Emperor String Quartet - MacMillan: Why is this night different?, Tuireadh, Visions of a November Spring, Memento (2002)

Posted By: tirexiss

Date: July 13, 2019

Visions of a November Spring, James MacMillan's First String Quartet, was completed in 1988 and already bears many a stylistic trait of the composer who was to create such a stir two years later with The Confession of Isobel Gowdie, not least a mastery of the singing line and the distinctive, 'keening' quality of the string writing itself. The work is cast in two movements, the much lengthier second of which perhaps doesn't quite add up to the sum of its impressive parts.
No such reservations, however, apply to the Second Quartet from 1998, whose title, Why isthis night different?, comes from the question posed by the youngest member of the family during the Jewish rite of Seder on the first night of Passover. The father answers by telling of the flight of the children of Israel from Egypt. The result is an arrestingly powerful and sure-footed masterwork, ideally proportioned, economically argued and always evincing a riveting narrative and emotional scope. Similarly, Tuireadh (Gaelic for 'lament') for clarinet and string quartet packs a wealth of pungent and varied expression into its single-movement frame. MacMillan wrote it in 1991 as a 'musical complement' to Sue Jane Taylor's sculpture in memory of the victims of the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster, having also been greatly moved by a letter from a grieving mother who recalled how, during the memorial service, 'a spontaneous keening sound rose gently from the mourners assembled on the boat'. Tuireadh is a deeply compassionate threnody, as is the much briefer, sparer and no less haunting Memento for string quartet (1994), which (as so often with this composer) shows the influence of the ancient oral tradition of Gaelic psalmody still practised in the Western Isles today. Performances throughout are as superlatively disciplined as they're tirelessly eloquent; sound, balance and presentation are all beyond reproach. Another MacMillan/BIS triumph.

prestomusic

Track List:

James MacMillan (b. 1959)

[1] Why is this night different? (1998)
(String Quartet No. 2)
[2] Tuireadh for clarinet and string quartet (1991)
[3]-[4] Visions of a November Spring (1988, rev. 1991)
(String Quartet No.1)
[5] Memento for string quartet (1994)

Performers:
Emperor String Quartet
Martin Burgess violin 1
Clare Hayes violin 2
Fiona Bonds viola
William Schofield cello

Robert Plane clarinet ([2])

EAC Log

Exact Audio Copy V1.3 from 2. September 2016

EAC extraction logfile from 8. July 2018, 21:52

Emperor String Quartet / MacMillan - Chamber Music

Used drive : PLDS DVD-RW DU8A6SH Adapter: 1 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 128 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "Date=%year%" -T "Genre=%genre%" %source%

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
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1 | 0:00.00 | 22:06.00 | 0 | 99449
2 | 22:06.00 | 24:39.00 | 99450 | 210374
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4 | 50:48.00 | 17:44.00 | 228600 | 308399
5 | 68:32.00 | 5:00.00 | 308400 | 330899

Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename C:\temp\BIS-CD-1269 - MacMillan - Chamber Music\MacMillan - Chamber Music.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 4.0 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC CF0A7955
Copy CRC CF0A7955
Copy OK

No errors occurred

AccurateRip summary

Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [85D7F040] (AR v2)
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [76DE0755] (AR v2)
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [7197AD4B] (AR v2)
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [F71CE9AA] (AR v2)
Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [9EA35379] (AR v2)

All tracks accurately ripped

End of status report

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Thanks to the Original ripper (A-Z)!

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