Tippett, Michael Kemp (1905 - 98)

[ahinton]

- he wrote the Gramophone review of the first recording of Ferneyhough's Sonatas for String Quartet (by the Berne S4tet on RCA), which showed astonishing insight and understanding of the work by any standards - and if, as I think was the case, his comments were made without access to the score of the work, it was a phenomenal achievement. A great writer on Music, able to communicate the most complex Musical features clearly to a general audience - his is a great loss.

Indeed it is - and a fine speaker, too.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Going offtopic a bit, what I'm wondering (as someone who's never knowingly listened to the Lindsays playing anything at all before now) is how they managed to gain such a strong reputation and make so many recordings, some of which (Beethoven!) won Gramophone Awards and the like, when there was, as LMP puts it, a "well-circulated opinion" that something as basic as their intonation was defective.

IIRC, the charge wasn't that their intonation was always dodgy, hence my comment about their studio recordings possibly being more reliable than their live concerts.

Looking up my notes on the Beethoven concert that I mentioned above, sometimes intonation was indeed an issue even for me, but the main disappointment was small-scale, passionless performances - at best neat and tidy. I used the phrase 'Beethoven a la Mendelssohn'

[Pulcinella]

Today's listening so far: The Rose Lake again. Gradually getting more fascinated than puzzled by the way that (unlike his other large scale works) it's difficult to find much in the way of connecting threads between its diverse episodes. Of course, in other music this isn't a problem but experience with Tippett's symphonies led me to expect a particular kind of continuity that isn't really there, being replaced by a kind of drifting between more or less sharply defined sound-images. Today I shall be listening to at least one of the string quartets, another area of MT's work I don't really know.

The Rose Lake is the first piece in a BBCSO concert being broadcast live on Wednesday 17 April:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ecfhj5

[Richard Barrett]

The Rose Lake is the first piece in a BBCSO concert being broadcast live on Wednesday 17 April:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ecfhj5

Nice programme all round!

[zola]

Oliver Soden's biography of Tippett is the Book of the Week on Radio 4 next week at 0945 each day. It's also an item on Saturday's Music Matters.

[LMcD]

Oliver Soden's biography of Tippett is the Book of the Week on Radio 4 next week at 0945 each day. It's also an item on Saturday's Music Matters.

Repeated each day - well, the following morning - at 0030. From what I've read, Soden's book is far from adulatory.

[Pulcinella]

Repeated each day - well, the following morning - at 0030. From what I've read, Soden's book is far from adulatory.

The review in today's Times is very odd: under the heading A mediocrity in an age of giants, the reviewer (Michael Henderson) is pretty harsh on Tippett's music and rating as a composer, and says very little about the biography (though that little is not at all complimentary!). Seems strange to give the book for review to someone so clearly out of sympathy with the subject and his music.

[vinteuil]

The review in today's Times is very odd: under the heading A mediocrity in an age of giants, the reviewer (Michael Henderson) is pretty harsh on Tippet's music and rating as a composer, and says very little about the biography (though that little is not at all complimentary!). Seems strange to give the book for review to someone so clearly out of sympathy with the subject and his music.

... Henderson's review is a wretched piece, and I don't know what The Times was about when they chose it. Heartening that all the comments below the review are caustic in their attacks on Henderson. I gather that Philip Hensher in The Spectator did an altogether more worthwhile review.


.

[crb11]

There was a much more positive review (than Henderson's) in the Guardian. Soden was a guest on COTW when Tippett was the subject a couple of months ago, and I pre-ordered the book on the basis of that. He's clearly sympathetic to Tippett, but not uncritically so.

[Richard Barrett]

There was a much more positive review (than Henderson's) in the Guardian.

Still full of lazy Tippett clichés though, seeing him in comparison with Britten as late in developing, slow, "never wrote anything to match Peter Grimes" etc. etc. etc. - those of us who regard Tippett's music as infinitely more engaging and powerful and profound than Britten's get quite tired of reading these received opinions over and over again. I'm looking forward to the book though - still five days to go until it's available from Kobo...

[Ein Heldenleben]

The Times review is , IMHO, something of a disgrace . Tippett is not a mediocre composer. He might be something of a wayward librettist admittedly . The 2013 prom performance of Midsummer Marriage convinced me , as much as the WNO production of the 80's , of what a rich and rewarding experience listening to his music can be. There was recently a complete set of complete symphonies on R3 from which it was clear that here was a major symphonic talent . Frankly any one who can achieve at that level in such contrasting genres merits a 700 page biography.
I cannot see the point of selecting a critic who is so antipathetic to the subject of a major biography as the book reviewer . It's the sort of clever-clever let's- stir -up -a -pointless - controversy that gives Fleet Street reviewing a bad name. It certainly won't put me off buying the book.

[visualnickmos]

Critics....... need one say more.

Tippett is a great British twentieth century composer. When I listen to his music, I am somehow drawn to the edge of my seat/chair..... without even realising. I find it pointless and a cop-out when critics compare apples with oranges, and vice versa; example, Tippett with Britten.

[ahinton]

Still full of lazy Tippett clichés though, seeing him in comparison with Britten as late in developing, slow, "never wrote anything to match Peter Grimes" etc. etc. etc. - those of us who regard Tippett's music as infinitely more engaging and powerful and profound than Britten's get quite tired of reading these received opinions over and over again. I'm looking forward to the book though - still five days to go until it's available from Kobo...

"Tippett...never wrote anything to match Peter Grimes"? I would instead have written "Britten...never wrote anything to martch The Midsummer Marriage". Much as I respect and admire Britten, I share your view that Tippett at his best is "infinitely more engaging and powerful and profound than Britten".

[Bella Kemp]

Having just read the Times review today I had intended to start a new thread, but pleased to see the wretched piece discussed here. The reviewer, who I assume must be a friend of the editor, simply regurgitates a hash of personal prejudice against Tippett and barely mentions the book in question. Frankly it's a disgrace and shames the paper that printed it.

[Bryn]

Having just read the Times review today I had intended to start a new thread, but pleased to see the wretched piece discussed here. The reviewer, who I assume must be a friend of the editor, simply regurgitates a hash of personal prejudice against Tippett and barely mentions the book in question. Frankly it's a disgrace and shames the paper that printed it.

I'n not sure I could agree with you re. the piece shaming The Times. It's went far beyond being shamed by such dross a long time ago.