Martyn Brabbins conducts the BBC SSO in Elgar and Tippett - 28.09.17

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

7.30 p.m.
Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Martyn Brabbins conducts Elgar and Tippett.

Elgar: Sospiri, Op 70
Sea Pictures, Op 37
Tippett: Symphony No. 3

Karen Cargill, mezzo-soprano
Rachel Nicholls, soprano
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Martyn Brabbins, conductor

In a restless and angry world, music battles to make itself heard. And then, from amidst the turmoil and strife, a woman's voice breaks through - singing not a hymn to joy, but a heartfelt and sorrowful blues. Michael Tippett had the idea for his Third Symphony while at the Edinburgh International Festival; written during the 'Summer of Love', it's a masterpiece with an urgent message for the 21st century. And it's a wonderfully appropriate counterpart to Elgar's Sea Pictures. Songs of beauty, longing and despair from a composer who was anything but a stiff old Edwardian gent, sung here by the great Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill.

[BBMmk2]

At last a work by Tippett being broadcast!!!!

Martyn Brabbins, is certainly a force to be reckoned with, in this repertoire! And Tippett too!

[amcluesent]

Quite simply an abomination!

[LeMartinPecheur]

Quite simply an abomination!

Who is?

[EdgeleyRob]

Surely not Tippett 3 !

(I missed the 1st half)

[BBMmk2]

I thought ther whole concert was very good.

[underthecountertenor]

Worth mentioning the unscheduled opener: Let Glasgow Flourish by John Maxwell Geddes (d.7.9.2017)

[HighlandDougie]

Tippett's Third was as good a performance as we are likely to hear these days (which may, alas, be the last occasion on which it will be performed for some time, at least in Scotland). It contains some of Tippett's most memorable music but also some (about which amcluesent's, "an abomination", is maybe a bit strong but I know where he's coming from) which, frankly, is, err, "challenging".

More generally, deepest thanks to EA, which I hope fellow-forumistas will share, for highlighting these R3 broadcasts. Irrespective of one's annoyances with certain "presenters", we are very fortunate to be able to listen to such a wealth of music-making. It's not all wonderful (that Rach PC3 with Sir Simon and Daniil Trifonov was, as expressed forcefully elsewhere, an insult to the composer) but at least we are able to listen and come to our own judgements.

[bluestateprommer]

Tippett's Third was as good a performance as we are likely to hear these days (which may, alas, be the last occasion on which it will be performed for some time, at least in Scotland). It contains some of Tippett's most memorable music but also some (about which amcluesent's, "an abomination", is maybe a bit strong but I know where he's coming from) which, frankly, is, err, "challenging".

I too see where amcluesent is coming from, since quite a few passages in Tippett 3 are, if people here will forgive the Americanisms, lame or 'meh', such as at the very start for me (those chords that just sputter at the start), and the odd setting of the blues-inspired text in the last movement. It actually reminded me of Mark van Doren's evaluation of Walt Whitman once upon a time, where one can easily substitute "Tippett" for "Whitman":

"Whitman had the illusion, common to prophetic natures, that everything he said must be right because he said it. Poetry has a special way of exposing the error, for it demands its own kind of rightness, regardless of any other. Whitman did not regularly take the trouble to be right as a poet. He has paid the penalty."

This aside, all did well, from Brabbins (once again, just weeks after his London concert curated by Birtwistle) and both soloists to the BBC SSO.

[ahinton]

I ought to listen to Tippett 3 again, I suppose, not having heard it in years. I've always found it an embarrassment and one of the composer's most unfortunate works. Tippett was such a fine composer and it's true that his work isn't getting the performances today that it should but, unless another hearing dislodges the impressions that I've had of his third symphony since first I heard it when it as new more than 40 years ago, I don't think that this work is ever likely to do him any favours; there are so many other works by Tippett that I'd far sooner hear (albeit not including most of his operas). But that's just me. In any event, Tippett 3 could not be in better hands, methinks...

[pastoralguy]

I'm looking forward to the Brabbins/BBCSSO Tippett 1 & 2 that's due out between Christmas and New Year on Hyperion.

[Bryn]

I managed not to listen to the Brabbins concerts at the end of September, so am catching up now (I did get them onto hard disc). I must search out the concerts with Tippett 1 and 2, too.