Where Tippett scored better than Britten
OrchestrasJohn Bridcut’s new BBC documentary on the British composer Michael Tippett, The Shadow and the Light, has prompted me to revisit some of my long-held views on the composer, not all of them respectful. It is almost 20 years since I wrote a centenary essay under the headline ‘Michael Tippett – a composer to forget.’ Tippett, I averred then, ‘is a British taste, and none the better for that.’
Not much has moved in the years between. Tippett performances are mostly undertaken by a handful of devotees on his home turf.
Watching the documentary, I was reminded painfully of Tippett’s eccentric scoring, hapless librettos and irredeemable lapses of dramatic concentration. I believe he still holds the record for the least-watched opera ever shown on British television.
Benjamin Britten, who was fond of him as a friend, had little good to say about his music. I was once rebuked by Britten’s publisher Donald Mitchell for mentioning the two of them in the same sentence. There was no love lost between the camp followers.
However, what emerges from the Bridcut documentary is the tremendous warmth that Tippett inspired in those around him, a devotion far beyond the chilly Aldeburgh shores. Friends were prepared to lay down their lives for this quirky, cultish character of extreme political views and limited personal loyalty. Ralph Vaughan Williams and Adrian Boult backed him early on, Colin and Andrew Davis in latter years. Every now and then, amid screeds of incomprehensible score, Tippett could move good musicians to tears of catharsis. I feel the need to reacquaint myself with his last quartet, which has moments of transcendence.
Blatant as his flaws might be, Tippett comes over as more endearing than Britten, more idealistic, more individualistic, a British version of the classic Russian archetype known as the ‘holy fool.’
Watch the doc if you can.
photo: Schott
One of those who had tremendous admiration for Tippett’s music was my tutor Ian Kemp who went on to write his biography: Tippett – The Composer and His Music. Sadly he was never able to convey his enthusiasm to his pupils. I recall being thoroughly confused when seeing The Knot Garden at the ROH.
‘Damn braces, bless relaxes’: Britten and his music after Grimes seem to me buttoned up, cabined, cribbed confined in an Aldeburgh chill. Tippett embraced the world with extrovert music of energy and love. THE MIDSUMMER MARRIAGE is the greatest optimistic opera since The Magic Flute, A Child of Our Time seems as relevant as ever and moves audiences still. I attended a well-received performance in Berlin and then walked back past the famous synagogue, still guarded by police.
Masterpieces like the 2nd, 3rd symphonies, the piano concerto, the Triple concerto and The Mask of Time will survive the test of time, as has the joyous Concerto for Double String Orchestra already. His Price Charles suite is a light but very undervalued gem. The quartets finer than Britten’s for me.
Ed Gardner will keep the flame alive, I am sure
These sorts of comparisons are quite useless. I like the Tippett quartets – play them often. Same goes for the Britten quartets. NL’s comparison between Britten and Tippett had nothing to do with their compositions. Comparisons and use of the term “masterpiece” just get in the way of enjoying these works from time to time. I like some of the works by both Britten and Tippett and feel no need to tear one composer (or singer, or conductor, or orchestra) down to prop up another.
Beautifully put. Yehudi Menuhin once said that after a certain point, people aren’t necessarily better, they’re just different, or words to that effect. It’s all a contribution.
A lot of perspectives on Tippett are being revisited. 20 years ago he was in the depths of that well-documented phenomenon, the temporary posthumous reputation slump (see also Sibelius, Boulez, Vaughan Williams, Mahler…). Operas that flopped a generation ago are getting performances and productions (like the late Graham Vick’s The Ice Break in Birmingham and the recent LPO Midsummer Marriage) backed by a technical skill and an open-mindedness that were not, perhaps, available in Tippett’s lifetime. Oliver Soden’s new biography was serialised on Radio 4. Not Radio 3. Radio 4.
One myth that really needs to be scuppered is this slightly parochial (and certainly outdated) idea that Tippett is a peculiarly British phenomenon, that his music doesn’t travel. A few minutes on the Schott website reveals numerous recent (ie since 2019) performances of A Child of our Time in Switzerland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Indonesia, Sweden, China and – overwhelmingly – in Germany and the USA, where (although I haven’t counted precisely) the total number of performances rivals, or even exceeds, those in the UK. Berlin, Aachen, Dortmund, Offenbach, Hamburg, Leipzig, Detmold, Oldenburg….New York, Tanglewood, Duluth, Chicago, Napierville, Johnson City, Clearwater….there’s no way exposure on this scale is just “a handful of devotees on home turf”. The Double Concerto, the Corelli Fantasia, even the Triple Concerto aren’t doing at all badly either.
The performance calendars on music publishers are a brilliant rebuke to lazy assumptions like these .
The documentary was fascinating and clumsy at the same time. Fascinating because Tippett is a fascinating and inspiring person/composer, clumsy because -inevitably- incomplete, biased….Nothing on the third symphony, Byzantium, too little on chamber music…
Still, Tippett wrote (difficult) music that can be magnificent, moving, heart-wrenching.
It is not useful to compare artists, music is not a sport.
I think the documentary is first-rate and makes me want to go and explore more of his work. As was mentioned in the programme, there is a sunshine that pervades much of his music – a nice contrast with the wonderful yet icey sounds that came from Britten. The collection of contributors featured is comprehensive and, of course, catches them in the nick of time before Tippett’s cohort disappears into the mists.
I was heartened to think that the BBC are still prepared to broadcast such a programme on classical music on BBC2. Thank you, BBC – let’s give credit where it is due! And now, a few days later, we have Cardiff Singer of the World on BBC Four all week, albeit after my bedtime – why so late?! Thank goodness for the iPlayer!
For those of you who can access British TV via the iPlayer, here’s the link to the Bridcut/Tippett documentary:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001mpvt
In the early 1980’s Michael Tippett was at the Wolf Trap venue outside Washington to conduct his Fourth Symphony. Although it was obviously new to the audience, the work and composer were well received. A young woman in our group said it was “much better than Lutoslawski.”
I already had the recording of THE MIDSUMMER MARRIAGE , and as we approached the seating area there was a brass fanfare that recalled the world of the “Ritual Dances.” Then it was announced that Tippett had written the fanfare for this concert.
My youthful enthusiasm for Tippett has faded. However, looking through the piano-vocal version of MIDSUMMER MARRIAGE and the orchestral score for THE VISION OF ST. AUGUSTINE (Schott small edition), I have a sense of the joy and dedication he brought to his life’s work.
When did Britten criticise Tippett? At least in Britten’s early letters he speaks of Tippett as a fine composer.
Yes, several of Tippett’s major works are hopeless, and there are some weaknesses that characterise most of his output, but the 20th century produced mostly imperfect composers.
As for performances, he still is not frequently performed, but you have to compare him to other composers writing at the same time. Britten is performed fairly frequently, but the majority of output is neglected as well.
The ease and refinement with which Tippett gels modern concepts with folk themes, or the neo-baroque – he is certainly one of the finest British composers. Compared to those in America who were trying to achieve something similar in their music, he is at least as good.
I love Tippett’s music unreservedly – but found John Bridcut’s new film a poor effort. It took him 40 minutes to mention that Tippett was gay, but, more importantly, didn’t mention Jungian theory & analysis at all. Jung was central to Tippett’s life & music from the late 30’s onwards. And Bridcut’s gimmick of getting some distinguished & not-so distinguished talking heads to listen to a piece of music and encouraging them to emote a little or to utter some wise sounding platitude is becoming a rather tired gimmick!
I have recorded the four symphonies and thank goodness Paul Beard once had the courage to ask Alexander Goehr to re write the ridiculous writing for the violin. Tippet of course didn’t notice.
Beard’s modification of the violin parts in the second symphony were blamed (rightly or wrongly) for the collapse of the premiere. Tippett had much of the musical were aware of Beard’s intervention.
I have been lucky enough to sing as a member of the Chorus in both the Midsummer Marriage and Child Of Our Time, conducted by Ed Gardner. Both were difficult to learn, but boy was it worth the effort. Midsummer Marriage teems with inspiration and joy. As for COUT, there is so much more to it than the Spirituals, lovely as they are. Some of the instrumental interludes are very beautiful and he wrote for chorus very skilfully.
The comparisons with Britten are overdone. Despite the superficial similarities they were very different personalities, which their music reflects. I suspect a better comparison is with Poulenc, perhaps, but let’s be thankful that England produced such two great Composers in the middle of the 20th century.
The Rose Lake and A Child of our Time are great pieces.
While, I’m sure Britten had reservations about Tippett’s music, he also praised it in a way that he never did Walton’s or Vaughan William’s. Tippett really is the very definition of the flawed genius. Some people (N.L. included) can’t seem to get past those flaws. Others can. I personally don’t think he will place a lot of pieces in the repertory but I think he has a good chance of placing a few….probably more with the earlier, more accessible works like the Double String Orchestra Concerto, etc. And that’s not bad. I wish every composer was a Britten but that’s not the case…..so I’ll take a Tippett when I can get him.
Bravo, Norman!
Thanks, Guy!
I’m much more likely to play Tippett than Britten – the symphonies (excluding #3, which I’ve never been able to appreciate), the Triple Concerto, Child of Our Time, Double Concerto and Corelli Fantasia are all works that I really like and have listened to many times over the years. The only Tippett piece I’ve heard in concert is the Double Concerto, which Ormandy programmed around 1973, on a program that also included the Ives 2nd Symphony!
“Tippett comes over as more endearing than Britten, more idealistic, ”
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He was definitely more endearing but not more idealistic. Britten truly was a committed lifelong pacifist. Tippett only became one when he was in danger of being drafted during WWII. Prior to that, he was a Trotskyite and miraculously turned into a pacifist on a dime when England entered the war. It was quite the transformation.
Erm…and which one of these composers actually served prison time for their beliefs?
Possibly we have different definitions of “commitment”…
Why do you label his followers as camp?
King Priam is a stunning work, which seems to be ignored by many
In other words, NL, you’re taking back some of what you exclaimed so dismissively (of Tippett) at an earlier age. We’re all guilty of doing that at some time or another. I grew up over five thousand miles away from London, on the left coast of the U.S.A. colonies. Much of Tippett’s music was immediately attractive to me, so it did travel beyond Britain (and Britten). I was lucky that I got to see a really good production of “The Midsummer Marriage” at the S.F. Opera. It’s not likely they’ll put that on again any time soon. I really want to see this BBC documentary.
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I came upon Michael Tippett’s music by accident, his Concerto for double string orchestra was on the B side of Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis I think. Since then I’ve loved many of his works, The Midsummer Marriage, early String Quartets, Piano Concerto and songs to name a few. I called at Knockets unannounced when visiting Bowood House with my wife and children, abandoning them there in the outdoor playground. Fully expecting a ‘Clear off’ he invited me in and we chatted for nearly an hour. he at one end of his enormous sofa, dressed in shorts and sandals, the grand piano and the picture of a cockerel on the the wall just as in one of his record sleeve photos. His musical soundworld is like no other and his world view unique, contributing to his appeal – albeit waxing and waning over time but enduring nevertheless.
It is a shocking thing to urge your readers to forget a composer. Because Tippett is such a great composer, I predict you will be likened to Haslick.
‘Screeds of incomprehensible score’. Where, I wonder? I once had to write to the late Edward Greenfield when he criticised the Piano Concerto in similar terms. Clearly some critics have cloth ears
It’s not a coterie nowadays. Many of the young people engaging with Tippett never even met him.
An extraordinary misjudgment. Tippett was touched by greatness even in his unevenness.
The slow movement of the First Quartet is as great (and less predictable than) the Barber Adagio. These are the points of light in an entire century. How rarely this spirit of delight comes, as Elgar inscribed! It’s not who you are: but whether that angel comes!