Tippett Piano Concerto; R3 in Concert, Weds 14/6/17

[Pulcinella]

Tonight's R3 concert, live from Birmingham.

In particular:
Tippett: Piano concerto
Steven Osborne (piano)
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla (conductor)

I even managed (just) to follow the score, but mainly by counting like crazy and simply sensing where we were from the patterns of the arabesques and instrumental entries.

[teamsaint]

Tonight's R3 concert, live from Birmingham.

In particular:
Tippett: Piano concerto
Steven Osborne (piano)
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla (conductor)

I even managed (just) to follow the score, but mainly by counting like crazy and simply sensing where we were from the patterns of the arabesques and instrumental entries.

Missed it . Worth listening again?

And well done on the whole score following thing . I should have thought you could do that in your sleep. Not that anybody would want to sleep through such a fine work, obviously......

( I was Tippetting myself today, Sym #4....)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Tonight's R3 concert, live from Birmingham.

In particular:
Tippett: Piano concerto
Steven Osborne (piano)
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla (conductor)

I even managed (just) to follow the score, but mainly by counting like crazy and simply sensing where we were from the patterns of the arabesques and instrumental entries.

A very good performance of one of my favourite Piano Concertos - the soloist excellent, the orchestra/conductor not sounding quite at home in Tippett's sprung rhythms: two or three more rehearsals to get those "upbeat" shorter notes a little lighter, more of a skip in the step, I felt. In compensation, the "edge-of-the-seat" sense of danger had its own rewards and insights (but, if these were intentional, they hadn't been discussed with the pianist). And the joy of hearing this cubist pastoral, with its wonderful positionings of timbre, resonance, and register - it would have had to have been a much worse performance than this to stop it being a delight.

[Pulcinella]

Missed it . Worth listening again?

And well done on the whole score following thing . I should have thought you could do that in your sleep. Not that anybody would want to sleep through such a fine work, obviously......

( I was Tippetting myself today, Sym #4....)

Have you seen the score, ts? How a soloist can ever learn and remember such music is utterly beyond me.
Some symbols in it (arrows) that I don't fully understand, and a curious use of both French and Italian instructions.

A very good performance of one of my favourite Piano Concertos - the soloist excellent, the orchestra/conductor not sounding quite at home in Tippett's sprung rhythms: two or three more rehearsals to get those "upbeat" shorter notes a little lighter, more of a skip in the step, I felt. In compensation, the "edge-of-the-seat" sense of danger had its own rewards and insights (but, if these were intentional, they hadn't been discussed with the pianist). And the joy of hearing this cubist pastoral, with its wonderful positionings of timbre, resonance, and register - it would have had to have been a much worse performance than this to stop it being a delight.

Perceptive comments as usual, ferney. Yes, it didn't quite spring, did it?
And perhaps filigree would be better than arabesques, but you'll know a better musical term for the piano writing.

[teamsaint]

Have you seen the score, ts? How a soloist can ever learn and remember such music is utterly beyond me.
Some symbols in it (arrows) that I don't fully understand, and a curious use of both French and Italian instructions.


.

I'd like to see it very much. Must be tricky to have you at full speed to keep up !!

Cheapest I can see a copy is not far short of £20, so it might have to wait .

[Pulcinella]

I'd like to see it very much. Must be tricky to have you at full speed to keep up !!

Cheapest I can see a copy is not far short of £20, so it might have to wait .

My copy cost £6.50 on 27 August 1982 (bought from Schott in London; I wonder if I was 'in town' for a Prom that day?).
And I've worked out what the arrow signs in the second movement mean: where the second and fourth beats of the 4/8 bars fall in the triplets that the piano, cellos, and double basses are contending with, apparently!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Tippett Piano Concerto; R3 in Concert, Weds 14/6/17

Given that "Why is Tippett so neglected these days?" comments appear quite regularly on the Forum, I am a little surprised by the relative lack of comment here that last Wednesday's evening concert (in which Stephen Osborne with the CBSO conducted by Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla played the composer's Piano Concerto - one of my favourite of his works) has so far attracted. The entire concert is still available to hear via the R3 i-Player:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08t445t

... and I'll copy a couple of posts from the Wot U Listening 2? Thread on the piece with the hope of sparking a little more interest

[ahinton]

Given that "Why is Tippett so neglected these days?" comments appear quite regularly on the Forum, I am a little surprised by the relative lack of comment here that last Wednesday's evening concert (in which Stephen Osborne with the CBSO conducted by Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla played the composer's Piano Concerto - one of my favourite of his works) has so far attracted. The entire concert is still available to hear via the R3 i-Player:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08t445t

... and I'll copy a couple of posts from the Wot U Listening 2? Thread on the piece with the hope of sparking a little more interest

I missed it, I'm sorry to say. I went through the score years ago and I have to say that the piano writing is for the most part as awkward and clumsy as anyone could possibly hope for, yet it sounds as utterly idiomatic and convincing as it is appealingly attractive; an horrific piece to learn, especially to memorise, I suspect - not that this would in any way discourage an artist of the calibre of Steven Osborne!...

[EdgeleyRob]

Don't seem to have as much time to post on here these days what with piano practice and such.
Struggling with the first movement of the Mozart 'easy' Sonata btw.
Yes I have only just today caught up with this,absolutely nothing wrong with the performance in my non expert opinion.
I've never seen the score of Tippett's Concerto but if that's what clumsy and awkward piano writing sounds like I'll take that thank you very much.
The whole concert in reverse was a delight,they shudda played the encore first
The Earl of Wessex was there apparently.

[ahinton]

I've never seen the score of Tippett's Concerto but if that's what clumsy and awkward piano writing sounds like I'll take that thank you very much.

Moi aussi!

The Earl of Wessex was there apparently.

Did his presence make it sound any better?

[EdgeleyRob]

Moi aussi!


Did his presence make it sound any better?

Probably not

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Sorry???

There's an "Earl of Wessex"???!!!

[vinteuil]

Sorry???

There's an "Earl of Wessex"???!!!

... His Royal Highness The Prince Edward Antony Richard Louis, Viscount Severn, Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, Honorary Member of the Saskatchewan Order of Merit, Aide-de-Camp to Her Majesty.

I suspect Private Eye has another monicker for him....



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[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

So ... is there also a "Countess of Mercia" and a "Duke of Bernicia"???

"Lord of Middle Earth"? "Duchess of Narnia"?? "Viscount Neverland"???

[vinteuil]

.

... wiki tells us -

"Before Edward's marriage in 1999, royal commentators conjectured that former royal dukedoms such as Cambridge or Sussex might be granted to him. Instead, the Palace announced its intention that Prince Edward would eventually succeed to the title Duke of Edinburgh, currently held by his father. In the meantime, in keeping with the tradition of sons of monarchs being ennobled upon marriage (while reserving the rank of duke for the future), Prince Edward became the first prince since the Tudors to be specifically created an earl, rather than a duke. The Sunday Telegraph reported that he was drawn to the historic title Earl of Wessex after watching the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love, in which a character with that title is played by Colin Firth."


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