To be 90 or so with knackered eyesight and still be putting out a piece of this quality is extraordinary. Tippett is amazing, even when it’s almost unlistenable or nearly unplayable there’s something intriguing, reaching for some higher meaning or emotion. We’re not good at treasuring our musical geniuses in the uk
Tippett's last major work. You'd have thought it was the work of a young composer. He was still pushing musical boundaries right until the end. Sadly, concert goers at the time didn't understand it. Even sadder, many still don't!
This is a remarkable late piece by a genius who lost his way for a while on frankly awful "relevant" operas which misfired because he tried too hard. I knew Tippett on and off professionally for several years and he could be too much of a one man band in thinking that he could write plots and libretti without professional input. He also made things over-complicated because he misunderstood the Jungian thinking he thought he espoused and was not intellectually all that deep. He put the hours in but was a great composer and that should have been enough. His gift for sonorities of individual instruments and his sheer craftsmanship in double fugue construction (which he found easier to knit than did Walton) were prodigious but from 'The Knot Garden' to 'New Year' he perhaps should have left opera alone. 'King Priam' is an underrated masterpiece which needs reviving. In his final works he realised that time was running out and he used his ears as well as economy of notes to leave us a treasure legacy. High time these late works were in the repertoire, especially 'The Rose Lake'.
To be 90 or so with knackered eyesight and still be putting out a piece of this quality is extraordinary. Tippett is amazing, even when it’s almost unlistenable or nearly unplayable there’s something intriguing, reaching for some higher meaning or emotion. We’re not good at treasuring our musical geniuses in the uk
Well he was knighted and performed everywhere. Even this effort has been recorded more than once.
Vaughan Williams had fallen out of fashion by the 1970s but is now more popular than ever. Tippett's music will make a come-back given time.
Tippett's last major work. You'd have thought it was the work of a young composer. He was still pushing musical boundaries right until the end. Sadly, concert goers at the time didn't understand it. Even sadder, many still don't!
very nice illustrative music piece
This is a remarkable late piece by a genius who lost his way for a while on frankly awful "relevant" operas which misfired because he tried too hard.
I knew Tippett on and off professionally for several years and he could be too much of a one man band in thinking that he could write plots and libretti without professional input.
He also made things over-complicated because he misunderstood the Jungian thinking he thought he espoused and was not intellectually all that deep. He put the hours in but was a great composer and that should have been enough.
His gift for sonorities of individual instruments and his sheer craftsmanship in double fugue construction (which he found easier to knit than did Walton) were prodigious but from 'The Knot Garden' to 'New Year' he perhaps should have left opera alone. 'King Priam' is an underrated masterpiece which needs reviving.
In his final works he realised that time was running out and he used his ears as well as economy of notes to leave us a treasure legacy.
High time these late works were in the repertoire, especially 'The Rose Lake'.
Excellent. Thank you. Which orchestra and recording is this please?
Hello, you can see it in the description
BBC NATIONAL ORCHESTRA OF WALES
RICHARD HICKOX
Muchas gracias