Ursa Minor: Chamber Music by Stuart Macrae Hebrides Ensemble

• Stuart MacRae (b. 1976): I am Prometheus:
• 1 MacRae: I am Prometheus: 15:14
• Dark Liquid:
• 2 MacRae: Dark Liquid: 02:34
• Ixion:
• 3 MacRae: Ixion: 16:48
• cladonia bellidiflora:
• 4 MacRae: cladonia bellidiflora: 06:33
• Tol-Pedn:
• 5 MacRae: Tol-Pedn: 03:52
• Lento in memoriam Peter Maxwell Davies:
• 6 MacRae: Lento in memoriam Peter Maxwell Davies: 02:19
• Ursa Minor:
• 7 MacRae: Ursa Minor: 05:32
• fthinoporinos:
• 8 MacRae: fthinoporinos: 07:26
• Diversion (The room behind the room):
• 9 MacRae: Diversion (The room behind the room): 03:09
• Parable:
• 10 MacRae: Parable: 13:11
• Total Runtime 01:16:38

Info for Ursa Minor: Chamber Music by Stuart Macrae

This compelling survey of music by the Scottish composer Stuart MacRae – a fifth installment in the acclaimed Hebrides Ensemble/Delphian Records series of composer portraits – focuses on works of the last decade while also reaching back to include two pieces from the composer’s mid-twenties.

Reflecting diverse inspirations from nature and myth, it also reveals underlying continuities: a preoccupation, in particular, with questions of scale and perspective. The ancient Greek hero Prometheus receives an unexpectedly intimate portrait, his human aspects to the fore – flawed yet sympathetic. MacRae’s perception of the natural world, meanwhile, extends from the microscopic scale of lichen to the vastness of the night sky, in which the medium of distance transmutes all turmoil into calm.

Hebrides Ensemble
Joshua Ellicott, tenor
Marcus Farnsworth, baritone
James Willshire, piano

Hebrides Ensemble
With programmes that are diverse, imaginative and inspiring, Hebrides Ensemble has established itself as one of the foremost chamber music collectives in the UK. Cofounded and led by its artistic director, the cellist and conductor William Conway, the Ensemble is renowned for its fresh and intelligent approach to programming, which places contemporary music at the heart of a diverse range of repertoire.

The Ensemble’s flexibility is its strength. It draws its performers from a pool of the most outstanding musicians in the UK and beyond, ensuring the exceptional performance standards for which it has become renowned. This is an international ensemble with its roots in Scottish culture, a collective committed to supporting the next generation of performers and composers, particularly those with links to Scotland. In recent years it has commissioned and premiered new works from composers including Sally Beamish, Hafliði Hallgrímsson, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Sir James MacMillan, Alasdair Nicolson, Alasdair Spratt, William Sweeney and Martin Suckling.

In 2015 the Ensemble broke new ground by becoming the first professional ensemble to simultaneously connect musicians in Edinburgh to London and Italy in real time. As Hebrides Ensemble celebrates its twenty-fifth birthday in 2016, it launches the next phase of its pioneering digital strategy, which will allow audiences around the world to be part of every performance the Ensemble gives, using live streaming, Twitter feeds and cutting-edge digital technology.

Among other accolades, Hebrides Ensemble’s outstanding achievements were acknowledged by the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards in 2009, with a nomination in the Chamber Music category.

Booklet for Ursa Minor: Chamber Music by Stuart Macrae