Tippett conducted a performance of the Ritual Dances at College - he came to the rehearsal after presumably a generously lubricated lunch with Sir David Willcocks. His giggling and eccentricity through an attempt at trying to direct a very large ensemble and choir did not lessen the awe in the room of seeing Tippett - Surely one of England's greatest from the 2nd 1/2 of the 20thC. I love the string quartets.
So great to hear Dave extol the virtues of Tippett's music. Tippett really did write many masterpieces (I particularly love Symphonies 2,4, the Piano Concerto, Concerto for double string orchestra, Triple Concerto. all 4 Piano sonatas, Fantasia on theme of Corelli, Child of our Time and Midsummer Marriage, Mask of Time). I agree that Tippett made a "mistake" writing his own libretti.
I can thoroughly recommend “Michael Tippett: The Biography” by Oliver Soden - winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society Storytelling Award and also winner of the Somerset Maugham Award.
My intro to Tippett was a Proms concert in 1979 (I was 18yo, and on a European tour with a concert band). Lutoslawski conducted one of his own works (Les espace du sommeil?), and Tippett conducted A Child of Our Time. I was mesmerized by the Tippett. Once back in the US, I happened upon the Davis recording at a Houston record store, and snatched it up immediately. Aside from hearing this wonderful work again, and reliving my trip to Europe, I was introduced to the marvelous soprano, Jessye Norman!
The opening brass chords in the 3rd Symphony sound Iike nothing else. Ingenious. When I was a kid growing up in Dallas in the 1970s, the two guys programming WRR, the local classical radio station, were enamored of Tippett. Thus my introduction to virtually every recording of that era. Thanks, gents.
On a pure whim - or so I thought - I got the "British Music Collection" twofer of the Concerto for Orchestra (etc) yesterday. Seems I'm being psychically inspired to buy recordings even before a video review is uploaded!
To me the wilder Tippett generally sounds as if he were trying to ape the avant garde (cue marimbas etc) but didn't really know how to do it. And, of course, there are the texts. I was at the premiere of his 3rd symphony and when a miked-up Heather Harper, trying to do a Bessie Smith, launched into, "O, I'll go walking with my nostrils", and later, "O, I'll go whirling with my armpits", I promise you that those in the audience who weren't rigid with embarrassment were desperately trying not to laugh.
Get your point But the reaction (not yours) is mostly that the musical establishment wasn’t much interested in bodies and sex, but he was Maybe we can see it differently now
For those who are new to Tippett and don’t know where to start, I recommend his slow movements, starting with the Concerto for Double String Orchestra, the second and third symphonies and the triple concerto. They show Tippett in his finest, visionary form and are hypnotically beautiful. The first movement of the Third symphony is a wonderfully energetic and powerful movement. It’s perfectly fine to ignore the other, vocal half of the symphony. And the Ritual Dances from the Midsummer Marriage are pure delight.
Midsummer Marriage. One of the greatest operas ever that was written to a bonkers text. Right up there with Oberon. We still need an uncut version because all of the music is so lucious. Great music, excellent libretto: King Priam. Needs to be done much more often. I admit I was gifted The Mask of Time and I regifted it.
It's interesting how slow most of Tippett's recordings are. His metronome marking for the first movement of the second symphony, is, for example, insanely fast, and led to the disastrous results at its premiere that you can find on TH-cam. All recordings take it slower, and I think Tippett's own is the slowest of all. I suppose his slow tempos in general might be due to the fact that he was in his 80s when most of his recordings were made. The Vision of St. Agustine is the one work before his faddish, sometimes self-indulgent works that I could never understand or warm to. I suspect it will never be programmed at a concert again. The second movement of the last string quartet is actually one of his more affecting works, if slightly repetitive. The survey didn't include what I consider his greatest work, King Priam, which has had only audio recording. It has a sound world you will find in no other composition. Claudio Arrau, of all people, said it was a masterpiece and that it existed on the border of music and noise.
From the hilarious synopsis of "Midsummer Marriage" (a work I have never heard), the plot reminds me more of "Die Frau ohne Schatten" than of "Die Zauberflöte"...
Only got a small amout of Tippett, definitely inspired to investigate now, especially the gorgeously melodic piece you cited and for sure the gnarly nasty mid-period! Thanks, Dave. Have you done a Talk on Birtwhistle?
I have recently for the first time listened to Tippett's oratorio "A child of our time" with John Pritchard as conductor. I was very impressed, a great work. So try to listen to Colin Davis' version. Thank you for the information about Tippett's work, it was very welcome.
Your mile-a-minute capsule plot description of the Midsummer Marriage was a blast. I wonder what Anna Russell would have done with that; doubt it'd surpass yours. Tippett certainly deserves this attention. The logical complement, imo, to follow up with: Peter Maxwell Davies. Yes, I know that you're not favorably disposed toward him, but perhaps it'd be possible to find a few amenable works. He was, indeed, a bit all over the place stylistically, but I don't hold that against him. He and Tippett seem to have that in common :--) Cheers...
An excellent roundup of all things Tippettian. My big wish is for a Midsummer Marriage blu-ray video. There's a murky version from German TV from the '80s on TH-cam, but boy it's hard to watch.
I hope you won't mind a small correction of something which must have surely been a slip of the tongue, at 1:08: Tippett was a political radical, not a reactionary (not the same thing, and indeed, quite the opposite). He may have turned in his grave to be called that. :-)
Yes, a passionate advocate for progressive causes, Tippett was following in his mother's footsteps, she having once been briefly imprisoned after a suffragette protest. He served 2 months in prison as a conscientious objector. The "wild" Third symphony was in large part fueled by his ongoing anguish over the ongoing destructiveness of human folly, still raging a century and a half after the optimism of Beethoven's setting of Schiller's Ode to Joy in his Ninth Symphony, which is tellingly quoted in Tippett's work.
I only ask this because you got to know him: what was Colin Davis like? I vaguely remember him, myself as a kid singing in a children's choir, being very entertaining for the kids, and working great with the then Bavarian Radio orchestra, he single-handedly introduced me to Sibelius ( via talking about S's symphonies, not because I listened to his recordings at the time), but I wonder what I would noticed about him, as a man and an artist if I met him now that I am an adult. Thanks for the Tippett info by the way, I was mostly familiar with his concerto for double string orchestra
Tippett conducted a performance of the Ritual Dances at College - he came to the rehearsal after presumably a generously lubricated lunch with Sir David Willcocks. His giggling and eccentricity through an attempt at trying to direct a very large ensemble and choir did not lessen the awe in the room of seeing Tippett - Surely one of England's greatest from the 2nd 1/2 of the 20thC. I love the string quartets.
So great to hear Dave extol the virtues of Tippett's music. Tippett really did write many masterpieces (I particularly love Symphonies 2,4, the Piano Concerto, Concerto for double string orchestra, Triple Concerto. all 4 Piano sonatas, Fantasia on theme of Corelli, Child of our Time and Midsummer Marriage, Mask of Time). I agree that Tippett made a "mistake" writing his own libretti.
I can thoroughly recommend “Michael Tippett: The Biography” by Oliver Soden - winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society Storytelling Award and also winner of the Somerset Maugham Award.
Love this guy....his resumé of the Midsummer Marriage is a work of art, a passionate explanation of the inexplicable....thank you , sir....more please
My intro to Tippett was a Proms concert in 1979 (I was 18yo, and on a European tour with a concert band). Lutoslawski conducted one of his own works (Les espace du sommeil?), and Tippett conducted A Child of Our Time. I was mesmerized by the Tippett. Once back in the US, I happened upon the Davis recording at a Houston record store, and snatched it up immediately. Aside from hearing this wonderful work again, and reliving my trip to Europe, I was introduced to the marvelous soprano, Jessye Norman!
That’s some concert!
@@murraylow4523 Oh yes, it was! I was only 18yo. I wish I could have appreciated it more, but the Tippett did make an impression on me.
The opening brass chords in the 3rd Symphony sound Iike nothing else. Ingenious.
When I was a kid growing up in Dallas in the 1970s, the two guys programming WRR, the local classical radio station, were enamored of Tippett. Thus my introduction to virtually every recording of that era. Thanks, gents.
On a pure whim - or so I thought - I got the "British Music Collection" twofer of the Concerto for Orchestra (etc) yesterday. Seems I'm being psychically inspired to buy recordings even before a video review is uploaded!
To me the wilder Tippett generally sounds as if he were trying to ape the avant garde (cue marimbas etc) but didn't really know how to do it. And, of course, there are the texts. I was at the premiere of his 3rd symphony and when a miked-up Heather Harper, trying to do a Bessie Smith, launched into, "O, I'll go walking with my nostrils", and later, "O, I'll go whirling with my armpits", I promise you that those in the audience who weren't rigid with embarrassment were desperately trying not to laugh.
For those who don't know the 3rd symphony, Henry didn't make those words up!
plus this text in 3rd symphony "and my thighs, and what between there lies, my thighs aflame" OMG
Get your point
But the reaction (not yours) is mostly that the musical establishment wasn’t much interested in bodies and sex, but he was
Maybe we can see it differently now
For those who are new to Tippett and don’t know where to start, I recommend his slow movements, starting with the Concerto for Double String Orchestra, the second and third symphonies and the triple concerto. They show Tippett in his finest, visionary form and are hypnotically beautiful. The first movement of the Third symphony is a wonderfully energetic and powerful movement. It’s perfectly fine
to ignore the other, vocal half of the symphony. And the Ritual Dances from the Midsummer Marriage are pure delight.
Thank you for this one, Dave. I am inspired to explore more Tippett.
Midsummer Marriage. One of the greatest operas ever that was written to a bonkers text. Right up there with Oberon. We still need an uncut version because all of the music is so lucious.
Great music, excellent libretto: King Priam. Needs to be done much more often.
I admit I was gifted The Mask of Time and I regifted it.
It's interesting how slow most of Tippett's recordings are. His metronome marking for the first movement of the second symphony, is, for example, insanely fast, and led to the disastrous results at its premiere that you can find on TH-cam. All recordings take it slower, and I think Tippett's own is the slowest of all. I suppose his slow tempos in general might be due to the fact that he was in his 80s when most of his recordings were made.
The Vision of St. Agustine is the one work before his faddish, sometimes self-indulgent works that I could never understand or warm to. I suspect it will never be programmed at a concert again.
The second movement of the last string quartet is actually one of his more affecting works, if slightly repetitive.
The survey didn't include what I consider his greatest work, King Priam, which has had only audio recording. It has a sound world you will find in no other composition. Claudio Arrau, of all people, said it was a masterpiece and that it existed on the border of music and noise.
From the hilarious synopsis of "Midsummer Marriage" (a work I have never heard), the plot reminds me more of "Die Frau ohne Schatten" than of "Die Zauberflöte"...
Only got a small amout of Tippett, definitely inspired to investigate now, especially the gorgeously melodic piece you cited and for sure the gnarly nasty mid-period! Thanks, Dave.
Have you done a Talk on Birtwhistle?
I have recently for the first time listened to Tippett's oratorio "A child of our time" with John Pritchard as conductor. I was very impressed, a great work. So try to listen to Colin Davis' version. Thank you for the information about Tippett's work, it was very welcome.
Your mile-a-minute capsule plot description of the Midsummer Marriage was a blast. I wonder what Anna Russell would have done with that; doubt it'd surpass yours. Tippett certainly deserves this attention. The logical complement, imo, to follow up with: Peter Maxwell Davies. Yes, I know that you're not favorably disposed toward him, but perhaps it'd be possible to find a few amenable works. He was, indeed, a bit all over the place stylistically, but I don't hold that against him. He and Tippett seem to have that in common :--) Cheers...
This is an amazing series. I do have some Tippett! All EMI I believe.
I CANNOT wait for this series when we move upstairs :) now that will be epic. 😊
An excellent roundup of all things Tippettian. My big wish is for a Midsummer Marriage blu-ray video. There's a murky version from German TV from the '80s on TH-cam, but boy it's hard to watch.
I hope you won't mind a small correction of something which must have surely been a slip of the tongue, at 1:08: Tippett was a political radical, not a reactionary (not the same thing, and indeed, quite the opposite). He may have turned in his grave to be called that. :-)
Yes, a passionate advocate for progressive causes, Tippett was following in his mother's footsteps, she having once been briefly imprisoned after a suffragette protest. He served 2 months in prison as a conscientious objector. The "wild" Third symphony was in large part fueled by his ongoing anguish over the ongoing destructiveness of human folly, still raging a century and a half after the optimism of Beethoven's setting of Schiller's Ode to Joy in his Ninth Symphony, which is tellingly quoted in Tippett's work.
That jarred me too. Strange to hear a conscientious objector in WW2 and a staunch pacifist described as a political reactionary.
Dave, your impromptu synopsis of the "plot" of The Midsummer Marriage was worthy of Anna Russell.
I only ask this because you got to know him: what was Colin Davis like? I vaguely remember him, myself as a kid singing in a children's choir, being very entertaining for the kids, and working great with the then Bavarian Radio orchestra, he single-handedly introduced me to Sibelius ( via talking about S's symphonies, not because I listened to his recordings at the time), but I wonder what I would noticed about him, as a man and an artist if I met him now that I am an adult. Thanks for the Tippett info by the way, I was mostly familiar with his concerto for double string orchestra
sneed
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