Search - Tippett, Shirley-Quirk, Lso :: Rose Lake / Vision of St Augustine

Spectacuular Late Tippett Work

Christopher Forbes | Brooklyn,, NY | 08/19/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Michael Tippett is a composer that people love to hate. Not radical enough for the post-war avant-garde and not conservative enough to elicit much love from the general public, dogged with snipes about his lack of formal training, and ridiculed for his operas, Tippett nevertheless carved out a career of startling originality, and in the process wrote some of the most wonderful works of his time. This CD consists of two of Tippett's later works. (Tippett's periods are roughly divided by the opera The Midsummer Marriage. Works written before that piece tend toward the English Pastoral tradition. Works after that period are more adventurous, partaking of elements of Berg and the avant-garde, but always without systematic rigor.) The Vision of St. Augustine is a cantata for chorus and orchestra based on a fragment from Augustine's confessions. The musical style is from Tippett's most austere period in the early 60s. Most interesting in the piece is the treatment of the chorus, which is divided into two parts only and given vocal lines that stretch the limits of singability. Tippett new the voice. This isn't a sign of lack of craft, but rather an experiment, one that may not always be successful, judging by the strain in the chorus in this piece.The reason to by the CD is The Rose Lake. This is one of Tippett's final pieces, one that finds him beautifully balanced between the harmonic richness of his later period and the ecstatic lyricism of his Midsummer Marriage period. The work is in one uninterupted movement and, like the Fourth Symphony, is a "birth to death piece" meaning in Tippett's mind that the work is cyclical, starting out with gentle undulating chords and finishing on those similar chords as the work fades out. This is a magnificent recording. Colin Davis has a long history with the music of Tippett, having conducted the premiere of most of his operas and many other works as well. John Shirley Quirk sings the solo parts of the Vision with authority and passion. And the orchestra is beautifully balanced and recorded. Tippett has seemed to fall out of favor in the last few years. (I notice the same happening to Peter Maxwell Davies. Wonder if it's an anti British composer thing.) It's a shame, because his work has the capacity to delight, stun, and move in equal measure. Get this CD mostly for the Rose Lake. It is a lovely closing work from the career of a British genius."