James Macmillan

St Luke Passion James Macmillan

(Boosey & Hawkes Scores/Books). Scored for chorus, children's choir, organ and chamber orchestra, St. Luke Passion adopts a pared-back focus on choral voices over its 75-minute span. Seeking a more spiritual, inward approach to match Luke's text, the composer eschews settings of interpolated texts as arias and the customary Evangelist and Christ soli: everything is sung by choral forces. A children's choir grants a measure of innocence to Christ as the sacrificial lamb, emphasising aspects of otherness, sanctity and mystery. The Passion narrative is framed by a Prelude exploring the Annunciation and a Postlude taking us beyond the Crucifixion to the Resurrection and Ascension. These incorporate Gospel texts where Luke explains the Kingdom of God.