Seven Last Words 'definitive performance' - 27.08.09

[Review: Tenebrae & Scottish Ensemble, 26th August 2009, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh] The Scotsman, 27th August 2009.

James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words from the Cross, although written 15 years ago, has an intense spiritual dimension that gives it a timeless, eternal quality. This haunting evocation of the last seven sentences spoken by Christ on the cross was suffused with a visceral rawness in a sensational performance by the Scottish Ensemble and singers from Tenebrae.

Beginning with competing vocal and instrumental narratives in Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, gradually as the work progresses these elements are stripped down, until the final Father, into Thy hands I commend my Spirit leaves just the violins to gasp the last breaths. Director Nigel Short blended all the elements together superbly, including perfectly judged silences, in this definitive performance of one of MacMillan’s most powerful and moving works.