Ed Zubrow  wrote:

>Over the last few days I have been making the acquaintance of Michael
>Tippett via an EMI disc in their British Composers series.

Tippett for me has always been a rather hit and miss composer.
Certainly he was talented but to my ears his later works became difficult
for difficult's sake.  One piece that stands out for me though is the
oratorio "A Child of Our Time" which tells the true story of an orphaned
boy who kills a German soldier in revenge for the deaths of his parents
in the second world war.  It incorporates African-american spirituals
as a sort of post-Bach "turba" and is quite effective indeed.

Kevin Sutton