For fans of the music of
Michael Tippett, the first great work -- the first work to establish him as a composer and the first work in which he is recognizably himself -- was his oratorio A Child of Our Time. Composed between 1939 and 1941 and premiered in London in 1944, A Child of Our Time combines the monumentality of Handel and the rhythms of jazz, the massiveness of Beethoven and the lyricism of the madrigal with the passionate pacifism and the loving compassion that was all
Tippett's own. For fans of
Tippett, though there were surely later works and arguably even greater works, A Child of Our Time is the work nearest and dearest to their hearts.
And for fans of
Tippett, the greatest performance of the work, the performance that gets closest to the composer's passionate compassion, was his own recording made in 1991 when
Tippett was still a spry 85 years old. Leading the
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus along with a cracker-jack crew of vocal soloists,
Tippett's performance is almost unbearably moving -- the songs of the soloists, the fugues of the chorus, and the heartrending spirituals -- and is so affecting that it is nearly impossible to remain untouched. Reissued from a superb digital recording originally made by Collins Classics, Naxos' remastering is absolutely translucent, allowing the performance to shine through in all its sublime transcendence.