This Catalyst disc features two relative rarities by Michael Tippett: his The Vision of St. Augustine from 1965 and The Rose Lake from 1995. The former is a cantata for baritone and orchestra setting Augustine's ecstatic vision of time and eternity. The latter is his last orchestral score describing the color and light of a lake under the sun in Africa. This recording of The Vision by Colin Davis and the London Symphony with John Shirley-Quirk dates from 1971 and was only briefly available as an English RCA LP. It was ...
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This Catalyst disc features two relative rarities by Michael Tippett: his The Vision of St. Augustine from 1965 and The Rose Lake from 1995. The former is a cantata for baritone and orchestra setting Augustine's ecstatic vision of time and eternity. The latter is his last orchestral score describing the color and light of a lake under the sun in Africa. This recording of The Vision by Colin Davis and the London Symphony with John Shirley-Quirk dates from 1971 and was only briefly available as an English RCA LP. It was always a problematic performance of a problematic work. Davis is certainly the leading English conductor of his generation who was at the time at the first peak of his career and his abilities, the LSO was then the most virtuosic orchestra in London and Shirley-Quirk was spry and fervent baritone, and they gave everything they had to the performance. Whether they understood the score -- whether anyone could understand the score -- is another question. Tippett's Vision comes from the start...
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