Wigmore Hall Celebrations

To me, Tippett was the twentieth century’s great black sheep. In each decade, until perhaps the mid 1960s, he was the unpredictable counter-balance to Britten’s epoch-defining style in Britain. It’s not even, in my view, that they were two planets circling around each other; Tippett was too busy upsetting all laws (astronomy included) for this. Thus there is a sense of anarchy and subverted order threading through Tippett’s ouput. But there is also great design, order (of his own making) and structure to his music. Moreover, the beauty of the sounds he created are especially evident in the chamber music, the solo piano works, and the songs, despite the smaller pallette from which he created these works.

 

Thus Wigmore’s celebration of the Tippett Centenerary will illuminate the order and chaos at the heart of Tippett’s music. To me it is important that Tippett is clebrated at Wigmore for two reasons: many of the works were first performed at Wigmore, and it is fitting that they are reheard in this setting. But most importantly, as happened with Britten, those performers so closely associated with his music during his lifetime are no longer with us or are no longer performing, and it is time for new exponents to emerge from the shadows. If Wigmore’s series can help introduce this great music to a new generation of performers and listeners, it has done its job.