It is a curious piece and adds to the conviction that, like Berkeley, his piano writing is sadly lacking. His ideas are often fascinating but the piano does not always suit him. This concerto lacks drama, tension and it is somewhat anaemic and his dependence on fourths becomes wearisome. With his second opera, King Priam , completed in 1961, Tippett expounds new 'crazes' and revives old ones. And here begins Tippett's 'disjunct' music, this quest for a personal idiom and in King Priam a sparseness of texture.
Economy is now a consideration with a solo piano taking a major role.
But the worrying aspect is that the music gets nowhere and the sound world is confusing, as if Tippett is wanting to approach Stravinsky's serialism. No 2 dates from 1962. As with the Piano Concerto it lacks coherence. It is in one movement lasting about twelve minutes but has 38 sections or changes of tempo. That statement is as annoying as the sonata itself.