Composer: Michael Kemp Tippett
Performer: Steven Osborne
Orchestra: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Martyn Brabbins
Number of Discs: 2
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Hyperion
Catalogue: CDA67461-2
Release: 2007
Size: 419 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
CD 01
Piano Concerto
01. I. Allegro non troppo
02. II. Molto lento e tranquillo
03. III. Vivace
04. Fantasia on a Theme of Handel
Piano Sonata No. 1
05. I. Allegro
06. II. Andante tranquillo
07. III. Presto
08. IV. Rondo giocoso con moto
CD 02
01. Piano Sonata No. 2
Piano Sonata No. 3
02. I. Allegro
03. II. Lento
04. III. Allegro energico
Piano Sonata No. 4
05. I. Minim Pulse Medium Slow – Crotchet Pulse Medium Fast
06. II. Crotchet Pulse Medium Fast
07. III. Slow Crotchet Pulse
08. IV. Crotchet Fast
09. V. Crotchet Slow
The musical and intellectual exuberance of Tippetts music is fully demonstrated in his piano works, recorded here in their entirety on a double CD. The sonatas and concertante works recorded here offer a more compact survey of the various stages of his composing career than any other of the traditional genres he favoured: symphony, opera, and string quartet. Every one of Tippetts six piano works is substantial, if not in length then in compositional ambition. By temperament he conceived music on a large scale and was more attracted to the sonata than the short genre piece typical of the famous pianist-composers of the 19th and 20th centuries. Being only a moderate pianist himself his piano writing speaks of an imagination directed not by virtuosity or routine movements of the fingers or the blandishments of the sustaining pedal but one set free to explore the contrapuntal style and fascination with rhythm it was heir to. This is full-blooded, dramatic, joyful music. Steven Osborne is a celebrated interpreter of Tippetts piano music, making the works his own and dealing with their considerable technical difficulties with ease and aplomb. In a recent interview with International Piano magazine, he wrote I cant think of any late 20th-century music that is more gripping to perform. He is joined by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins.