Tippett, Michael Kemp (1905 - 98)

[Bryn]

I think they said it wasn't, but could be wrong. Was (again) impressed with the symphony though!

Indeed, it was announced as a studio recording made shortly after the premiere which was broadcast on Radio 3 in Concert on February 1st.

[Pulcinella]

Whereas today's broadcast (of Symphony 3) appeared to be what we are getting on the Hyperion release, due out soon (forget when the announcer said; perhaps January?).

[Constantbee]

Saw Tippet's The Knot Garden at ROH in April 1988, probably the first modern British opera - apart from Britten - I'd ever seen. Rarely mentioned now, though. Can't see why because it's got everything going for it for a revival: topical themes like mental distress and psychoanalysis, a great score with instrumental motifs that sustain the interest, similar to David Sawyer's recent work.

[silvestrione]

Saw Tippet's The Knot Garden at ROH in April 1988, probably the first modern British opera - apart from Britten - I'd ever seen. Rarely mentioned now, though. Can't see why because it's got everything going for it for a revival: topical themes like mental distress and psychoanalysis, a great score with instrumental motifs that sustain the interest, similar to David Sawyer's recent work.

Yes, all those things are strengths, but I'm afraid it doesn't have 'everything going for it': the libretto was always cringe-worthy at times and now is even more so! ('Play it cool', etc)

[Richard Barrett]

Tippett had something important to say in his librettos, which is more than most composers do. For me The Knot Garden is one of the most underrated operas I've ever come across. It's original, bold, complex and pays no attention to anyone else's idea of what the genre should consist of. Like much of his work, it makes pretty much all of his British contemporaries sound facile.

[HighlandDougie]

Tippett had something important to say in his librettos, which is more than most composers do. For me The Knot Garden is one of the most underrated operas I've ever come across. It's original, bold, complex and pays no attention to anyone else's idea of what the genre should consist of. Like much of his work, it makes pretty much all of his British contemporaries sound facile.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

+ 1.

Part of the problem with the libretto lies with the performers on the recording, who sound very self-conscious and uncomfortable with what they have to sing. It's rather like watching a production of Look Back in Anger given by the students at Roedean.

[Richard Barrett]

It's rather like watching a production of Look Back in Anger given by the students at Roedean.

Next time I listen to it I will for sure have that image in mind. Obviously what's needed is a new production and associated recording, as Constantbee suggests.

[Serial_Apologist]

+ 1.

Part of the problem with the libretto lies with the performers on the recording, who sound very self-conscious and uncomfortable with what they have to sing. It's rather like watching a production of Look Back in Anger given by the students at Roedean.

Which, I now realise (thanks!), is probably the reason I detested it when I heard it!

(The traditional vocal conventions have always seemed embarrassingly inappropriate for most modern music to my mind, though).

[Lat-Literal]

I find Child of our Time very recognisably in Tippett's own distinctive voice, distinctively a part of Tippett's earlier mature works including the Double Concerto, Symphony No.1, Midsummer Marriage and Corelli Fantasia. It is a very direct, post-Romantic idiom which works wonderfully well with the Negro Spirituals used as classical-oratorio-model chorales in Child of Our Time. It is profoundly inspired melodically, and rhythmically very inventive and alive.

But then the work is for me one of the masterpieces of 20th Century Choral music, with a self-evident universal appeal, one which I almost always find emotionally devastating to listen to, almost unbearably so as we reach the Deep River chorale of its closing pages....
Those Spirituals are often in my head somewhere, as I go through my day; very moving, very memorable indeed; and always seem as fresh as the day I first heard them...

I find that this summarises how I felt in the early hours better than I could summarise it myself but by now I think people know I have a leaning towards negro spirituals.

On reading S_A's post, yes, I think I could also agree in that it could have been someone else.

Conscientious Objection - I think my empathy is there apart from in terms of WW2 when I find it that much more difficult.

But I don't really want to go there (again) as everyone gets upset (including me).

[jayne lee wilson]

I find that this summarises how I felt in the early hours better than I could summarise it myself but by now I think people know I have a leaning towards negro spirituals.

On reading S_A's post, yes, I think I could also agree in that it could have been someone else.

Conscientious Objection - I think my empathy is there apart from in terms of WW2 when I find it that much more difficult.

But I don't really want to go there (again) as everyone gets upset (including me).

Maybe try Tippett's first two string quartets? Tippett is himself from the very first beautiful bars, and you might hear that voice the more distinctively in the broadly contemporaneous Child of Our Time afterward.

[silvestrione]

Tippett had something important to say in his librettos, which is more than most composers do. For me The Knot Garden is one of the most underrated operas I've ever come across. It's original, bold, complex and pays no attention to anyone else's idea of what the genre should consist of. Like much of his work, it makes pretty much all of his British contemporaries sound facile.

I'm delighted to see that forum folk have such a high opinion of Tippett, whose music has meant so much to me most of my life. I've deeply disappointed to see how 'out of fashion' he's become. However, it doesn't alter that I can't stand the words of Dov's song, and Richard's generalisations above are, shall we say, a trifle rash?

[Bryn]

Tippett had something important to say in his librettos, which is more than most composers do. For me The Knot Garden is one of the most underrated operas I've ever come across. It's original, bold, complex and pays no attention to anyone else's idea of what the genre should consist of. Like much of his work, it makes pretty much all of his British contemporaries sound facile.

A highly respected commentator on music had this to say regarding the work, "a rambling indulgence in late-Sixties psychobabble, unrelieved by so much as one credible character".

No comment. I wonder if RD Laing ever saw/heard the opera?

[Richard Barrett]

Richard's generalisations above are, shall we say, a trifle rash?

I'm not sure what you mean there... you may not agree with me but the words were chosen carefully.

[Serial_Apologist]

Maybe try Tippett's first two string quartets? Tippett is himself from the very first beautiful bars, and you might hear that voice the more distinctively in the broadly contemporaneous Child of Our Time afterward.

I certainly back you on recommending the string quartets, jayne - especially the second, from the middle of Tippett's "sprung rhythm" phase - personally my favourite period; and I'd add the joyful first piano sonata, and moving the song cycle "Boyhood's End".