A Child of our Time could be anyone’s kid
Daily Comfort ZoneThe Royal Northern Sinfonia has put on Michael Tippett’s oratorio in a performance involving amateur musicians and singers from across the North East of England. The idea is to underline the universality and topicality of the work. Some of the performers were unable to read music, which did not in any way diminish their participation.
Here’s the professional cast list:
Dinis Sousa conductor
Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha soprano
Sarah Connolly mezzo-soprano
Nicky Spence tenor
Willard White bass-baritone
Tim Burke chorus director
Chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia
Royal Northern Sinfonia
One of the greatest and most neglected works of the 20th century. Overlooked particularly by too many US orchestras.
Curious: do German, French and Italian orchestras play the piece regularly? I was under the impression it was almost only played in Britain.
I heard a wonderful performance at the Berlin KONZERTHAUS…with a favourite temor: Scot Weir. The walk to the hotel took me past the famous synagogue….
Hardly any Tippett played at all here in France…
I performed the work with a semi-amateur chorus (freelance orchestra, some paid singers) in Berkeley a couple of years ago and considered it an honor. It is a stunning piece. The text setting is of course amazing but even the orchestration has so many touches of brilliance. Yes, as with so much else in the repertoire, criminally underperformed.
Tippett took me a while to get into. I have always loved the piano concerto. The effort was worth it. A far more human and humane person than his more illustrious contemporary. A critic once called him “amateur” but that’s not, for me, a bad thing.
For me, the great works are his 2nd symphony, A Child of Our Time, and the Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli.