I doubt if there can
be many Tippett fans, or for that matter
fans of modern British music, that who
will not have acquired this superb disc
first time round when it was on the
full price Conifer label. For those
who didn’t, here is a second chance
and at mid-price.
As the composer’s last
orchestral work, premiered in his ninetieth
year, The Rose Lake was
always going to attain mythical status
among his many fans, but there is certainly
nothing frail, depressing or valedictory
about it. Indeed, listening again to
it confirmed my initial feelings that
the piece celebrates nature with the
most colourful, exuberant and seductive
of orchestral palettes, producing sounds
that more than once reminded me of earlier
works, particularly The Midsummer
Marriage.
As is fairly well documented,
The Rose Lake is based
on the profound impression made on the
composer by a small lake in Senegal
which, at midday, is transformed by
natural light from whitish green to
translucent pink. Tippett describes
how he hears the lake singing to him,
and the half-hour work is divided into
five basic sections (or songs) that
alternate with faster music, thus providing
a basic rondo form that is seamless
and beautifully integrated. The lake
first awakens (track 2) with calm, bucolic
horn writing, its song then echoing
from the sky (track 4) with magical
woodwind and string counterpoint, reaching
‘full song’ (track 6) in a gloriously
rich string tune, underpinned by exotic
roto-toms (distant drums), that forms
the centre of the structure and an obvious
climactic point. The rest of the piece
ingeniously reworks the earlier material,
providing a sort of developed mirror
image (or reflection?) that eventually
subsides back to the magical horn calls.
There is a slight (mosquito?) sting
in the tail in the form of a short coda
made up of staccato wind chords, but
the overall impression is of a beguiling,
luscious tone poem, full of characteristically
Tippettian melody, masterfully orchestrated.
Needless to say, it receives a well-nigh
ideal performance by Davis and the LSO,
artists who have a long and fruitful
association with the composer, and the
recording is superbly rich and full.
The coupling is certainly
a contrast and is very welcome, even
if it does make greater demands on the
listener. The Vision of St. Augustine
is a 37-minute oratorio, commissioned
by the BBC and first performed on January
19, 1965 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra
and Chorus, with the composer conducting
and Fischer-Dieskau as the soloist.
It has struggled to maintain a foothold
in the repertory, partly due to the
length, which makes it awkward to programme,
and the difficulty of the music. This
is its only recording, and a very good
one it is too. Tippett the interpreter
has drilled his forces well, so that
the performance is accurate and exciting,
with fairly extreme tempi adding to
the overall intensity. The subject matter
is dense (concepts of time, Christian
philosophical thinking, man’s place
in the universe etc.) and this is reflected
in some of the thickest textures that
Tippett employs. His mosaic structure,
which is built around thematic ‘blocks’,
each designates a tempo, can be tough
going at times, but the moments of ‘light’,
as in the blazing climax to Part 2,
‘O eternal truth’, are impressively
grand in their feeling of release and
usually worth the wait. Shirley-Quirke
is on top form, as are the LSO forces,
and the 1971 recording hardly shows
its age.
There is a full text
and translation for the choral work,
and very full notes from leading Tippett
scholar Meirion Bowen. Whatever your
thoughts about the coupling, The
Rose Lake demands your attention.
Tony Haywood
John Shirley-Quirke (baritone) 
