Ecce Cor Meum at Carnegie Hall

PAUL McCARTNEY ECCE COR MEUM (BEHOLD MY HEART) US PREMIERE PERFORMANCE AT CARNEGIE HALL TUESDAY, NOVEMBER

14th 2006 Just this past Tuesday, September 26th, saw the much anticipated release of Paul McCartney's fourth classical recording ' Ecce Cor Meum (Behold My Heart). Upon its release, it was unanimously praised by critics as a stunning work.Now on Tuesday, November 14th, Carnegie Hall will play host to the United States premiere of Ecce Cor Meum. Tickets for the one-night only performance are set to go on-sale at the Carnegie Hall Box office on Monday, October 2nd at 11:00am, through CarnegieCharge (212) 247 7800 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting               (212) 247 7800       end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting               (212) 247 7800       end_of_the_skype_highlighting and online at www.carnegiehall.org.

The four movement work for chorus and orchestra, will be performed by Kate Royal soprano; The Orchestra of St. Luke's; Concert Chorale of New York and The American Boychoir. They will be conducted by Gavin Greenaway. Ecce Cor Meum (Behold My Heart) is Paul's latest classical offering. The album has been more than eight years in the making and its origins follow in the historic tradition of composers that have been commissioned to write music for the world-renowned Magdalen College Oxford.

Paul was specially invited by Anthony Smith (President of Magdalen College 1998 2005) to compose something to set the seal on a new concert hall for the college. His hope was for choral piece which could be sung by young people the world over, in the same way that Handel's Messiah is'. Paul started with the music and then looked for a subject that fit. Several ideas for lyrics occurred to him, but they only gelled when he took part in a concert of John Tavener's music in the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York.'While I was waiting to do my bit, I was looking around the church and I saw a statue, and underneath it was written 'Ecce Cor Meum'. I had done some Latin at school and I always had a fondness for it. So I worked it out 'Behold My Heart.' Naturally, the text for Ecce Cor Meum combines both English and to a small degree, Latin, which Paul took as part of his classical education at The Liverpool Institute High School for Boys, where he was studying a total of three languages by the time he was 12.

In November 2001, the first version of Ecce Cor Meum was given its preview performance by the Magdalen College Choir, which was conducted by Bill Ives at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford. The Carnegie Hall performance, produced by AEG LIVE, is currently the only scheduled performance of the work in the United States.