composer draws an inspired performance from the BBC Philharmonic, reinforcing the quality of the series of MacMilan’s recordings for Chandos, all vividly recorded.
The Penguin Guide - 1000 Greatest Classical Recordings 2011-12
The development of MacMillan’s art, which these two works personify, is one of the more exciting in British music in recent years, and this record joins the earlier Chandos releases of his music as an issue of major importance.
International Record Review
The performance is tremendous – as is the recording, which takes the very wide dynamic range of the music and of the placement setting of the orchestra without any stain at all. Macmillan would appear to be an inspiring conductor of his own music, for this fine orchestra plays with considerable power, colouring and detail throughout… The development of Macmillan’s art, which these two works personify, is one of the more exciting in British music in recent years, and this record joins the earlier Chandos release of his music as an issue of major importance.
International Record review
The Work [Symphony 3] is a hauntingly ambivalent study at both the musical and philosophical levels, with themes and textures arising seemingly from their own absence, interacting and developing, then being allowed to return to their origins. Both works are conducted by MacMillan with the kind of passion that characterises so much of his work as a composer, internalised yet compellingly communicative. The BBC Philharmonic responds in kind with the most committed of performances, captured to perfection by a natural and beautifully balanced recording…
BBC Music Magazine
It’s a compelling account [of ‘Confessions’], superbly played and resplendently engineered, more visceral in its physical and dramatic impact than either of its predecessors, yet just as piercingly expressive in the strings’ heart-rending lament that frames the whole… Suffice to report, the composer masterminds another outstandingly committed rending [of the Symphony] and the sound has all the sumptuous immediacy we have come to expect from this source.
Gramophone