Simon Thompson is a highly experienced reviewer, who has written for MusicWeb for many years. He is not the first person - nor, I suspect, will he be the last - to express reservations about Sir Michael Tippett’s libretti, both in this work and in others. Tippett’s sincerity is not in doubt but his texts can create a barrier to his music for some. Personally, I’ve often wondered if he would have been better served had he selected someone else, a person fully in sympathy with his own views, to write his libretti for him. In my own review of the disc, published in July, I commented that I struggled with A Child of our Time for a long time and I have to say that the words were a big part of the problem for me.

At the risk of making the obvious point, any review is a matter of opinion. Simon has expressed his view on the libretto but, as with any work of art, individual responses will always vary so I think it’s healthy that you have put the other side of the argument.