St Magnus Festival

I, Pilgrim

four stars

The Story of Magnus Erlendsson

three stars

St Magnus Cathedral, Orkney

Hazel Rowland

A PREMIER by composer, Alasdair Nicolson was a fitting opening to the St Magnus International Festival, which prides itself on its emphasis on contemporary music. Nicolson, who is also the festival’s artistic director, tells the story of a man and woman leaving their dangerous homes in search of sanctuary in a dramatic oratorio, treating the politically resonant topic of migration.

The piece featured a superb line-up of musicians. From the outset, the Trondheim Soloists played with vigour, revelling in Nicholson’s sumptuous dissonances. Meanwhile, conductor Oyvind Gimse carefully controlled orchestral climaxes, gradually allowing them to build for an edge-of-you-seat effect. It was nevertheless difficult not to be taken by the singers. The BBC Singers took full advantage of the cathedral’s acoustics, revelling in Nicolson’s quirky harmonies, and while it is true that bass Simon Bailey and soprano Ann-Helen Moen seemed more concerned with drama than lyricism, the approach worked. Indeed, when Bailey sang "Have you seen a little boy?", his fear of having lost his son was clearly palpable.

Nicolson must be praised for his word-setting in ‘I, Pilgrim’ – it is quite rare for the libretto to be so easily understandable without listeners having to depend on reading along in the programme notes. Indeed, the clarity of the dialogue had another powerful effect: it humanised the two migrants, making their story relatable. As Moen quietly uttered the piece’s finale words, "You were all that I had", in despair as she realises she has lost her son, the audience felt her pain. Ending on this final, human outcry might have created a highly moving close, yet Nicholson extended the piece with what felt like rather unnecessary choral and instrumental passages. ‘I, Pilgrim’ lasted 75 minutes, and by the end, musical material that had been initially dramatic and intense had begun to lose its effect.

The premier on the following night of The Story of Magnus Erlendsson by two Orkney creatives – composer Gemma McGregor and writer Ron Ferguson – was rather different in character. Although it too was a dramatic portrayal involving soloists, choirs and an instrumental ensemble, this opera drew strongly on the local area. Commissioned to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the martyrdom of St Magnus that occurred on these very islands, it used a cast of soloists drawn from the local community, joined by surprisingly mature sounding pupils from Kirkwall Grammar School and the St Magnus Cathedral Singers. A far-cry from the professional polish of the first night’s concert, perhaps a fully-staged dramatic work was at times a little over-ambitious. Indeed, the simple repetition of plain chant as the grammar school choir processed around the cathedral was far more successful than the challenging solo parts. Yet the charm of the performance came from it being utterly unique to the St. Magnus Festival – where else would a local community be given such a significant role in a festival as prestigious as this?