A Child of Our Time

As the Gallipoli centenary draws near, the New Zealand Youth Choir and Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir join with the Auckland Philharmonia to perform Michael Tippett’s anti-war oratorio, A Child of our Time.

The child of the title was a Jewish boy whose desperate murder of a German official in Paris sparked the violent Kristallnacht pogroms of the Nazis.

Tippett responded with a musical narrative that moves from dark beginnings to an optimistic recognition of human resilience and our universal capacity for compassion. 

Five spirituals boldly reinforce the plight of persecuted peoples worldwide. These have taken on a life of their own with vocalists around the world performing them in unaccompanied versions.

More than 70 years have passed since A Child of our Time was first performed in 1944, yet the power and immediacy of the music and the message remain.

Tippett’s oratorio is preceded by Arvo Pärt’s Silouan’s Song and Messiaen’s Hymne au Saint-Sacrement, a powerful, dramatic orchestration of an early, lost organ work.

Join the orchestra, a choir of 100 plus, four outstanding soloists and the united minds of many to reflect on and appreciate Tippett’s masterpiece.

Indra Thomas (sop), Victoria Simmonds (contralto), Nicky Spence (ten), Derek Welton (bass), New Zealand Youth Choir, Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir, Auckland Philharmonia/Eckehard Stier

PÄRT: Silouan's Song; MESSIAEN: Hymne au Saint-Sacrement: TIPPETT: A Child of Our Time

Recorded in the Auckland Town Hall on 21 March by Radio New Zealand