Tippett, Michael Kemp (1905 - 98)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

How can wepromote his muisc more? I am afraid thyat his less challenging works will be performed more, rather than the more 'meatier' ones. I still think that his massive 'The Mask of Time' is opne of his best, despite what other people think?

Remembering the similar threads about Tippett we've had on these Boards, it seems that we all like certain works but each of us dislikes different pieces: I don't like The Mask of Time or The Vision of St Augustine, but I do like New Year - with Chris it was the other way round. ahinton doesn't think much of the Third Symphony that many others of us think wonderful - and so on and so on.

Mr Wright (no, not that one!) refers to various clips on you Tube. It is worth noting that, on average, the Tippett works featured get 13 viewings per day. I think that, just because R3 is neglecting its duties, it doesn't necessarily follow that his work is not being promoted or discovered and loved by new listeners.

[Chris Newman]

Ooh, thank you so much, John. I had not realised that Harry's VC had made it to YouTube. I am enjoying it now. Those lovely conversations between fiddle and woodwind. Perhaps, this Boston performance is not quite so romantic as the later Prom one. Would you agree? Maybe it is a tad faster? This often happens at premieres.

I was being deliberately provocative in my earlier message. Firstly, what I meant was that, as contemporary music goes and in comparison with earlier Birtwistle music, the VC is fairly painless. I personally think it is gorgeous: rather like Tippett in his more complex moments but quite sweet when compared with Harry's Panic. Secondly. what I also meant was that occasionally Breakfast should introduce something a bit more daring rather than constantly sticking to the usual sweet chestnuts: pop in a horse-chestnut now and again perhaps like Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht, Elgar's Owls, some Janacek, a bit more Richard Strauss rather than too much Johannes. Bring back the expanding of experiences that used to be a master quality of Radio 3 not so long ago. For me the morning R3 has become wallpaper broadcasting. And thirdly, as you say, after that Prom performance of the VC received so many accolades, why has it disappeared on R3?

[Chris Newman]

I do not wish to deviate too far from the subject of the thread but an amusing incident in a Tippett performance just jumped out from the recesses of my mind. When The Knot Garden premiered back in the early seventies at Covent Garden I went to the premiere, loved it so much I went to all the other performances too. During the opera the John Bury set was always changing on a revolving stage. The director was Peter Hall. There is a scene in Act 3 where Mangus (Thomas Hemsley), a Prospero-like psychiatrist figure who tries to control everyone organised a chess match. Flora (Jill Gomez) loses her patience and dashes the chess pieces about. At one of the later performances as the stage began to revolve Flora's foster-father Faber (Raimund Herincx) noticed that a chess piece had dropped into the groove of the revolve and could jam the machinery. He was seen chasing the offending piece towards the back of the stage and pulling it out.
These are the real words that follow:

FABER - That scene went wrong!

THEA (Faber's wife) - Ah, ah!

MANGUS - That scene went right!

THEA - Ah

MANGUS - Collect the pieces, repair the board.

I think a lot of the audience like me had seen more than one performance because what we actually heard was the following lines which brought the house down:

FABER - That scene went wrong! (The cast begin to laugh)

THEA (Faber's wife) - (Yvonne Minton never got her line out)

MANGUS - You're right. That scene went wrong!

THEA - Ah

MANGUS - Collect the pieces, repair the board.

[Beef Oven]

Tippett's opera, 'The Midsummer Marriage' is absolutely wonderful (I bought it on CD in the 90s, ROH/Covent Garden Colin Davis).

I remember Tippett always being on the radio and even TV. His music is of the highest quality, whether it's chamber, orchestral or vocal/choral. His 4 symphonies were never off my turntable when I was in my 20s. The Rose Lake, Child of our Time, the quartets, the Concertos.......why is he ignored nowadays?

EMI are really evil for not re-releasing 'The Mask of Time'. For such great music to be unobtainable is scandalous.

I am pleased to hear that Mark Elder is enthusiastic. Colin Davis did his bit, so too did that soulless stick-waver Solti.

Let's hope things change.

[jayne lee wilson]

He's one of my heroes. Always will be.

He wrote great music throughout his life, from those luscious, lovable early string concerti to the blunt sonorities and block juxtapositions of the Concerto for Orchestra (marvellous piece, often overlooked in favourites lists) through to the intense late lyricism of the Triple Concerto, The Rose Lake and the terrific Byzantium (a setting utterly worthy of Yeats' great poem). He always explored new ways of structuring pieces, of creating musical arguments and emotional narratives; hear the quartets or the symphonies to follow these developments. There are always going to be misfires in such an adventurous canon of works, especially in the later 20th Century, when musical styles have become so diverse and diffuse, and one sometimes wonders how opera can still work at all.

He was a great man too, who suffered for his beliefs and his sexuality, and whose boundless learning informed his creativity - indeed seemed often to enrich the sources of his inspiration. A true and, in a way, peculiarly English original (like Birtwistle) who perhaps for that reason alone would not necessarily be widely influential on later developments. But maybe no-one can be now.

[Rosie55]

I agree, especially his operas although I heard the Knot Garden a few years back, the cast was not all that convincing for me. His work deserves a finer stage than the Lindbury too. Why not main stage?
Tippett's fine operas, as well as Hoddinott's, are unjustly disregarded here.
Two composers who know how to create atmosphere and momentum in their dramatic works!

[amateur51]

He's one of my heroes. Always will be.

He wrote great music throughout his life, from those luscious, lovable early string concerti to the blunt sonorities and block juxtapositions of the Concerto for Orchestra (marvellous piece, often overlooked in favourites lists) through to the intense late lyricism of the Triple Concerto, The Rose Lake and the terrific Byzantium (a setting utterly worthy of Yeats' great poem). He always explored new ways of structuring pieces, of creating musical arguments and emotional narratives; hear the quartets or the symphonies to follow these developments. There are always going to be misfires in such an adventurous canon of works, especially in the later 20th Century, when musical styles have become so diverse and diffuse, and one sometimes wonders how opera can still work at all.

He was a great man too, who suffered for his beliefs and his sexuality, and whose boundless learning informed his creativity - indeed seemed often to enrich the sources of his inspiration. A true and, in a way, peculiarly English original (like Birtwistle) who perhaps for that reason alone would not necessarily be widely influential on later developments. But maybe no-one can be now.

An excellent appraisal of the man and his achievements, jlw - I'd just add his apparently boundless enthusiasm for encouraging and teaching young people through youth orchestras etc.

[Beef Oven]

Rosie, egg wetter gree! Hoddinott's absence is equally criminal.

[Barbirollians]

I struggle with his operas I admit but The Rose Lake I think is a masterpiece as is the Piano Concerto. A Child of Our Time , however, remains much my favourite work especially in the original recording with Elsie Morison's glorious singing.

[Chris Newman]

Originally Posted by jayne lee wilson

He's one of my heroes. Always will be.

He wrote great music throughout his life, from those luscious, lovable early string concerti to the blunt sonorities and block juxtapositions of the Concerto for Orchestra (marvellous piece, often overlooked in favourites lists) through to the intense late lyricism of the Triple Concerto, The Rose Lake and the terrific Byzantium (a setting utterly worthy of Yeats' great poem). He always explored new ways of structuring pieces, of creating musical arguments and emotional narratives; hear the quartets or the symphonies to follow these developments. There are always going to be misfires in such an adventurous canon of works, especially in the later 20th Century, when musical styles have become so diverse and diffuse, and one sometimes wonders how opera can still work at all.

He was a great man too, who suffered for his beliefs and his sexuality, and whose boundless learning informed his creativity - indeed seemed often to enrich the sources of his inspiration. A true and, in a way, peculiarly English original (like Birtwistle) who perhaps for that reason alone would not necessarily be widely influential on later developments. But maybe no-one can be now.

An excellent appraisal of the man and his achievements, jlw - I'd just add his apparently boundless enthusiasm for encouraging and teaching young people through youth orchestras etc.

Between you, you both summarise what I feel about Sir Michael. Three of his symphonies are masterpieces. The 3rd is I think of a fabulous experiment in the form of the song cycle. Like Das Lied von der Erde and Mahler 8 it doesn't quite work as a symphony. He was like Stravinsky in that he was an explorer and a time-traveller. Sometimes he hit the jackpot and occasionally he missed but challenged us (and himself) throughout his long and creative career. I see Britten as the 20th century's English Mozart: he matured young, could write anything quickly, wrote lots and it sounded good and pleased most people, occasionally things sound easy and glib, hiding the skilled musician at work whereas Tippett was the 20th Century's English Beethoven: he was late off the starting post, would always struggle to get things as he wanted them, rewrite things, try completely different styles and in the end produced a smaller output over a longer life but he pushed music into more exciting regions and styles.

[Roehre]

Rosie, egg wetter gree! Hoddinott's absence is equally criminal.

Tippett is well represented in my collection, the obvious names and recordings.
Though he (and many of his British colleagues, dead or alive) may be neglected at the moment, I do think his output eventually will become more widely known, e.g. through the Naxos recordings (which company did much for e.g. Lutoslawski, and pays attention to the works of Alwyn, which are qualitatively much more diverse than Tippett's ones [imo]).

I'd like to hear more of Hoddinott's output, but I must say that I think Mathias in that respect is slightly better served, perhaps as he might be considered the more important of these two Welsh composers? (For me he is, btw)

[Roehre]

Between you, you both summarise what I feel about Sir Michael. (...) He was like Stravinsky in that he was an explorer and a time-traveller. Sometimes he hit the jackpot and occasionally he missed but challenged us (and himself) throughout his long and creative career. I see Britten as the 20th century's English Mozart: he matured young, could write anything quickly, wrote lots and it sounded good and pleased most people, occasionally things sound easy and glib, hiding the skilled musician at work whereas Tippett was the 20th Century's English Beethoven: he was late off the starting post, would always struggle to get things as he wanted them, rewrite things, try completely different styles and in the end produced a smaller output over a longer life but he pushed music into more exciting regions and styles.

I like that comparison

[hackneyvi]

The symphonies and concerti should be core repertoire.

Where is the Tippett Piano Concerto?

It doesn't really kick off till next year but the BBC SO haven't forgotten the old boy.

All four symphonies and both concertos at the Barbican from October on.

http://www.bachtrack.com/find-a-concert/where/composer=5606-tippett;venue=1-barbican-centre--hall

I heard the 4th and the Triple about 20 years ago but I think this might be the only live performance of the 3rd I've ever seen programmed since discovering his music in 1989.

Quite exciting! The 1st is a rare event, too, isn't it?

[Petrushka]

It doesn't really kick off till next year but the BBC SO haven't forgotten the old boy.

All four symphonies and both concertos at the Barbican from October on.

http://www.bachtrack.com/find-a-concert/where/composer=5606-tippett;venue=1-barbican-centre--hall

I heard the 4th and the Triple about 20 years ago but I think this might be the only live performance of the 3rd I've ever seen programmed since discovering his music in 1989.

Quite exciting! The 1st is a rare event, too, isn't it?

Welcome back to the boards, Phil! I'm sure I can recollect a performance of the Tippett 3 from the LSO and Sir Colin Davis. Couldn't have been as long ago as 1989 surely?

[HighlandDougie]

Good for the BBC - otherwise a miserable showing from London's orchestras. I hope that I've missed something but the only work by Tippett I could see was the LSO performing A Child of Our Time. Maybe Mark Elder will do something (I remember my excitement when living in Manchester at the Halle performing his 2nd Symphony with Sir Mark). Or maybe someone like Ed Gardner might champion his music in the way that Colin Davis dis. I live in hope.