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The Slipped Disc daily comfort zone (170): Still doubled up

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norman lebrecht

September 01, 2020

Taking his cue from Vaughan Williams, Michael Tippett wrote some of his most beautiful pieces for a double-strings orchestra.

Colin Davis, Michael Tippett, Erich Gruenberg

Comments

Akutagawa says:

September 2, 2020 at 12:29 pm

You’ve changed your tune! Didn’t you once call Tippett a composer to forget?

Bruce says:

September 2, 2020 at 8:24 pm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Tippett#Recognition_and_controversy

The critic Norman Lebrecht, writing in 2005, dismissed almost all Tippett’s output, labelling him “a composer to forget”. With the forthcoming centenary celebrations in mind, Lebrecht wrote: “I cannot begin to assess the damage to British music that will ensue from the coming year’s purblind promotion of a composer who failed so insistently to observe the rules of his craft”.

Reply

Christoper says:

September 2, 2020 at 12:32 pm

The slow movement of the Double Concerto is one of my favorite pieces of English music.

Simon Hall says:

September 2, 2020 at 1:20 pm

Yes, you have changed your tune Norman. I remember reading your weekly column in the London Evening Standard on my commute home many years ago, and the whole one page article was a tirade against British composers. A few months ago however you recommend Harold Truscott, and now Tippett. Better late than never!

norman lebrecht says:

September 2, 2020 at 1:33 pm

You misremember.

Reply

DML says:

September 2, 2020 at 5:10 pm

Thanks for reminding me of this fabulous piece Norman. Long time no hear. Also nudged me to listen to his Concerto for Double String Orchestra – another favourite of this period of Tippett’s output. Hopefully he’ll come back into fashion one day.

Michael Turner (conductor) says:

September 2, 2020 at 9:24 pm

While there are notable, individual string serenades and other major string pieces (Stravinsky’s Apollo or Bartok’s Divertimento, for example) by non-British composers, the “string piece” does seem to be a particular strength of the British composer – RVW, Elgar, Tippett, Walton, Mathias, Warlock, Britten all come to mind.