The world premiere performance of James MacMillan's Euphonium Concerto, 'Where the Lugar meets the Glaisnock' given by David Childs has already garnered widespread critical acclaim.

It was met with huge approval by a sell-out audience at Cardiff' Hoddinott Hall (as well as the following night in Swansea's Brangwyn Hall) with the soloist and composer, who conducted the work, recalled to the platform on no less than four occasions. Soon after the professional critics also followed suit.

Remarkable agility

Writing in The Times newspaper, classical music journalist Rebecca Franks said the work spotlighted, "…the generosity, warmth and largesse of the soloist… that immediately appeal".

She added that the work that had a "Tippett-like rhapsodic mood" that built in intensity and pace , showcased the soloist's "remarkable agility"- making it well worth the 25 year wait for it to be finally realised.

Beautifully shaped

Ivan Hewlett writing in The Daily Telegraph said the work was "suffused with a rhapsodic, out-of-doors lyricism that suggested English pastoralism had been transported north of the border and given an individual twist."

He lauded the soloist's lyrical ability stating that the long solo melody top open had been "beautifully shaped" soon limned "by a haze of string harmonies that before long became leaping and ecstatic."

He added that the work has "shades of Vaughan Williams and Michael Tippett" but that the "decorative skirls in the melody were quintessentially Scottish."

Meanwhile, freelance journalist Clare Stevens said the concerto had been "wonderfully performed" and "skilfully crafted".

Brangwyn reprise

The Guardian newspaper's Rhian Evans heard the work performed at Swansea's Brangwyn Hall and remarked that because of its 'resonant' acoustic the audience "surely got the better experience" thanks to "...the warmth and finesse of Childs' playing and the burnished strings of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales."

In recognising that the opening of the work was imbued with "an element of nostalgia... slow, lyrical and reflective", it was the faster passages that "signalled the soloist's virtuosity immediately... ensuring the soloist never risked being compromised."

Hear again

The performance was recorded for Radio 3 as part of its 'Radio 3 in Concert' series and can still be heard at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002b6b4