Music and Vinyl: Tippett - Fantasia Concertante on a theme of Corelli

Sir Michael Tippett (1905-1998) was one of the foremost British composers of the 20th Century - an intellectual, atheist pacifist who chose to reinvent his musical style at points throughout his life.

From the early lyricism and sprung madrigalian rhythms of the Concerto For Double String Orchestra (first performed in 1940) - still his most popular work, to the polytonal, rhythmically complex percussion laden works like The Vision Of St Augustine (1965) of the later period, Tippett always laboured over long periods to set down his musical thoughts. For him, the compositional process, rather than the performance or reception of the music, was key.

The Fantasia Concertante on a theme of Corelli (1953) comes near the end of what might be termed Tippett's first period. The coruscating displays of fast passage work that feature so heavily in his later music begin to make themselves heard here, especially in the solo violin and cello lines, but the lyrical idiom is still to the fore, though combined with complex contrapuntal writing that makes the work a "more difficult listen" than the earlier Concerto on this record. The sleeve notes on this piece have been scanned below (click to enlarge).

The recording is another one by Neville Marriner and his Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields with an excellent Argo recording dating from 1972. (See also: Vaughan Williams' Five Variants on Dives and Lazarus).