Last night the first Prom of the year was Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time.
It’s a piece I know quite well, having sung the spirituals as a treble and the whole thing as a bass, and I’ve always found it moving.
Last night though, it was wonderfully emotional. It seemed very appropriate timing, with lots of resonances with the London bombing – particularly the mother’s plea for peace – “How many mothers’ hearts shall be maimed?”.
The last ten minutes or so of the piece turns from a mood of sorrow and despair, to one of consolation and hope. As it ended with “Deep River”, one of the spirtuals, I was in tears, as I expect a lot of the audience were.