0:00:06 > 0:00:09Good evening and welcome to the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall.
0:00:09 > 0:00:11Tonight's performance is Sir Michael's Tippett's seminal
0:00:11 > 0:00:15work - A Child of Our Time.
0:00:15 > 0:00:17This is music at its most politically aware - an impassioned
0:00:17 > 0:00:23protest against persecution.
0:00:23 > 0:00:28Tippett was warning us against a world "that has
0:00:28 > 0:00:30turned on its dark side".
0:00:30 > 0:00:36His plea is as relevant today as it was then.
0:00:36 > 0:00:45Welcome to the Proms.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06Michael Tippett was a wonderful, humane composer and
0:01:06 > 0:01:09an intellectual giant.
0:01:09 > 0:01:11The mild-mannered gentleman of his later years,
0:01:11 > 0:01:14with his flamboyant dress sense and joie de vivre gave little clues
0:01:14 > 0:01:18to the brave battles he had fought in his youth.
0:01:18 > 0:01:20Brave is an understatement.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23As a young, gay man in the 1930s he struggled with his sexuality,
0:01:23 > 0:01:27campaigned for universal music education and was
0:01:27 > 0:01:34an unwavering pacifist -
0:01:34 > 0:01:36during World War II.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38The work you're about to hear is based on real world events,
0:01:38 > 0:01:43and serves as a warning to the world.
0:01:43 > 0:01:53We're looking at the abyss - Hiroshima.
0:01:53 > 0:02:03- as Plato thought - heal us, put the balance back,
0:02:03 > 0:02:06that's enough to do, come on.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09A Child of Our Time was triggered by real events in Europe, 1938.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12On a cold November morning, a young Jewish boy named
0:02:12 > 0:02:14Herschel Grynszpan left his cheap hotel room in Paris.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17He'd been living in France as an illegal immigrant
0:02:17 > 0:02:21and was scared for his family back in Germany.
0:02:21 > 0:02:23He purchased a gun and 25 bullets.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26He walked into the German embassy and shot dead a Nazi diplomat.
0:02:26 > 0:02:30The Nazis seized on the assassination.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33Hitler's supporters were riled into an anti-Semitic frenzy.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36The result was Kristallnacht.
0:02:36 > 0:02:40Nazi mobs torched and vandalized synagogues, Jewish homes,
0:02:40 > 0:02:43schools, businesses, hospitals and cemeteries
0:02:43 > 0:02:46throughout Germany.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49Tippett looked on, horrified.
0:02:49 > 0:02:56He felt he needed to act.
0:02:56 > 0:02:58When war finally broke out on 3rd September 1939,
0:02:58 > 0:03:01he took action, even though he refused to bear arms.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04Instead he sat down at the piano and he told Herschel's story
0:03:04 > 0:03:14through music.
0:03:14 > 0:03:16Herschel's role, sung tonight by the tenor Peter Hoare,
0:03:16 > 0:03:20is titled in the score simply as "the boy".
0:03:20 > 0:03:22Any one of us can identify with that boy - rudderless, angry,
0:03:22 > 0:03:25and desperate enough to commit murder - and also with the child's
0:03:25 > 0:03:34mother, who tries to come to terms with the result of his actions.
0:03:45 > 0:03:47I had to sing, always ever anew.
0:03:47 > 0:03:51I have to sing as Blake put it - no longer the songs of innocence,
0:03:51 > 0:03:53but the songs of experience.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56But sing I shall.
0:03:56 > 0:04:05Tippett's thoroughly modern take on the oratorio actually followed
0:04:05 > 0:04:07fairly classical models and he chose to punctuate the work
0:04:07 > 0:04:10with American spirituals, much in the way composers like Bach
0:04:10 > 0:04:12used Lutheran chorales in their Passion settings.
0:04:12 > 0:04:13It was a controversial move.
0:04:13 > 0:04:14Tippett deliberately wanted to appeal to everyone around
0:04:14 > 0:04:17the world - regardless of creed, race, or religion - although mixing
0:04:17 > 0:04:26African American spirituals with high art raised a few eyebrows.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33I always get a particular chill
0:04:33 > 0:04:37down my spine during the bass solo.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41The pride and the protest mix together in this most
0:04:41 > 0:04:47powerful of spirituals.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50A Child of Our Time is chillingly prophetic, its message
0:04:50 > 0:04:53enduring and universal.
0:04:53 > 0:04:58And yet, Tippett never gave up on us.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01He saw both the good and bad within humanity.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04And out of the darkness of troubled times, he miraculously
0:05:04 > 0:05:11ended this work in hope.
0:05:11 > 0:05:20"I would know my shadow and my light, so shall I at last
0:05:20 > 0:05:23behold".
0:05:23 > 0:05:26And if that is the personal, one single person, then we might
0:05:26 > 0:05:34all be able to say for one moment - "it is spring".
0:05:41 > 0:05:47APPLAUSE
0:05:47 > 0:05:50Tonight's performance features, the BBC National Orchestra
0:05:50 > 0:05:57and Chorus of Wales, conducted by Mark Wigglesworth.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00They are joined by soloists Mezzo soprano, Susan Bickley,
0:06:00 > 0:06:03appearing also as the Aunt.
0:06:03 > 0:06:05Soprano, Tamara Wilson, singing Mother.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08Bass James Creswell as Narrator and also the Uncle.
0:06:08 > 0:06:14And Tenor Peter Hoare as Boy.
1:11:56 > 1:12:00'S
1:12:00 > 1:12:02The BBC National Orchestra of Wales, 'S conducted by Mark Wigglesworth.
1:12:02 > 1:12:04BBC National Chorus of Wales, chorus-master James Henshaw
1:12:04 > 1:12:08The soloists were, Susan Bickley - Mezzo soprano.
1:12:08 > 1:12:13Soprano, Tamara Wilson.
1:12:13 > 1:12:17James Creswell, bass.
1:12:17 > 1:12:19And Tenor, Peter Hoare.
1:12:19 > 1:12:28Goodnight.