Tippett reviews

Tippett: Symphonies Nos 3 & 4; Symphony in B flat

Rachel Nicholls; BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins (Hyperion)
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Martyn Brabbins 'aims for clarity' in his approach to Tippett's Symphonies Nos 1 & 2

The torch carried for Tippett by the late Colin Davis and Richard Hickox seems to have passed to Martyn Brabbins. These readings have the intentness of conviction, which the still underrated Symphony No. 1 in particular richly deserves. Completed in 1945 and combining the springy counterpoint of Tippett’s early style with – in its grinding passacaglia slow movement – something of the darkness of the war he had just come though, this sounds like a celebration of a hard-earned maturity.

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Martyn Brabbins conducts Tippett's Symphonies Nos 1 & 2 with an 'intentness of conviction'

The torch carried for Tippett by the late Colin Davis and Richard Hickox seems to have passed to Martyn Brabbins. These readings have the intentness of conviction, which the still underrated Symphony No. 1 in particular richly deserves. Completed in 1945 and combining the springy counterpoint of Tippett’s early style with – in its grinding passacaglia slow movement – something of the darkness of the war he had just come though, this sounds like a celebration of a hard-earned maturity.

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The Tippett Quartet performs Alwyn's String Quartets Nos 10-13

The numbering here is deceptive: despite composing numerous earlier works in the string-quartet medium, the always self-critical Alwyn was 48 before, in 1953, he produced what he was prepared to designate his official No. 1. The four works here, numbered posthumously, were written between 1932 and 1936, in the composer’s usual taut and ultra-lucid manner (none lasts more than 20 minutes). Their individual voice and level of technical command make it hard to understand why Alwyn didn’t think any of them good enough for his own final seal of approval.

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The Heath Quartet perform Tippett's string quartets live at Wigmore Hall

'The early works have an unflagging momentum, and the slow movements glow'
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Tippett: Concerto for double string orchestra; Piano Concerto; Fantasia concertante

Three memorable classics: Yehudi Menuhin leads the Fantasia concertante, and in the Piano Concerto, Ogdon is both powerful and reflective. Clear, rather bass-light recorded sound. Malcolm Hayes

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Tippett: The complete music for Piano

This splendid double album handily assembles all Tippett’s music for piano whether solo or with orchestra, in performances that impressively set new standards in these often challenging works.

 

Notwithstanding Phyllis Sellick’s pioneering recording of the First Sonata (now on NMC), the benchmarks in the Piano Concerto and Sonatas 1-2 were created back in the 1960s by John Ogdon’s mighty readings for EMI, while despite the best efforts of Paul Crossley (Philips) and Peter Donohoe (Naxos) the last two sonatas have remained elusive.

 

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Corelli and Bach, Holst, Tippett: Works by Tippett, Holst, Corelli and Bach

This disc is rewarding, above all because it places one of Tippett’s most approachable works, the Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli of 1953, firmly in the Baroque context within which it was conceived, as a tribute to the great Roman composer’s tercentenary. Hence Corelli’s vibrant opening Concerto Grosso in F, Op. 6/2 and the charmingly played Trio Sonata in B minor from the third 1680s set (Op. 3/4), whose Vivace – which plays a key role in the Tippett – was also reworked by Bach as the short organ fugue in B minor.

 

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Tippett: A Child of Our Time

From just about every point of view this is an improvement on Colin Davis’s recent Dresden Staatskapelle A Child of Our Time (Profil Hänssler). The recording is slightly warmer, with soloists, chorus and orchestra reasonably well blended, though without muddying the textures.

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Piano works by Tippett, Willis, Holloway, C Matthews, Jackson and Fitkin.

If symphony orchestras and even concert halls can have their own record labels why not a university - especially when it (Hertfordshire) can call on the 2006 winner of the British Contemporary Piano Competition to assemble such a thought-provoking programme spanning the last half-century? Curiously, it's the oldest piece - Tippett's single movement Sonata No.2 of 1962 - which sounds the most 'modern' despite the fact that Chris Willis completed Burning up only months before Uttley recorded it.
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Tippett: A Child of Our Time

No one could accuse Colin Davis of repeating himself in his second recording of A Child of Our Time. The conception is more spacious and there are gains in tenderness and tonal warmth. But there are losses too, most significantly the dramatic pace and rhythmic tautness that made his 1975 version (now available on Decca) so compelling. This performance certainly has its moments, such as the angry grandeur in ‘Go down, Moses’, but they are only moments. It takes Davis a while to gather momentum, and he often loses it again.
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Dering, Leighton, Stanford, Vaughan Williams, Tippett, JÊHarvey, Howells, Langlais etc

This programme, which presents music you might hear at the Abbey at Michaelmas, consists mainly of 20th-century British music. The two exceptions are, I have to say, the most engaging works here.
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Tippett: Choral Images: Dance, Clarion Air;The Weeping Babe; Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis; Four Songs from the British Isles; Five Negro Spirituals etc

There may be passing similarities in style between Michael Tippett’s music and that of his friend Benjamin Britten. But where Britten’s hallmark is often lucid clarity, Tippett is much less easy to grasp on first hearing. That’s as true of these choral miniatures as much as his better-known more ambitious works. Tippett is more inclined to quirkiness, to go off at seeming tangents, and the serpentine intricacy of some of his choral writing puts even the best-drilled professional choirs to the test.
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Puccini, Gounod, Menotti, Delibes, Gershwin, Tippett, Berlioz, Charpentier, Bellini, Donizetti

This debut recital by Nicole Cabell, the Californian soprano who won the 2005 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, demonstrates considerable flair and potential but suggests that more hard work will have to be put in before she achieves the status of a finished artist. Cabell’s is essentially a lyric soprano notable for the warmth and generosity of its tone, and there’s some personality to the voice, too. She’s at her best in the long lines of Puccini (the Gianni Schicchi and Rondine arias), where her Italian diction is clear and she enters imaginatively into the spirit of the music.
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Bach, Sor, Turina, Tippett & Schubert

Since Bream retired from public performing three years ago he has kept busy with his memoirs – a tasty prospect – and taken time out to trawl his broadcast archive for this equally appetising collection. Track dates range from 1956 to 1985, the earliest showing off the 23-year-old player’s unusually flamboyant and impulsive way with a concise sonata by Turina. The more familiar, focused and distilled style of his maturity dominates the programme, which starts by borrowing Bach’s D minor violin Chaconne.
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Tippett: A Child of our Time

A classic recording, Tippett eliciting weighty utterance without clouding textures or losing momentum. The two upper soloists take the laurels, and the chorus matches them. William Whitehead
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BrittenFinziTippett

As pianist Roger Vignoles says in his notes to this disc, there need be no prizes for guessing the theme that links Tippett’s Boyhood’s End with Finzi’s A Young Man’s Exhortation and Britten’s Who are these children?. But one of the things that makes this disc so enjoyable and stimulating as a complete recital is the differences in perspective between these song cycles. Who are these children? pursues Britten’s life-long preoccupation with threatened and finally destroyed innocence, but his Hölderlin Fragments offer at least a hint of spiritual
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Purcell, Britten, PŠrt, Vaughan Williams, Walton & Tippett

‘Lachrymae’ (Tears) is a reference to one of the John Dowland songs that forms the basis of the Britten work recorded here. As a title for the disc as a whole, though, I’m not sure how appropriate it is. Yes, much of the music recorded here has melancholy leanings. A great deal of care has obviously been given to interpretation, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe plays with its customary refinement and precision. But my heartstrings remained obstinately untugged.
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Britten, Tippett, J Lambert, Howells & Vaughan Williams

John Lambert’s Organ Mass of 1964-8 opens out from a declamatory start to reach an ending of pregnant stillness; while clearly informed by the composer’s knowledge of the instrument, it steers well clear of the clichés of ‘organist’s music’.
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Tippett, Tallis

Tippett’s music has never been the kind that ‘plays itself’. It always needs committed and understanding performance from fine musicians, and that’s exactly what these two discs celebrate. First Tippett himself: his octogenarian conducting of Symphonies Nos 2 and 4 started life as a cover CD with this magazine in 1995, but it richly deserves bringing into general circulation. Some of his tempos may be slower than ideal and there may be occasional uncertainties of ensemble, but these are rich, glowing, utterly convincing performances. No.
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Tippett: Symphony No. 2; Symphony No. 4

Tippett’s music has never been the kind that ‘plays itself’. It always needs committed and understanding performance from fine musicians, and that’s exactly what these two discs celebrate. First Tippett himself: his octogenarian conducting of Symphonies Nos 2 and 4 started life as a cover CD with this magazine in 1995, but it richly deserves bringing into general circulation. Some of his tempos may be slower than ideal and there may be occasional uncertainties of ensemble, but these are rich, glowing, utterly convincing performances. No.
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Tippett: Praeludlum for brass, bells and percussion; Symphony No. 3

This is Tippett's most fascinating symphony, ranging from a dramatic opening movement, through a richly scored Lento and multi-layered scherzo, to a finale in which he uses a series of sung blues to give a more realistic reinterpretation of Beethoven's unalloyed optimism in his Choral Symphony. This new disc marginally improves on the pioneering LSO/Davis account, with a warmer acoustic and more idiomatic singer, but slightly less assured string playing. Matthew Rye
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Ives, Barber, Stravinsky, Tippett & Poulenc

Naxos is not the only label to benefit from the purchase of former Collins recordings:from Coro, official label of The Sixteen, comes the reissue of a stash of mainstream material. Nearly all the pieces collected here face stiff competition in the catalogue. Even so, the success of newer versions, benchmark or not, will be measured in part against their stature.
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Stravinsky, Tippett, Britten

It is always refreshing to encounter a disc in which consideration has been given to providing a balanced and thought-provoking programme. This is the second instalment in Christopher Hogwood’s ‘Modern Classicists’ series, and is built upon an eclectic group of Stravinsky’s smaller-scale works, with substantial historically influenced interjections by Tippett and Britten. The result is in marked contrast to the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra’s foray into the world of Stravinsky’s miniatures (DG), in which the scattergun whole somehow falls short of the sum of the delightful parts.
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