Tippett: Piano Concerto, Fantasia Concertante, Etc

Gratitude to EMI for giving new lease on life to these invaluable Tippett recordings from the 1960s. The compilation first came out on a 2-LP set in 1984 to honor the composer's approaching 80th birthday. It was reissued on CD in 1991, in the mid-price EMI-studio collection (which is how I have it, see the third cover photo), and later reissued on the British Composers series, with, apparently, the same catalogue number and barcode. Only one of the recordings wasn't originally produced by EMI, the First String Quartet by the Edinburgh Quartet, which came on the obscure Scottish label Waverley SLLP 1028 (and in the US on Monitor), paired with Ernest Bloch's String Quartet No. 3. The recording date and location are unknown (says the booklet), but the LP came out in 1965. The Quartet, or at least its second and third movements, is the earliest work Tippett allowed to be published: it was written in 1935 but revised before its publication in 1943 (with a new first movement replacing the two from the original conception), and by then Tippett had already written and published the First Piano Sonata (1937) and Second String Quartet (1942). Although marked by Tippett's lifelong fascination for Beethoven, it isn't entirely significant of the composer's unique voice. The vehemently passionate first movement lets one hear striking echoes of Debussy's Quartet and, in the very intensity of its lyricism, a few of Berg as well, and the intense but somewhat austere lyricism of the second movement possibly brings Reger to mind. But the future Tippett is adumbrated mainly in the Finale, with its carefree dancing in irregular meters. The Edingburgh Quartet acquits itself well, with all the vehemence required in the first movement, a Finale taken with more bonhomie than true drive and a slow movement that apparently established a tradition, followed by all the other ensembles that have recorded it, of being played WAY slower than Tippett's metronome indication (circa 46-50 eighth-notes per minute to his c79), but the sonics are very dry and boxy and make this recording little more than a historical document.

Price: $39.98

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