If the years from The Confession of Isobel Gowdie to Inés de Castro were MacMillan's first period of sustained success, one that announced him firmly to the country's musical consciousness, then the years from 1996 to 2000 were years of consolidation: a steady building on what he had achieved and a continued affirmation of all that had made him successful to that point. They were years of plenty, with a substantial increase in the amount of works produced, the quality of performers that the composer was working with, and exposure and dissemination of his work to a larger and more diverse audience. The backbone of MacMillan's output from this period rests on orchestral pieces: a standalone concerto (Ninian, for clarinet, 1997), a string orchestra work (Í – A Meditation on Iona, 1996), a piece for chamber orchestra (Symphony No. 2, 1999) and the monumental orchestral triptych, Triduum (1996–97). It also saw an increase in chamber and instrumental works, and perhaps most importantly (for future developments), a marked increase in vocal and choral pieces, including the substantial song cycle Raising Sparks (1997) and culminating in the 50-minute oratorio Quickening for solo vocal quartet, choirs and orchestra in 1998.

It also saw the first major retrospective of MacMillan's work in England, with the ‘Raising Sparks’ festival at the South Bank in London running from 28 September to 26 October 1997. This featured many of MacMillan's key works from the past decade including Veni, Veni, Emmanuel and The Confession of Isobel Gowdie, the London premieres of pieces such as Búsqueda and The Berserking and, presented as its centrepiece, the first full performance of the entire Triduum including the world premiere of the third part, Symphony: ‘Vigil’, in the opening concert. 1997 also found MacMillan as the featured composer at the Bergen Festival in Norway and saw the 100th performance of Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, an incredible feat in British contemporary music for a work that had only been premiered five years earlier in 1992.

This increase in productivity was not without its side-effects as MacMillan recalled before ‘Raising Sparks’, suggesting his home life was suffering under the increased workload: ‘She's [MacMillan's wife, Lynne] been very concerned over the last year, because I haven't been sleeping well.