Work Information
Programme Note
The two main "themes" of Sinfonia are beauty and violence. These are interpreted as a psychological conflict, with all their extended connotations: love, friendship, humanity, appreciation, elevation, nature, landscape, anger, destruction, animalism, baseness, the city, submersion. (The image which seemed to reflect the piece most while I was writing it was the promise of warmth from the winter sun as it reflected on the frozen landscape, and the irony that its warming effect was the destruction of the vision, decay, even violence.)
The first third or so of the piece is preoccupied with the idea of beauty; then the insidious presence of violence gradually transforms the music. After a plateau of some brutality has been reached, ideas from the start of the piece begin to return, juxtaposed with broken fragments (even echoes) of the more violent music. There is no resolution or rebirth, though: the two ideas achieve only an uneasy balance (interdependence?) at the close of the work, resting against each other like two spent boxers…
© 1999 Stuart MacRae
Reviews
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"...a rugged investigation of those two apparent irreconcilables, beauty and violence..."
Anthony Payne, The Independent, 18/02/2000
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"The confidence of Stuart MacRae's handling of the orchestra in his 1999 Sinfonia is a mark of the benefits of his associate composership with the BBCSSO. Broad, tortuous string lines gradually fuse in a thunderously impressive climax.But MacRae's structure contains its surprises too: In the way the storm clouds suddenly part to reveal a separate strata of woodwind chatter, and the final reprise of the opening misic's uneasy tranquility. Gamba and the BBCSSO forces the work's rugged outlines..."
Tom Service, The Guardian, 17/02/2000
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"...the intense and expressionist study in increasing density that is Stuart MacRae's Sinfonia. "
Michael Tumelty, The Herald, 14/02/2000
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More or less describing an arc (the piece ends where it begins), MacRae's Sinfonia deals with two images: beauty and violence. Beginning in absolute clarity with a haunting theme on flutes followed by a still, chill set of chords on strings, the music repeats these basic elements, then sets them in interplay. As it becomes more agitated and less atmospheric, MacRae's music shows real muscle in splintery, jagged sheets of sound (Birtwhistle-like in their pugnacious violence and explosive impact) before eventually coming full-circle… Sinfonia is further evidence of a striking new voice on the scene. And bravo to the [Glasgow Chamber Orchestra] for its concentrated delivery. I have no doubts that the BBC music chiefs, present on Saturday, will be directing this piece towards their own orchestra.
Michael Tumelty, The Herald, 14/06/1999
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"Very well-gauged in its pace of events and their development, MacRae's Sinfonia is further evidence of a striking new voice on the scene"
Michael Tumelty, The Herald, Glasgow, 14/06/1999
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