soprano Lucy Crowe and baritone Roderick Williams as the soloists, conducted by Sir Mark Elder.

Composed in 2019, the work centres around the birth of Jesus and reflects MacMillan’s Scottish roots and Catholic faith. The work is split into two parts, with seven movements each and each part begins and ends with short orchestral movements. The Choruses are mostly Latin liturgical texts, with the exception of the final one, which is a Scottish lullaby. The Arias are settings of poems by Robert Southwell, John Donne and John Milton, and the two central Tableaux are biblical accounts from the Gospels of Matthew in Part 1, and St John in Part 2.

Lucy Crowe, soprano Roderick Williams, baritone London Philharmonic Choir London Philharmonic Orchestra Mark Elder, conductor

Lucy Crowe
Born in Staffordshire, Lucy Crowe studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where she is a Fellow.

With repertoire ranging from Purcell, Handel and Mozart to Donizetti’s Adina and Verdi’s Gilda she has sung with opera companies & orchestras throughout the world, including the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, the Glyndebourne Festival, English National Opera, the Teatro Real Madrid, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Bavarian State Opera, Metropolitan Opera New York, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Haïm, Oramo and Nelsons, The Berlin Philharmonic/Harding and Nelsons, Vienna Philharmonic/Nelsons, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Egarr, Scottish Chamber Orchestra/Nézet-Séguin, the Monteverdi Orchestra/Gardiner, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia/Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra/Rattle.

Recent opera appearances include her debut at Dutch National Opera in the title role Rodelinda, Poppea Agrippina at the Royal Opera House, Susanna Le Nozze di Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera and Pamina Die Zauberflöte at the Liceu Barcelona. In the 2022/23 season Lucy returns to the Royal Opera House for Musetta La Boheme.

Highlights in concert this season include a European tour of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, which is also performed at the BBC Proms, Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor with the Dunedin Consort, Haydn’s Die Schöpfung with the Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest and with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks (BRSO), concerts of Haydn and Schubert arias also with the BRSO, Morgana Alcina with the Les Violons du Roy in Quebec and Montreal, and her debut with the Cleveland Orchestra for concerts of selected Mozart arias.

In recital she has appeared at the Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall, Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Mostly Mozart and Salzburg Festivals and the BBC Proms. Lucy has a vast discography. Her debut disc for Linn records featuring Berg, Strauss, and Schoenberg was released in the summer of 2021. Lucy received a Grammy nomination in 2021 for Best Opera Recording for Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen with the London Symphony Orchestra/ Sir Simon Rattle.

Roderick Williams
is one of this country’s most sought after baritones and is constantly in demand on the concert platform and in recital, encompassing a repertoire from the baroque to world premieres. In 2016 he won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Singer of the year award. Opera engagements have included major roles at leading opera houses worldwide including the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, English National Opera, Dutch National Opera, Dallas Opera, Opera North, Scottish Opera, Florida Grand Opera, the Bregenz Festival and Oper Köln. He has been involved in many world premieres including, Lord Byron in the world premiere of Sally Beamish’s Monster, Alexander Knaifel’s Alice in Wonderland and Michel van der Aa’s After Life, the title role in Robert Saxton’s The Wandering Jew with the BBC Symphony, which has been released on NMC to considerable critical acclaim.

Among Roderick Williams’ many performances of opera in concert are recent appearances with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Tippett’s The Knot Garden (Barbican) and Birtwistle’s The Second Mrs Kong (Royal Festival Hall) and with the London Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Harding Billy Budd. He has also sung the role of Eddie in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek for the BBC. He has taken major roles in conductor Richard Hickox’s semi-staged performances of opera, including Britten’s Gloriana (Aldeburgh, 2003), Walton’s Troilus and Cressida and most of the Vaughan Williams operas. Other concert performances include Henze, Strauss, Stravinsky and Wagner (Donner in Das Rheingold for ENO).

Roderick Williams has sung concert repertoire with all the BBC orchestras, and many other ensembles including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Russian National Orchestra, Academy of Ancient Music, The Sixteen, Le Concert Spirituel, and Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. Recent successes include Britten’s War Requiem and Pilgrim in Vaughan Williams’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (semi-staged) with the Philharmonia, Jesus in The Last Supper by Birtwistle with the London Sinfonietta in Milan and Turin, Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius in Toulouse, a European tour of Handel’s Messiah with RIAS Kammerchor, Tippett’s The Vision of St Augustine with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at the 2005 BBC Proms, Henze’s Elegy for Young Lovers with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the world premiere of Birtwistle’s The Ring Dance of the Nazarene with VARA Radio (repeated at the BBC Proms), performances of Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen at La Scala, concerts with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in San Francisco, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and a concert with Bach Collegium Japan at the Edinburgh Festival.

Recent and future operatic engagements include Oronte in Charpentier’s Medée, Toby Kramer in Van der Aa’s Sunken Garden and Sharpless / Madam Butterfly for English National Opera, the title role in Eugene Onegin for Garsington Opera, the title role in Billy Budd for Opera North, Van der Aa’s After Life at Melbourne State Theatre and at Opera de Lyon, and Van de Aa’s Upload for Netherlands Opera, the Bregenz Festival, Cologne Opera and at the Park Avenue Armory in New York, Captain Balstrode / Peter Grimes in a concert performance with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Papageno and Ulisse / Il ritorno di Ulisse in Patria for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Toby Kramer for Dallas Opera, a concert performance of Ned Keene/Peter Grimes with Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Van de Aa’s Upload for Netherlands Opera, Oper Koln and the Bregenz Festival, and Christus / St John Passion in staged performances with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment both under Sir Simon Rattle.

Recent and future concert engagements include performances with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Hallé, Britten Sinfonia, City of London Sinfonia, King’s College Cambridge, Goldsmiths Choral Union, Ex Cathedra, The Sixteen, The King’s Consort, New London Consort, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Le Concert Spirituel, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Berlin Philharmonic, Rias Kammerchor, Orquesta Sinfonica de Euskadi, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Iceland Symphony, Danish National Radio Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Utah Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Music of the Baroque Chicago, Bach Collegium Japan, Cappella Amsterdam, New York Philharmonic, Britten War Requiem with the Maggio Musicale and Semyon Bychkov in Florence, the UK premiere of Sally Beamish’s Judas Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment as well as with Philharmonia Baroque. In 2014 Roderick was the featured soloist at the BBC Last Night of the Proms and returned in 2021 for a performance of the St Matthew Passion. He is an accomplished recital artist who can be heard regularly at venues and festivals including the Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, LSO St Luke’s, the Perth Concert Hall, the Concertgebouw, Oxford Lieder Festival, London Song Festival, Howard Assembly Room, the Musikverein, Vienna and on Radio 3, where he has participated on Iain Burnside’s Voices programme. Recent and future recitals include various performances at the Wigmore Hall including the three Schubert cycles, recitals for the BBC, the Concertgebouw and appearances at the Ludlow Song Festival, Oxford Lieder Festival, Three Choirs Festival, Edinburgh International Festival and at the Bath International Music Festival. His numerous recordings include Vaughan Williams, Berkeley and Britten operas for Chandos, and an extensive repertoire of English song with pianist Iain Burnside for Naxos. He recently recorded the three Schubert Cycles for Chandos as well as recordings of Stanford and Somervell for Somm.

He is also a composer and has had works premiered at the Wigmore and Barbican Halls, the Purcell Room and live on national radio. Recent commissions include a major work, World without End, for the Rias Kammerchor and BBC Singers as well as a commission to celebrate the centenary of the RAF. He was Artistic Director of Leeds Lieder + in April 2016 and was Artist in Residence with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra between 2022-2022 as well as ‘singer-in-residence’ for Music in the Round in Sheffield, presenting concerts and leading on dynamic and innovative learning and participation projects that introduce amateur singers, young and old, to performing classical song repertoire. From 2022/23 season he takes the position of Composer in Association of the BBC Singers. He was awarded an OBE for services to music in June 2017.

Booklet for James MacMilllan Christmas Oratorio (Live)