BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis - Tippett: A Child of our Time (2024)

Michael Tippett’s oratorio A Child of Our Time was composed between 1939 and 1942 as a direct response to the events leading up to (and including) the notorious Kristallnacht, in November 1938, in National Socialist Germany. Tippet first intended to write an opera, but quickly determined that this would inevitably be too literal, and that the (rather neglected) oratorio form lent greater scope for reflective and meditative interjections to the narrative. Hoping to persuade his friend and mentor T.S. Elliot to write the libretto, he sent the poet such an intricately detailed plan that Elliot responded by suggesting that Tippett, having thought so carefully about it, prepare the text himself – which he duly did. (He then went on to write his own libretti for all his future large vocal works).

Set for choir, orchestra, and four soloists, the work adopts a structure that owes a debt to Handel’s Messiah, which Tippett had studied intensively in the 1930s. In addition, Tippett wanted to incorporate choral interludes much as Bach had done in his passions. Rejecting Lutheran chorals and Jewish hymns, he finally settled on African-American spirituals of which he placed five within the work. Sir Andrew Davis conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in his final farewell, with an exceptional quartet of soloists. The album was recorded in Surround Sound in Croydon’s Fairfield Halls following live performances in London’s Royal Festival Hall.

Tracklist
1. A Child of our Time, Part I: The world turns on its dark side (Chorus) (3:38)
2. A Child of our Time, Part I: The Argument. Man has measured the heavens with a telescope (Alto) (2:04)
3. A Child of our Time, Part I: Interludium (0:55)
4. A Child of our Time, Part I: Is evil then good? (Alto, Chorus) (2:57)
5. A Child of our Time, Part I: The Narrator. Now in each nation there were some cast out… (Bass) (1:05)
6. A Child of our Time, Part I: Chorus of the Oppressed. When shall the usurer's city cease? (Chorus) (2:27)
7. A Child of our Time, Part I: I have no money for my bread (Tenor) (3:33)
8. A Child of our Time, Part I: How can I cherish my man in such days…? (Soprano) (3:15)
9. A Child of our Time, Part I: A Spiritual. Steal away (Soprano, Tenor, Chorus) (2:32)
10. A Child of our Time, Part II: A star rises in mid-winter (Chorus) (2:43)
11. A Child of our Time, Part II: The Narrator. And a time came… (Bass) (0:19)
12. A Child of our Time, Part II: Double Chorus of Persecutors and Persecuted. Away with them! (Chorus) (1:02)
13. A Child of our Time, Part II: The Narrator. Where they could, they fled from the terror (Bass) (0:25)
14. A Child of our Time, Part II: Chorus of the Self-righteous. We cannot have them in our Empire (Chorus) (0:48)
15. A Child of our Time, Part II: The Narrator. And the boy's mother wrote a letter… (Bass) (0:15)
16. A Child of our Time, Part II: The Mother, the Uncle and Aunt, and the Boy. O my son! (Soloists) (1:12)
17. A Child of our Time, Part II: A Spiritual. Nobody knows the trouble I see, Lord (Soprano, Tenor, Chorus) (1:23)
18. A Child of our Time, Part II: The boy becomes desperate in his agony (Alto, Bass) (1:18)
19. A Child of our Time, Part II: The Narrator. They took a terrible vengeance (Bass) (0:23)
20. A Child of our Time, Part II: The Terror. Burn down their houses! (Chorus) (1:11)
21. A Child of our Time, Part II: The Narrator. Men were ashamed of what was done (Bass) (0:34)
22. A Child of our Time, Part II: A Spiritual of Anger. Go down, Moses (Bass, Chorus) (2:31)
23. A Child of our Time, Part II: The Boy sings in his Prison. My dreams are all shattered in a ghastly reality (Tenor) (3:03)
24. A Child of our Time, Part II: The Mother. What have I done to you, my son? (Soprano) (1:39)
25. A Child of our Time, Part II: The dark forces rise like a flood (Alto) (0:40)
26. A Child of our Time, Part II: A Spiritual. O! by and by (Soprano, Chorus) (1:32)
27. A Child of our Time, Part III: The cold deepens (Chorus) (3:39)
28. A Child of our Time, Part III: The soul of man is impassioned… (Alto) (2:25)
29. A Child of our Time, Part III: The words of wisdom are these (Bass, Chorus) (5:00)
30. A Child of our Time, Part III: Preludium (1:06)
31. A Child of our Time, Part III: I would know my shadow and my light (Soloists, Chorus) (4:57)
32. A Child of our Time, Part III: A Spiritual. Deep river (Soloists, Chorus) (3:14)