Ruth Gipps - Symphony No. 3; Oboe Concerto (Rumon Gamba)

Information

Composer: Ruth Gipps

• Chanticleer Overture, Op. 28
• Oboe Concerto, Op. 20
• Death on the Pale Horse, Op. 25
• Symphony No. 3, Op. 57

Juliana Koch, oboe

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

Rumon Gamba, conductor

Date: 2022

Label: Chandos

https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%2020161

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Review

By my reckoning this is the year’s fourth album devoted all or in part to Ruth Gipps: not bad for a composer of conservative mien who used to loudly complain of neglect after the BBC and other bodies decided that the British musical scene needed a big injection of modernity. Chandos and Rumon Gamba first took up the cause in 2018 with an album of orchestral works; Covid might be responsible for the four-year delay before the emergence of this sequel.

It certainly can’t be for the lack of strong pieces. Each of this foursome, the bulk from the 1940s, offers pungent and individual delights, starting with the farmyard portrait of the overture Chanticleer, remnant of an abandoned opera, launched in ear-grabbing style with snarling brass chords. The Oboe Concerto, like Gipps’s Horn Concerto, should be a welcome gift for any soloist eager to show dexterity in multiple moods, from the war-torn and violent to the gracefully plaintive. Juliana Koch relishes every moment of this very attractive work.

Wartime clouds hover more darkly over Death on the Pale Horse, a brooding miniature tone poem with a chilling sting in its tail. Finally we reach 1965 and the Third Symphony, a little sprawling at 36 minutes, but packed with so many striking moments, from dramatic climaxes to wistful wind solos, that you have to sit back and luxuriate. Throughout the album the BBC Philharmonic play with bright colours, a sharp attack and swaggering energy – just what this dip into Gipps deserves.

-- Geoff Brown, BBC Music Magazine

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2022/Oct/Gipps-orch2-CHAN20161.htm

https://www.britishmusicsociety.co.uk/2022/09/ruth-gipps-orchestral-works-volume-2/

https://limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/ruth-gipps-orchestral-works-vol-2-juliana-koch-bbc-philharmonic-rumon-gamba/

https://www.allmusic.com/album/ruth-gipps-orchestral-works-vol-2-mw0003794062

https://www.amazon.com/Orchestral-Works-2-Juliana-Koch/dp/B0BBBBB56N

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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

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Rumon Gamba (born 24 November 1972), is an English conductor. He studied conducting with Colin Metters, George Hurst and Sir Colin Davis at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Gamba was Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra from 2002 to 2010. In October 2008, he was named the next chief conductor and music director of NorrlandsOperan. In March 2011, Gamba was named chief conductor of the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra. Gamba has conducted a number of recordings for the Chandos Records label, particularly in their Film Music series.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumon_Gamba

http://www.rumongamba.com/

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