What a lovely rendition. My dad bought a recording of this after hearing it in Akenfield. He used to wake me up playing it every Sunday morning. I was only ten, I used to hate it and grew to love it, deeply. Whenever I hear it I think of my dad.
Gorgeous, sumptuous, pastoral, erotic masterpiece by Sir Michael Tippett. A truly magnificent performance and with the complexity of rhythms in this piece, playing without a conductor is nothing short of remarkable.
Wow, this is by far the best performance I've heard of Tippett's great work with the bonus of being able to see these accomplished musicians play! Despite others' comments, I feel the music gains in clarity from only having a 'chamber' group of eighteen: with a standard sized string orchestra, the complex counterpoint often gets lost in the air. The commitment to and understanding of the score the players have is both audible and visible, especially to achieve this without a conductor, well done all!
To pull off a performance like this without a conductor is nothing short of amazing. I often see people praising second rate performances on TH-cam. I don't think it's possible to praise this one too much. It is astounding.
Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! I absolutely love this piece of music and have listened to it for years. It is great to see a live performance of it. Even more impressive is that it is without a conductor.
Thank you for posting this. This music had an enormous influence on my adolescence and still means a great deal to me. I first heard it, as a schoolboy, in the Royal Festival Hall in London around 1980 or 1981, with a full string orchestra, and I shall never forget the impact it had on me. It is very interesting to hear this chamber version. A superb performance, and without a conductor!
I first heard this music in the film Akenfield, which itself is another magnificent work that has been largely forgotten about. Incredibly moving together.
I love that in the Adagio alla pastorale tranquillo the two solo violins don't milk their phrases or bend the tempo, as I have heard others do in this passage. Rather, they maintain the slow motion with pastoral decorum as though part of a chorus where one may weep, but overall calm is reached.
"Commissioned by the 1953 Edinburgh Festival to write a piece commemorating the tercentenary of Corelli's birth, Michael Tippett recreated in his own way the tripartite layout of Corelli's orchestra. His Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli thus deploys a concertino (2 violins and cello soloists), concerto grosso, and concerto terzo (this last group performs the function of the harpsichord continue that Corelli used to fill out the string texture and give it rhythmic definition). But the work has several other dimensions of 'un-originality.' Two contrasting motifs from the Corelli F major Concerto are the basis for the sequence of seven variations with which the piece begins. Then fantasy takes over, as Tippett goes back to Bach organ transcription of Corelli (now transposed into F minor) and adds to it several layers of elaborate decorative counterpoint. The music swirls to an impassioned, indeed erotic climax, before calming down again into a pastorale section echoing the gentle siciliano movement of Corelli's popular Christmas Concerto. Much more than a re-creation of Baroque practice, the Fantasia Concertante pays tribute to Italianate lyricism in general, from Monteverdi (of the repeated-note 'goat's trills' of the third variation) to Puccini (of the long melodic spans of the seventh variation); the work also reaped the lyrical harvest of Tippett's first opera, The midsummer Marriage, which he had only just completed. Although the Fantasia Concertante was denounced as 'cerebral' by the conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent, in the last few decades it has become one of the composer's most widely played works." From programme notes to a concert at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, 1996, author unknown.
Gracias por compartir esta hermosa pieza. Esto leyendo sobre el cerebro y la música y hacen referencia a Michael Tippet quien decía que la música era la expresión del interior del alma. Gracias!
+shlomzion. The score, which I have in front of me, simply says, "for string orchestra" on the title page. Inside, the composer writes, "The string orchestra (which can be of any size) is divided into 3 parts. 1, Concertino, 2 solo violins and solo 'cello'; 2, Concerto grosso, roughly one half of the remaining string body; 3, Concerto terzo, the other half." That said, some sections of the work deploy these forces in different permutations. It starts as above, essentially in 13 parts. At 7:00, the Concerti grosso and terzo plays as one body, with the three soloists on top. At 8:39, the fugue, all the players are combined into a tutti, but all parts are divisi a2, except the basses, ie it's in 9 parts. Then it is the gorgeous Adagio alla pastorale tranquillo and the organisation is back to three groups where it stays until the end. If it is being played strictly one player per part, I would therefore expect: 3 first violin 3 second violin 3 viola 2 cello 2 bass. I am sure Tippett would have been happy with the instrumentation in this perfomance, but personally I think there is something to be gained by having the soloists contrast with a heavier sound from the two string bodies. For example, the first bar of the Adagio alla pastorale tranquillo is essentially grosso violins 1 and 2 followed by grosso violas and terzo first violins. In the second bar, the two solo violins answer while the concerti accompany, pp but sonore (as they do in bar 1). That second bar should be heard as a contrast, I feel. Incidentally, the score is extraordinarily detailed. I have never heard anything like all the notes that are actually on the page!
What a lovely rendition. My dad bought a recording of this after hearing it in Akenfield. He used to wake me up playing it every Sunday morning. I was only ten, I used to hate it and grew to love it, deeply. Whenever I hear it I think of my dad.
I first heard this music in the 1974 film "Akenfield". It made my heart ache then - and it still does. Thank you for this wonderful performance.
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Gorgeous, sumptuous, pastoral, erotic masterpiece by Sir Michael Tippett. A truly magnificent performance and with the complexity of rhythms in this piece, playing without a conductor is nothing short of remarkable.
Wow, this is by far the best performance I've heard of Tippett's great work with the bonus of being able to see these accomplished musicians play! Despite others' comments, I feel the music gains in clarity from only having a 'chamber' group of eighteen: with a standard sized string orchestra, the complex counterpoint often gets lost in the air. The commitment to and understanding of the score the players have is both audible and visible, especially to achieve this without a conductor, well done all!
To pull off a performance like this without a conductor is nothing short of amazing. I often see people praising second rate performances on TH-cam. I don't think it's possible to praise this one too much. It is astounding.
I think the principal cellist is somehow conducting with his right foot - but it's magnificently held together!
Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! I absolutely love this piece of music and have listened to it for years. It is great to see a live performance of it. Even more impressive is that it is without a conductor.
Thank you for posting this. This music had an enormous influence on my adolescence and still means a great deal to me. I first heard it, as a schoolboy, in the Royal Festival Hall in London around 1980 or 1981, with a full string orchestra, and I shall never forget the impact it had on me. It is very interesting to hear this chamber version. A superb performance, and without a conductor!
Wow! Thanks so much for sharing this story!
I first heard this music in the film Akenfield, which itself is another magnificent work that has been largely forgotten about. Incredibly moving together.
I love that in the Adagio alla pastorale tranquillo the two solo violins don't milk their phrases or bend the tempo, as I have heard others do in this passage. Rather, they maintain the slow motion with pastoral decorum as though part of a chorus where one may weep, but overall calm is reached.
"Commissioned by the 1953 Edinburgh Festival to write a piece commemorating the tercentenary of Corelli's birth, Michael Tippett recreated in his own way the tripartite layout of Corelli's orchestra. His Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli thus deploys a concertino (2 violins and cello soloists), concerto grosso, and concerto terzo (this last group performs the function of the harpsichord continue that Corelli used to fill out the string texture and give it rhythmic definition). But the work has several other dimensions of 'un-originality.' Two contrasting motifs from the Corelli F major Concerto are the basis for the sequence of seven variations with which the piece begins. Then fantasy takes over, as Tippett goes back to Bach organ transcription of Corelli (now transposed into F minor) and adds to it several layers of elaborate decorative counterpoint. The music swirls to an impassioned, indeed erotic climax, before calming down again into a pastorale section echoing the gentle siciliano movement of Corelli's popular Christmas Concerto. Much more than a re-creation of Baroque practice, the Fantasia Concertante pays tribute to Italianate lyricism in general, from Monteverdi (of the repeated-note 'goat's trills' of the third variation) to Puccini (of the long melodic spans of the seventh variation); the work also reaped the lyrical harvest of Tippett's first opera, The midsummer Marriage, which he had only just completed. Although the Fantasia Concertante was denounced as 'cerebral' by the conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent, in the last few decades it has become one of the composer's most widely played works." From programme notes to a concert at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, 1996, author unknown.
Extraordinary that Sir Malcolm denounced it as 'cerebral' - it's intensely emotional and indeed erotic.
Awesome performance.
Gracias por compartir esta hermosa pieza. Esto leyendo sobre el cerebro y la música y hacen referencia a Michael Tippet quien decía que la música era la expresión del interior del alma. Gracias!
Masterwork, like every work of him !
We agree!!! Thanks for listening :)
@@afarcrymusic Probably about the most underestimated composer there is. Great performance. Thank you.
Adore this composition for its haunting melody near the end (15.50)
Is this as originally scored? It normally has a much fuller sound.
+shlomzion.
The score, which I have in front of me, simply says, "for string orchestra" on the title page.
Inside, the composer writes, "The string orchestra (which can be of any size) is divided into 3 parts. 1, Concertino, 2 solo violins and solo 'cello'; 2, Concerto grosso, roughly one half of the remaining string body; 3, Concerto terzo, the other half."
That said, some sections of the work deploy these forces in different permutations. It starts as above, essentially in 13 parts. At 7:00, the Concerti grosso and terzo plays as one body, with the three soloists on top.
At 8:39, the fugue, all the players are combined into a tutti, but all parts are divisi a2, except the basses, ie it's in 9 parts. Then it is the gorgeous Adagio alla pastorale tranquillo and the organisation is back to three groups where it stays until the end.
If it is being played strictly one player per part, I would therefore expect:
3 first violin
3 second violin
3 viola
2 cello
2 bass.
I am sure Tippett would have been happy with the instrumentation in this perfomance, but personally I think there is something to be gained by having the soloists contrast with a heavier sound from the two string bodies. For example, the first bar of the Adagio alla pastorale tranquillo is essentially grosso violins 1 and 2 followed by grosso violas and terzo first violins. In the second bar, the two solo violins answer while the concerti accompany, pp but sonore (as they do in bar 1). That second bar should be heard as a contrast, I feel.
Incidentally, the score is extraordinarily detailed. I have never heard anything like all the notes that are actually on the page!
+Jeremy Marchant Thank you. Still a superb performance.
6 first violins
3 second violins
4 violas
3 cellos
2 doublebasses
the viola players r more than the 2nd violins. interesting :-)
I'snt it 4.3.4.2.2? The two violinists and cellist aren't part of the string orchestra.