Tippett reviews

The torch carried for Tippett by the late Colin Davis and Richard Hickox seems to have passed to Martyn Brabbins. These readings have the intentness of conviction, which the still underrated Symphony No. 1 in particular richly deserves. Completed in 1945 and combining the springy counterpoint of Tippett’s early style with – in its grinding passacaglia slow movement – something of the darkness of the war he had just come though, this sounds like a celebration of a hard-earned maturity.

The torch carried for Tippett by the late Colin Davis and Richard Hickox seems to have passed to Martyn Brabbins. These readings have the intentness of conviction, which the still underrated Symphony No. 1 in particular richly deserves. Completed in 1945 and combining the springy counterpoint of Tippett’s early style with – in its grinding passacaglia slow movement – something of the darkness of the war he had just come though, this sounds like a celebration of a hard-earned maturity.

The numbering here is deceptive: despite composing numerous earlier works in the string-quartet medium, the always self-critical Alwyn was 48 before, in 1953, he produced what he was prepared to designate his official No. 1. The four works here, numbered posthumously, were written between 1932 and 1936, in the composer’s usual taut and ultra-lucid manner (none lasts more than 20 minutes). Their individual voice and level of technical command make it hard to understand why Alwyn didn’t think any of them good enough for his own final seal of approval.

Three memorable classics: Yehudi Menuhin leads the Fantasia concertante, and in the Piano Concerto, Ogdon is both powerful and reflective. Clear, rather bass-light recorded sound. Malcolm Hayes

This splendid double album handily assembles all Tippett’s music for piano whether solo or with orchestra, in performances that impressively set new standards in these often challenging works.

Notwithstanding Phyllis Sellick’s pioneering recording of the First Sonata (now on NMC), the benchmarks in the Piano Concerto and Sonatas 1-2 were created back in the 1960s by John Ogdon’s mighty readings for EMI, while despite the best efforts of Paul Crossley (Philips) and Peter Donohoe (Naxos) the last two sonatas have remained elusive.

This disc is rewarding, above all because it places one of Tippett’s most approachable works, the Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli of 1953, firmly in the Baroque context within which it was conceived, as a tribute to the great Roman composer’s tercentenary. Hence Corelli’s vibrant opening Concerto Grosso in F, Op. 6/2 and the charmingly played Trio Sonata in B minor from the third 1680s set (Op. 3/4), whose Vivace – which plays a key role in the Tippett – was also reworked by Bach as the short organ fugue in B minor.

From just about every point of view this is an improvement on Colin Davis’s recent Dresden Staatskapelle A Child of Our Time (Profil Hänssler). The recording is slightly warmer, with soloists, chorus and orchestra reasonably well blended, though without muddying the textures.