Tippett: Midsummer Marriage (complete opera)
$90.00
Out of Stock2-4 weeks add to cart
SIR MICHAEL TIPPETT
Tippett: Midsummer Marriage (complete opera)
Robert Murray, Rachel Nicholls, Ashley Riches, Toby Spence / London Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir, Edward Gardner
[ LPO / 3 CD Box Set ]
Release Date: Friday 23 September 2022
This item is currently out of stock. We expect to be able to supply it to you within 2 - 4 weeks from when you place your order.
Powered by hope and glowing with an irrepressible life- force, Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage burst like a huge, colourful blossom into the grey world of post-war British music.
There's still nothing quite like it, and it's all told in some of the most deliriously beautiful music ever written in these isles.
Tippett's first opera receives its first commercially available recording in over 50 years, in a landmark performance conducted by Tippett enthusiast Edward Gardner.
Recorded at the Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall and broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, this performance was a thrilling start to Edward Gardner's tenure as Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
"Unexpectedly, it's the second pair of lovers, Bella and Jack, admirably sung by Jennifer France and Toby Spence, who capture your ear...It's the villain who almost steals the show. Ashley Riches is chilling as King Fisher, a bully and a slave to his own dark ego. For all that, this is Edward Gardner's show, and he rises to Tippett 's challenge superbly." BBC Music
"Gardner is impressive, and the orchestra here is superb and quite clearly so in the four dances, heard sometimes as solo pieces. Gardner keeps everything flowing to perfection. The chorus is loud, incisive, and fiery when it has to be." Fanfare
"The music is ablaze from the very first moments. The orchestral playing is utterly gripping...Gardner's direction gives full play to Tippett's stunning control of colour, enabling the performance vividly to canvass the range from the darkly chthonic to the brightly ethereal...the key to what is best here is plainly audible: Gardner's marvellous affinity for the Tippett idiolect." Opera
"That special fire, and its cunningly chosen cast, sets this new release above the hard-worked Colin Davis set...Gardner's is more than warmly recommended as both reminder of and entrée to Tippett's achievement." Gramophone Awards
2023 WINNER - Opera
