Dora Bright; Ruth Gipps - Piano Concertos (Samantha Ward; Murray McLachlan)

Information

Composer: Dora Bright; Ruth Gipps

• (01) Bright - Piano Concerto No. 1 in A minor
• (04) Bright - Variations for Piano and Orchestra
• (12) Gipps - Piano Concerto in G minor, Op. 34
• (15) Gipps - Ambarvalia, Op. 70

Samantha Ward, piano (1-11)
Murray McLachlan, piano (12-14)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Charles Peebles, conductor

Date: 2019
Label: SOMM Recordings
https://somm-recordings.com/recording/piano-concertos-by-dora-bright-and-ruth-gipps/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

A steadily building renewal of interest in the works of English composer Ruth Gipps (1921-1999) has resulted in fine new recordings of her orchestral works, including two symphonies (Chandos, 2018). This welcome new recording of her 1947 Piano Concerto in G Minor, Op. 34 is of particular interest because Gipps was a fine pianist herself until a shoulder injury in the 1950s curtailed her performance career. By this time, however, she had already been studying composition at the Royal College of Music with Ralph Vaughan Williams and several of her works had enjoyed significant high-profile performances.

Her Piano Concerto announces itself with a dramatic heraldic motif, segueing into a virtuosic piano part that is handled expertly by Murray McLachlan and interweaves with wonderful orchestrations. Of particular note also is Ambarvalia (Op. 70), a previously unrecorded short work for orchestra by Gipps that is lyrical and dreamy with lush, sweeping strings.

And speaking of world premieres, two works by all-but-forgotten Dora Bright (1862-1951) also receive their first recorded treatments here. Born in Ecclesall Bierlow, Yorkshire in 1862, Bright entered the Royal Academy of Music in 1881, studying piano and composition and in 1888 was the first ever female recipient of the Academy’s Charles Lucas prize for composition. She toured England and Europe performing new British works including her own, once for Franz Liszt who told her that she played wonderfully. Extraordinarily for this prolific composer and virtuoso, the A Minor Piano Concerto is one of her few surviving scores. After an understated opening in which her themes unfurl slowly, Bright’s lyrical mastery quickly becomes apparent, as does her skill as an orchestrator, also evident in the fine Variations for Piano and Orchestra included here. Samantha Ward, Charles Peebles and the RLPO shine on this important, overdue recording of works by neglected English composers.

-- Lisa MacKinney, Limelight Magazine

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2019/Sep/Bright_Gipps_SOMMCD273.html
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2019/Oct/Bright_Gipps_SOMMCD273.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2019/Nov/Bright_Gipps_SOMMCD273.htm
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bright-Gipps-Concertos-McLachlan-Recordings/dp/B07VHY6HWD

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dora Bright (16 August 1862 – 16 November 1951) was an English composer and pianist. During 1881–89, she studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where teachers included Walter Macfarren and Ebenezer Prout. Bright was the first woman to receive the Charles Lucas Medal for musical composition. In 1889, 1890 and 1892 she made concert tours of Germany, including Dresden, Cologne and Leipzig, with performances of her piano concerto. Bright composed works for orchestra, keyboard and voice, and music for opera and ballet, including ballets for performance by the dancer Adeline Genée.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dora_Bright

***

Ruth Gipps (20 February 1921 – 23 February 1999) was an English composer, oboist, pianist and impresario. Gipps was a child prodigy; she studied oboe with Léon Goossens, piano with Arthur Alexander and composition with Gordon Jacob, and later with Ralph Vaughan Williams. She was an accomplished all-round musician, as a soloist on both oboe and piano as well as a prolific composer. Gipps' music is marked by a skilful use of instrumental colour, and often shows the influence of Vaughan Williams, rejecting the trends in avant-garde modern music such as serialism and twelve-tone music.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Gipps

***

Samantha Ward is a British pianists. She studied with Leslie Riskowitz, then with Alicja Fiderkiewicz at Chetham's School, and with Joan Havill at the Guildhall School. One of the leading British pianists of her generation, Ward has performed extensively around the UK, China, Japan, Germany, Italy, France, Greece and Macau, appearing on national television and radio numerous times. She made her Wigmore Hall debut in 2007, and has performed in major venues such as St Martin-in-the-Fields, St John's Smith Square, Manchester's Bridgewater Hall, St David's Hall in Cardiff and Tokyo’s Toppan Hall.
https://www.samanthaward.org/

***

Murray McLachlan (born 6 January 1965, Dundee, Scotland), is a British concert pianist. His repertoire includes over 40 concertos and he has appeared as soloist with many leading UK orchestras. His overseas engagements have included recitals in the U.S., Europe, and the Far East. McLachlan has recorded several cycles of Russian music: Prokofiev, Kabalevsky, Khachaturian, Tcherepnin, Weinberg, Shchedrin, and Myaskovsky. His discography includes over 30 commercial recordings on Olympia, Linn, Divine Art, etc. He teaches at Chetham's School of Music and regularly gives masterclasses around the UK.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_McLachlan_(musician)
http://www.murraymclachlan.co.uk/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!