I am prone to a sort of brand loyalty in some areas. I am the owner of 35 or so LP's by Gregory Isaacs even though by no means all of them are worth having but I always hoped the next would be as good as the best rather than be the routine item of contract fulfilment that many later ones turned out to be.
In a similar way, I have several CD's of James MacMillan's music, all of which are fine but few of them repeat the first thrill I had when hearing his Seven Last Words from the Cross.
Much of MacMillan is more apocalyptic and portentous than I would usually like and with a title like Alpha & Omega, one might expect this new release to be more of the same. But I was taken by the credit of a solo violinist, the solo violin part of the Seven Last Words being one of the best things about it.
Missa Dunelmi begins in quiet, monastic fashion before the Gloria rises to a great shining forth; St. Patrick's Magnificat has more of a recognisable melody as if subliminally from a folk tune and the same could be said of I am your Mother. But it is Domine non secundum peccata nostrum that the violin, played by Madeleine Mitchell, features in. At first it is as a shimmering embellishment but it becomes a soaring line, perhaps more involved than involving, before finally taking up a central position and delivering all that was expected of it ('a response of pure, ethereal emotion'), reminiscent of the earlier masterpiece and almost as good.
One hopes that MacMillan would do it more often but finds in the interview in the booklet that it is a difficult thing for him to do, mixing solo violin with choral textures and so we must be grateful for a rare treat. But this is one of the better recent releases of MacMillan's music and I am glad to have bought it.
