Michael Tippett - A Child of Our Time (Classical, 1992, mp3, 256 kbps)

Michael Tippett - A Child of Our Time (oratorio in Three Parts) - 1992



A Child of Our Time is a secular oratorio by the British composer Michael Tippett (1905–1998), who also wrote the libretto. Composed between 1939 and 1941, it was first performed at the Adelphi Theatre, London, on 19 March 1944. The work was inspired by events that affected Tippett profoundly: the assassination in 1938 of a German diplomat by a young Jewish refugee, and the Nazi government's reaction in the form of a vicious pogrom against its Jewish population—the so-called Kristallnacht. Tippett's oratorio deals with these incidents in the context of the experiences of oppressed people generally, and carries a strongly pacifist message of ultimate understanding and reconciliation. The text's recurrent themes of shadow and light reflect the Jungian psychoanalysis which Tippett underwent in the years immediately before writing the work.
The oratorio uses a traditional three-part format based on that of Handel's Messiah, and is structured in the manner of Bach's Passions. The work's most original feature is Tippett's use of American spirituals, which carry out the role allocated by Bach to chorales. Tippett justified this innovation on the grounds that these songs of oppression possess a universality absent from Christian and other hymns

For fans of the music of Michael Tippett, the first great work -- the first work to establish him as a composer and the first work in which he is recognizably himself -- was his oratorio A Child of Our Time. Composed between 1939 and 1941 and premiered in London in 1944, A Child of Our Time combines the monumentality of Handel and the rhythms of jazz, the massiveness of Beethoven and the lyricism of the madrigal with the passionate pacifism and the loving compassion that was all Tippett's own. For fans of Tippett, though there were surely later works and arguably even greater works, A Child of Our Time is the work nearest and dearest to their hearts.

And for fans of Tippett, the greatest performance of the work, the performance that gets closest to the composer's passionate compassion, was his own recording made in 1991 when Tippett was still a spry 85 years old. Leading the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus along with a cracker-jack crew of vocal soloists, Tippett's performance is almost unbearably moving -- the songs of the soloists, the fugues of the chorus, and the heartrending spirituals -- and is so affecting that it is nearly impossible to remain untouched. Reissued from a superb digital recording originally made by Collins Classics, Naxos' remastering is absolutely translucent, allowing the performance to shine through in all its sublime transcendence.

Michael Tippett Conductor, Composer
John Cheek Bass (Vocal)
Jon Garrison Tenor (Vocal)
Faye Robinson Soprano (Vocal)
Sarah Walker Alto (Vocals)
City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus Choir/Chorus
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Orchestra
Simon Halsey Choir Director


Part I
1. Chorus: "The world turns on its dark side"
2. The Argument (alto solo): "Man has measured the heavens", followed by an orchestral Interludium
3. Scena (chorus and alto solo): "Is evil then good?"
4. The Narrator (bass solo): "Now in each nation there were some cast out"
5. Chorus of the Oppressed: "When shall the usurer's city cease?"
6. Tenor solo: "I have no money for my bread"
7. Soprano solo: "How can I cherish my man?"
8. A Spiritual (chorus and soli): "Steal Away"

Part II
9. Chorus: "A star rises in midwinter"
10. The Narrator (bass solo): "And a time came"
11. Double Chorus of Persecutors and Persecuted: "Away with them!"
12. The Narrator (bass solo): "Where they could, they fled"
13. Chorus of the Self-righteous: "We cannot have them in our Empire"
14. The Narrator (bass solo): "And the boy's mother wrote"
15. Scena: The Mother (soprano), the Uncle and Aunt (bass and alto), and the Boy (tenor): "O my son!"
16. A Spiritual (chorus and soli): "Nobody knows the trouble I see"
17. Scena: Duet (bass and alto): "The boy becomes desperate"
18. The Narrator (bass solo): "They took a terrible vengeance"
19. Chorus: The Terror: "Burn down their houses!"
20. The Narrator (bass solo): "Men were ashamed"
21. A Spiritual of Anger (chorus and bass solo): "Go down, Moses"
22. The Boy Sings in his Prison (tenor solo): "My dreams are all shattered"
23. The Mother (soprano solo): "What have I done to you, my son?"
24. Alto solo: "The dark forces rise"
25. A Spiritual (chorus and soprano solo): "O by and by"

Part III
26. Chorus: "The cold deepens"
27. Alto solo: "The soul of man"
28. Scena (bass solo and chorus): "The words of wisdom"
29. General Ensemble (chorus and soli): "I would know my shadow and my light"
30. A Spiritual (chorus and soli): "Deep river"

mp3 256 kbps