Search - Michael Tippett, Neville Marriner, Colin Davis :: Tippett: Piano Sonatas 1-3; String Quartets 1-3; Fantasia Concertante; etc.

Great performances of some mostly great music

C. Symonds | Sydney, NSW Australia | 01/01/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The late Michael Tippett (1905-1998) had one of the most instantly recognisable musical voices of the twentieth century. Although his stylistic concerns may have shifted radically from the radiant, tonally-inflected lyricism of the Concerto for Double String Orchestra to the thorny and ascetic Concerto for Orchestra (and the opera King Priam), the intense and passionate vein of ecstatic musical lines never left his music. This box set collects most of his major orchestral works (with the unfortunate exception of The Rose Lake), and the first three of his piano sonatas and string quartets. Firstly, the performances are universally excellent (all the artists being long associated with Tippett's music). Mention must be made of Sir Marriner's passionate and wonderfully- nuanced reading of the always enjoyable Fantasia Concertante, and Colin Davis' energetic and joyous interpretations of the first three symphonies. He makes the diffuse and poorly- constructed Third Symphony seem more logical than the only rival recording- Hickox on Chandos. Heather Harper, whilst no Blues singer, gives a valiant effort to articulate Tippett's frankly vulgar Blues songs, interpolated between quotes from Beethoven's 9th. Solti's recording of the 4th symphony is everything you'd expect from CSO in the late seventies: power, virtuosity and that famous sheen that obviously inspired Tippett to write the work for them. Unfortunately, the "breathing effect" is a disastrous failure, sounding like a dying bronchitis patient, rather than the "gently breathing" sounds presumably intended by the composer. The first three Piano Sonatas are played beautifully by Paul Crossley, making the most elegant case possible for the average first and second sonatas. The third, truly a great work, is given an electric reading. The string quartets, played by the Lindsay Quartet are also given dynamic, thoughtful performances, the second and third quartets containing some of Tippett's most inspired counterpoint.

All in all, a set well worth investigating, if you do not have any orchestral/instrumental Tippett in your collection, though not every work on here is of the highest compositional quality."