Performing the world premiere performance, in April 2008, of James MacMillan’s St. John Passion was an exhilarating experience – how often does one get to perform a work of such magnitude knowing that every single performer is performing it for the very first time? MacMillan’s rhythms terrified me, his harmonies challenged and at times entranced me, the rich textures of his music stimulated as many responses as there were chorus members across the London Symphony Chorus.

Returning two years later to rehearse this piece marked the beginning of an altogether different experience. For whilst the piece is no easier to master second time around, it has something of the ‘known quantity’ about it. By the time we embarked on our tutti rehearsals with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra I had a sense of confidence – not so much that I would get everything right but that, at least, I knew what I could handle and where my challenges lay.

By Sunday’s performance I was delighted to discover that there were passages I could sing almost by heart, leaving me free to keep eyes glued to Sir Colin’s beat as he guided us through MacMillan’s alternate accelerandi and rallentandi. And with less energy metabolising in the form of sheer fear, my attentions were able to wander more broadly across the music and my experience of it.

I am no music critic. And so I say with all humility how much I admire MacMillan’s ability to echo the tradition and beauty of liturgical chant through his setting of the narrative for a small chamber choir whilst also bringing great drama and a thoroughly modern idiom to the orchestra and to the voices rendered by the large chorus. This is a work of great beauty and dramatic intensity. Midway through the concert I suddenly recognise the likelihood that this will, in years to come, inhabit a place in the repertoire alongside many other choral greats.

And as I write I reflect on what it takes to embark on the path MacMillan has followed let alone to have reached this point, recognising the deep commitment that is needed to tread this path and how little certainty there is of finding one’s way. For this act of faith – and for the many small acts of faith that follow on from this single act or decision – I celebrate MacMillan, alongside those composers who precede him and those who are already following him.