McCartney shows classical 'Heart'

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Paul McCartney

Ecce Cor Meum (Behold My Heart)

EMI Classics

Paul McCartney is one half of one of the greatest songwriting duos of the 20th century, though aside from a few piano lessons as a child, he never had any formal music training.

So when he turned his considerable talents to the classical sphere, starting with 1991's "Liverpool Oratorio," the critics were more than ready to pounce.

Now with "Ecce Cor Meum (Behold My Heart)," Sir Paul's fourth classical album, the knives can go back in their drawers. This four-part oratorio is a full-scale, fully connected piece of concert music -- in contrast to his last two classical albums, which featured mostly shorter works.

He has taken greater pains with this composition, it seems, than he usually does. The commission for the piece came from Anthony Smith, president of Magdalen College, Oxford, who wanted a new work to inaugurate the college's new concert hall. That was more than eight years ago; Magdalen's concert hall has long been built and opened, and Mr. Smith is no longer the college's president.

Mr. Smith wanted a choral piece which could be sung by young people the world over, something equivalent to Handel's "Messiah." Those are rather large shoes to fill. Though Mr. McCartney hasn't written something as memorable as that oratorio, he has composed what may be his first truly mature work in the classical music genre.

"Spiritus," the first movement of "Ecce Cor Meum," opens with a spare chant. The vocals -- performed by the Boys of Magdalen College Choir, a chorus from Oxford, and the Boys of King's College Choir, Cambridge -- sing "Spiritus, spiritus, lead us to love. Spirit of holiness, teach us to love. Spirit, show us how to live in pure love." The sentiment will be familiar to anyone who knows the Beatles' oeuvre, and the voices (which soon welcome the orchestra) are beautiful, traveling half steps up and down. Drums then enter the piece, adding movement and an almost military flavor.

"Spiritus" turns out to be the work's most developed movement. Mr. McCartney imbues this music with a grand dignity, and it fits effortlessly into the English tradition -- from Sir Edward Elgar, another self-taught composer, to contemporary works by John Tavener.