Crown of the Year

Tippett Invention no.1

Purcell I attempt from love’s sickness to fly

Bonvica’s Song

Fairest Isle

Tippett Words for music perhaps

Tippett Invention no. 2

Purcell Music for a while

The Fatal hour comes on

Sweeter than roses

Tippett Invention no. 3

Purcell She loves and she confesses

Oh solitude

Mad Bess

Tippett Invention no. 4

Tippett Crown of the Year

A rare opportunity to hear one of Tippett’s best pieces – the joyful, beautiful and unaccountably neglected chamber cantata Crown of the Year, described by Sir Andrew Davis as one of Tippett’s five greatest works, but not heard in the UK for decades. Revived for the Ryedale Festival by an outstanding group of musicians, it is heard here alongside other rarities including a setting of Yeats’s Words for music perhaps, as well as music by Tippett’s great forebear and inspiration, Henry Purcell.

Presented in association with The Michael Tippett Musical Foundation