Gipps Orchestral

Ruth Gipps (1921 – 1999) was born in the English seaside resort of Bexhill-on-Sea. Encouraged as a child by an ambitious pianist mother, she appeared locally as a prodigy pianist. She was accepted by the Royal College of Music in 1937, at the age of sixteen, having won the Caird Scholarship. She quickly matured, both as composer and pianist. She studied with Vaughan Williams and Gordon Jacob, and later the oboe with Leon Goossens. During the Second World War she gained a position as oboist with the City of Birmingham Orchestra and devoted a great deal of her time to composing.

Ruth Gipps (1921 – 1999) was born in the English seaside resort of Bexhill-on-Sea. Encouraged as a child by an ambitious pianist mother, she appeared locally as a prodigy pianist. She was accepted by the Royal College of Music in 1937, at the age of sixteen, having won the Caird Scholarship. She quickly matured, both as composer and pianist. She studied with Vaughan Williams and Gordon Jacob, and later the oboe with Leon Goossens. During the Second World War she gained a position as oboist with the City of Birmingham Orchestra and devoted a great deal of her time to composing. Three of the works on this album were composed during the war: the Oboe Concerto, the tone poem Death on the Pale Horse, and the overture Chanticleer (derived from an opera which, sadly, she never completed).

Ruth Gipps made her musical talents apparent from an early age, and they were encouraged by her very supportive mother. She entered the Royal College of Music in 1937, aged 16, studying oboe and piano, in addition to composition (with Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gordon Jacob). Whilst at college, she performed Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto, and her tone poem Knight in Armour (CHAN 20078) was presented by Sir Henry Wood at the Last Night of the Proms in 1942. As the war continued, Gipps left London to become principal oboe with the City of Birmingham Orchestra, where she also performed as pianist and had several of her works programmed. Returning to London after the war, Gipps found fewer opportunities as a performer, and less interest in her orchestral scores. She concentrated on composing more chamber music, alongside a successful teaching career.

Ruth Gipps made her musical talents apparent from an early age, and they were encouraged by her very supportive mother. She entered the Royal College of Music in 1937, aged 16, studying oboe and piano, in addition to composition (with Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gordon Jacob). Whilst at college, she performed Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto, and her tone poem Knight in Armour (CHAN 20078) was presented by Sir Henry Wood at the Last Night of the Proms in 1942. As the war continued, Gipps left London to become principal oboe with the City of Birmingham Orchestra, where she also performed as pianist and had several of her works programmed. Returning to London after the war, Gipps found fewer opportunities as a performer, and less interest in her orchestral scores. She concentrated on composing more chamber music, alongside a successful teaching career.

This 10-CD box set of British orchestral music brings together a mouth-watering selection from the enterprising series of discs that the English conductor Douglas Bostock has made with various orchestras for the Classico label.
Important British composers are certainly featured - there are CDs devoted to Elgar, Holst, Vaughan Williams, Bax and Arnold - but this imaginative collection also includes many surprises, just waiting to be discovered, such as symphonies by Frederic Cowen and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Alan Bush and Ruth Gipps, concertos for orchestra by Edward Gregson, Alun Hoddinott and John McCabe, plus a host of smaller works. The recordings here, many world premieres, date from 1998 to 2005.