Gipps - Orchestral Works Vol.3
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Label: Chandos
Cat No: CHAN20284
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Orchestral
Release Date: 3rd January 2025
Contents
Works
Ambarvalia, op.70Coronation Procession, op.41
Cringlemire Garden: An Impression for string orchestra, op.39
Horn Concerto, op.58
Symphony no.1 in F minor, op.22
Artists
Martin Owen (horn)BBC Philharmonic
Conductor
Rumon GambaWorks
Ambarvalia, op.70Coronation Procession, op.41
Cringlemire Garden: An Impression for string orchestra, op.39
Horn Concerto, op.58
Symphony no.1 in F minor, op.22
Artists
Martin Owen (horn)BBC Philharmonic
Conductor
Rumon GambaAbout
For this third instalment in his survey of orchestral works by Ruth Gipps, Rumon Gamba, conducting the BBC Philharmonic, is joined by the horn soloist Martin Owen. The album opens with Gipps’s Coronation Procession. The piece depicts the journey of the Crown(s), perhaps as observed from the Royal Coach, culminating in the entry to Westminster Abbey. Written in January 1953, the piece was not used at the coronation, and instead first performed in September 1954 in Melbourne, Australia. Ambarvalia is a memorial tribute of 1988 by Gipps to the composer and colleague Adrian Cruft, who had died in February 1987. Gipps wrote the Horn Concerto in 1968 for her son, Lance Baker. The piece was later championed by Frank Lloyd, who gave a BBC broadcast in 1982. Here the virtuoso Martin Owen brings the work vividly to life. The Lake District was the inspiration for the ‘Impression’ Cringlemire Garden, a pastoral miniature for string orchestra. Dated September 1942, the First Symphony is a direct reflection of the horrors of war. The work demonstrates Gipps’s personal voice, and features some wonderful writing for winds.
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Coronation Procession, Op. 41
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2Ambarvalia, Op. 70
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3Horn Concerto, Op. 58. 1. Con moto
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4Horn Concerto, Op. 58. 2. Scherzo
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5Horn Concerto, Op. 58. 3. Allegro ritmico
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6Cringlemire Garden, Op. 39
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7Symphony No. 1, Op. 22. I. Allegro moderato
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8Symphony No. 1, Op. 22. II. Adagio
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9Symphony No. 1, Op. 22. III. Allegro
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10Symphony No. 1, Op. 22. IV. Adagio - Allegro
Europadisc Review
Of the many women composers whose music has belatedly returned to the repertoire in recent years, that of Ruth Gipps (1921–1999) has been particularly successful with listeners. This success owes much to the ongoing series of orchestral works from Rumon Gamba with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and BBC Philharmonic on the Chandos label. Having already set down Gipps’s Second, Third and Fourth Symphonies (as well as a range of other works), Gumba now returns, with the BBC Philharmonic, in the composer’s First Symphony of 1942, coupled with her 1968 Horn Concerto and a selection of shorter pieces.
Gipps studied composition at the Royal College of Music with Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gordon Jacob, and her music retained a lightly-worn pastoralism and ease of invention which defied the more avant-garde trends of postwar music. As a result, her orchestral music failed to gain favour with the many professional orchestras and conductors who were more interested in progressive composers. She also had to battle against the misogynist prejudices of the time. Although she had a successful early career as both orchestral oboist and concert pianist, her later career was devoted to teaching, and to directing two notable ensembles she founded: the London Repertoire Orchestra (which gave young players their first opportunity of playing in a professional standard orchestra) and the Chanticleer Orchestra.
The music on this latest disc ranges from across Gipps’s long composing career. The pastoral miniature Cringlemire Garden dates from 1952; scored for string orchestra, it is redolent of Vaughan Williams at his most evocative, richly scored, but with a rhythmically driven central section which has Gipps’s unmistakable imprint. From the following year, Coronation Procession envisions the crowds lining the route of Elizabeth II’s coronation. It was composed several months before the event, but had to wait until the following year for its first performance, conducted by Walter Susskind in Melbourne, Australia. Though it ends with the pomp of arrival at Westminster Abbey, it contains moments of gently reflective nostalgia which defy the grandeur of the occasion.
Ambarvalia (1988) is a memorial tribute to the composer Adrian Cruft, a colleague of Gipps’s, a dance for small orchestra with a gently swinging motion. Its memorable woodwind solos include a prominent cor anglais part (Gipps’s own instrument), and the deft orchestration includes colourful use of the celesta. Gamba leads an account that is both affectionate and – like all the performances here – most persuasive, caught in vivid sound by the Chandos team.
The Horn Concerto was written for the composer’s son, Lance Baker, who gave the first performance in November 1969 with the London Repertoire Orchestra conducted by Gipps herself. It was later championed by Frank Lloyd; here it receives a fabulously sensitive and nuanced performance from Martin Owen, highlighting the music’s almost vocal expressivity, tinged with occasional fanfares and other horn-like figuration. There are wonderfully evocative depths to this music, in which Gipps goes beyond mere pastoralism to a style that is genuinely personal and touching. The first movement cadenza calls for unshowy musicianship, the central movement is a playful Scherzo (aptly described as ‘thistledown’ in Lewis Foreman’s booklet notes) in which the soloist nevertheless still takes on a quasi-vocal role. The main subject of the Finale is rhythmically infectious, but its more reflective passages include a magical duo between muted solo horn and celesta.
Together with the Horn Concerto, the other main work here is the F minor First Symphony. Composed in 1942 at the age of just 21, it shows Gipps already in full command of orchestral writing – not just the woodwind which was her own specialism, but strings, brass and effectively deployed percussion too. There are certainly echoes of Vaughan Williams and (in the slow movement) Gordon Jacob, but the rhythmic drive and subtle use of ostinato demonstrate a genuine individuality. Also present are passages which hint at wartime tensions and anxieties (such as the martial brass that colour the Scherzo, given a controlled fleetness by Gamba and his players), but all within a medium that is both accessible and absorbing. The Trio of the third movement is another instance of Gipps’s fondness for her own instrument, the cor anglais, and she played in the Symphony’s March 1945 premiere by the City of Birmingham Orchestra under George Weldon. Unbelievably (from today’s perspective) the performance was marred by a spiteful male colleague playing a bar out of time in a prominent solo: just one instance of the many hurdles facing women composers of the time. The work was subsequently turned down by an equally reactionary suit at the BBC. Nevertheless, Eric Blom penned a thoroughly enthusiastic review after the premiere, and it’s good at last to have a recording of this accomplished first essay in the symphonic genre that does the work such handsome justice.
Those who have already been collecting this series will need no persuasion: this is an excellent addition to Chandos’s Gipps series, with first-rate performances and sound, excellent, detailed booklet notes, and a generous playing time of 75 minutes. A great disc with which to start the New Year!
Reviews
Here, in the symphony’s first recording, the BBC Philharmonic does full justice to a work of ambitious scope – an early showcase for the blend of fluent lyricism and muscular rhythmic drive, untroubled by fashion, that would continue into Gipps’s later works. One of the most striking of those is the 1968 Horn Concerto she wrote for her son, engagingly played here by Martin Owen. Erica JealThe Guardian 3 January 2025
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