Tippett, Michael Kemp (1905 - 98)

[BBMmk2]

Played yesterday evening a Sir Andrew Davis/BBCSO etc, the Tippett disc

[Maclintick]

I don't know either the third or fourth symphonies, Bbm. Something I must rectify sometime. And put it right!

The fourth is a work I never tire of -- the six-part horn-writing alone just gives me the shivers now thinking about it. Also wonderful is the "The Rose Lake", a testament to the octagenarian composer's youthful inquisitiveness & engagement with the world, with its thrumming battery of 18 (?) roto-toms. The opening phrases of no.4 are straight out of "Bluebeard" an echo or perhaps an hommage to his hero Bartók-- re-visited in the Fourth piano Sonata -- but the forward drive & coherence of this 4th symphony is magnificent, IMHO. I've struggled with the Third....

[Serial_Apologist]

The fourth is a work I never tire of -- the six-part horn-writing alone just gives me the shivers now thinking about it. Also wonderful is the "The Rose Lake", a testament to the octagenarian composer's youthful inquisitiveness & engagement with the world, with its thrumming battery of 18 (?) roto-toms. The opening phrases of no.4 are straight out of "Bluebeard" an echo or perhaps an hommage to his hero Bartók-- re-visited in the Fourth piano Sonata -- but the forward drive & coherence of this 4th symphony is magnificent, IMHO. I've struggled with the Third....

I can think of a number of charismatic luminaries in music who were uneven or inconsistent at the level of inspiration - Berlioz, Liszt, Brian and Messiaen, to name just four - often at their best more strikingly convincing and trail blazing than others more consistent, but at the same time more mundane, such as Hindemith or Berkeley Sr. Maybe Tippett was the sort of composer who at his best was up there with some of the greatest of them... and down there with some of the greatest of them, at their worst?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The fourth is a work I never tire of -- the six-part horn-writing alone just gives me the shivers now thinking about it.

Excellent news for all enthusiasts of this tremendous work - a rare Live performance, broadcast next Monday evening. Martyn Brabbins conducts the BBCScottishSO

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09nnrbt

[Petrushka]

The fourth is a work I never tire of -- the six-part horn-writing alone just gives me the shivers now thinking about it. Also wonderful is the "The Rose Lake", a testament to the octagenarian composer's youthful inquisitiveness & engagement with the world, with its thrumming battery of 18 (?) roto-toms. The opening phrases of no.4 are straight out of "Bluebeard" an echo or perhaps an hommage to his hero Bartók-- re-visited in the Fourth piano Sonata -- but the forward drive & coherence of this 4th symphony is magnificent, IMHO. I've struggled with the Third....

Agree with all of this. I had the great good fortune to attend the first UK performance of the 4th with Solti and the Chicago SO at the 1978 Proms. It made an indelible impression on me then and still does. Also attended a Prom performance of the Rose Lake at the Proms with Colin Davis and the LSO. Both are masterpieces of the first order.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Agree with all of this. I had the great good fortune to attend the first UK performance of the 4th with Solti and the Chicago SO at the 1978 Proms. It made an indelible impression on me then and still does. Also attended a Prom performance of the Rose Lake at the Proms with Colin Davis and the LSO. Both are masterpieces of the first order.

So you'll be tuning in on Monday evening, then, Pet?

[Petrushka]

So you'll be tuning in on Monday evening, then, Pet?

I certainly will. I'd add the Triple Concerto to the list of Tippett masterpieces.

[Alison]

Tippett’s Fourth = perennially fresh!! Love it.

[EdgeleyRob]

Tippett’s Fourth = perennially fresh!! Love it.

[jayne lee wilson]

Don't forget this excellent recent release....

https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68203

.... it will be followed up with a 3rd and 4th from the same performers.....

[BBMmk2]

Don't forget this excellent recent release....

https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68203

.... it will be followed up with a 3rd and 4th from the same performers.....

This be great to have. Many thanks JLW!

[Pulcinella]

I live in the (admittedly not very high) hopes that Martyn Brabbins might persuade me that Tippett 3 is better than I think it is.
I didn't hear the broadcast.

[Richard Barrett]

I live in the (admittedly not very high) hopes that he might persuade me that Tippett 3 is better than I think it is.
I didn't hear the broadcast.

If you don't think it's one of Tippett's most powerful works then I would have to try and persuade you it's better than you think it is... for me it sums up everything I think Tippett's music is about and everything that makes it special, and each time I listen to it is somehow a newly inspiring experience.

So I hope Martyn B can give you a nudge in that direction. Out of all the conductors I've worked with (which admittedly isn't many) he struck me as the most open-minded and generous of spirit, apart from his abilities as a performer which I think are unquestionable on the basis of his concerts and recordings.

[Pulcinella]

If you don't think it's one of Tippett's most powerful works then I would have to try and persuade you it's better than you think it is... for me it sums up everything I think Tippett's music is about and everything that makes it special, and each time I listen to it is somehow a newly inspiring experience.

So I hope Martyn B can give you a nudge in that direction. Out of all the conductors I've worked with (which admittedly isn't many) he struck me as the most open-minded and generous of spirit, apart from his abilities as a performer which I think are unquestionable on the basis of his concerts and recordings.

I'm afraid it's those last-movement blues, Richard!

I was at a very early performance though, Harper/RLPO/Groves, and remember being impressed at the time (well, I was an impressionable young lad ); perhaps it's one of those works that works better being seen performed. Doesn't help that I don't like Beethoven 9 either, though, I suspect!
It's the one Tippett symphony score I don't have. I wonder too if studying it more would make it grow on me: the score's not cheap though.

[Richard Barrett]

Doesn't help that I don't like Beethoven 9 either, though, I suspect!

Actually I think that should help... I've always thought the last movement (apart from being an "answer" to Schiller/Beethoven) is such an original and affecting way to solve the problem of how a symphony might end, in both structural and expressive terms. Somehow for me when the voice enters it's always as if I'm hearing it for the first time. And the first three movements are fantastic of course.