Triple Concerto

Michael Tippett’s Triple Concerto is conceived as a continuous span of music (in Tippett’s words ‘a progress from one day to the next’). The work has three movements, roughly corresponding to the conventional fast-slow-fast scheme, linked by important interludes during which the three soloists stay silent. The most striking feature of the Concerto is a rapt lyricism, notably in the slow movement which is focused on an exquisitely beautiful tune in F major. One of Tippett’s most lyrical and richly-hued creations, it offers evidence of his response to Javanese gamelan music, which he heard for the first time in Bali shortly before he began the concerto. Here he has recreated in his own way those textures in gamelan music in which a solo singer, perhaps also flute or (bowed) string instrument, join together for the same serene flow of melody: surrounding the melody, punctuating its phrasing, are the softest gong sounds, which (to Tippett’s ears) add a ‘bluesy’ colouring to the supporting harmony.