A Tippett Triple

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1980, at a Proms concert at Royal Albert Hall in London, the British conductor Colin Davis led the London Symphony in the premiere of a new work by the British composer Michael Tippett. This was a Triple Concerto for violin, viola and cello with orchestra, showcasing the talents of three virtuoso string players: violinist Gyorgy Pauk, violist Nobuko Imai, and cellist Ralph Kirshbaum.

The central slow movement of the new Triple Concerto, marked “very slow—calmer still,” proved to be one of Tippett's most lyrical and colorful moments, and with it, Tippett joined a long line of Western composers, including Claude Debussy, Benjamin Britten, and Lou Harrison, who have been inspired by Asian music: specifically the traditional bronze gong orchestras of the islands of Indonesia, known as “gamelan.”

Shortly before he composed his Triple Concerto, Tippet had visited Java and Bali, and had experienced first-hand performances of gamelan music in the palaces, temples and gardens of Indonesia.

In describing the role of the artist as he saw it, Tippett suggested that it was, “the creation of images of vigour for a decadent period, images of calm for one too violent, images of reconciliation for a world torn by divisions, and in an age of mediocrity and shattered dreams, images of abounding, generous, exuberant beauty.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Sir Michael Tippett (1905 - 1998) Triple Concerto Kovacic-Caussé- Baillie Trio; BBC Philharmonic; Sir Michael Tippett, cond. Nimbus 5301

On This Day

Births

• 1827 - Austrian composer Josef Strauss, in Vienna; He was the son of Johann Strauss I and the younger brother of Johann Strauss, II.;

• 1862 - French composer Claude Debussy, in St.Germain-en-Laye;

• 1928 - German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, in Mödrath (near Cologne);

Premieres

• 1968 - Birtwistle: opera "Punch and Judy," at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland;

• 1980 - Tippett: Triple Concerto, for violin, viola, cello and orchestra, in London by the London Symphony, Sir Colin Davis conducting;

• 1982 - Peter Maxwell Davies: "Image, Reflection, Shadow" at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland;

Others

• 1741 - Handel begins work on his famous oratorio, "Messiah," which he finished scoring on September 14 (Gregorian dates: Sept. 2 to 25); The entire work was composed in a period of 24 days;

• 2002 - An opera by the Iranian-Armenian composer Loris Cheknavariyan based on the Persian epic "Rostam and Sohrab" is staged in Teheran to mark the 1000th anniversary of the birth of poet Abol-Qasem Ferdowsi, on whose epic the opera was based; The performance, at Teheran's Milad Hall, featured 125 Austrian musicians and singers; This marked the first occasion that a Western-style opera was staged in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.