Michael Tippett

Michael Tippett’s “Fantasia on a Theme of Handel”: An Homage to the Baroque

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As one of music history’s greatest melodists, George Frideric Handel left behind ripe material for later composers. For example, consider the way allusions to the iconic Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah resurfaced in the music of composers such as Mendelssohn, Brahms, and Mahler. Brahms’ Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel is based on the Aria con variazioni which concludes Handel’s Suite in B-flat Major, HWV 434 for solo keyboard. With this monumental piece, the …

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Michael Tippett’s Piano Concerto: Poetic Music Born of Beethoven

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The inspiration for Sir Michael Tippett’s Piano Concerto came in a single moment in 1950. The occasion was a rehearsal of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto with Walter Gieseking as soloist. Recalling this “precise moment of conception,” the English composer commented, “Under the influence of an exceptionally poetic yet classical performance of the Beethoven movement, I found myself persuaded that a contemporary concerto might be written, in which the piano is used once …

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Music For Midsummer’s Eve

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Today is Midsummer’s Eve in Sweden. Held each year around the summer solstice, Midsummer festivities have roots in ancient pagan rituals. With countryside bonfires and maypole dances, Swedes and other Scandinavians mark the beginning of a brief period of warmth and extended daylight after many dark, cold months. This time of year, in northern Sweden the sun never sets, while in the south it sets for only an hour or two. Midsummer’s Eve in …

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