Composer: Ruth Gipps
Performer: Juliana Koch, Michael McHale, Julian Bliss
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Chandos
Catalogue: CHAN20290
Release: 2024
Size: 1.08 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Sonata No. 2, Op. 66
01. I. Andante doloroso
02. II. Adagio
03. III. Allegro moderato
Kensington Gardens Suite, Op. 2
04. I. Elfin Oak
05. II. Fat Pigeon
06. III. Chestnut Trees
07. Sea-weed Song, Op. 12c
Sea-shore Suite, Op. 3b
08. I. Gulls
09. II. Sea Anemone
10. III. Stormy Beach
Sonata No. 1, Op. 5a
11. I. Allegro moderato
12. II. Adagio
13. III. Finale
14. The Piper of Dreams, Op. 12b
Trio, Op. 10
15. I. Moderato
16. II. Adagio
17. III. Allegro ritmico
18. Threnody, Op. 74
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 album of her chamber music for oboe (and cor anglais) features works composed from 1938 to 1990, representing Gipps’s entire compositional life. In demand as a soloist all over Europe, Juliana Koch was appointed Professor of Oboe at the Royal College of Music, London, in 2018 and is Principal Oboe of the London Symphony Orchestra.