By Karl Nehring
Chanticleer, Op. 28;
Concerto in D minor for Oboe and Orchestra, Op. 20; Death on the Pale Horse,
Op. 25; Symphony No. 5, Op. 57. Juliana Koch, solo oboe; BBC Philharmonic
Orchestra conducted by Rumon Gamba. Chandos CHAN 20161
unknown in the United States, was a major figure in British music, right up
there with Vaughan Williams, Britten, and Holst, all of whose names are
much more familiar to music classical lovers on this side of the pond. She wrote five symphonies, seven concertos,
and a number of chamber and choral works. I must confess to being about as guilty
as anyone in this regard, as I have listened to a few recordings of some of her
chamber works over the years, which I recall enjoying, but have never really
followed up by digging more deeply into her catalog. By the way, a previous
Chandos release, CHAN 20078 from 2018, includes recordings of her Symphonies
Nos. 2 and 4 plus a couple of shorter pieces performed the BBC National
Orchestra of Wales under Maestro Gamba. Although not labeled as such, it
effectively serves as Volume 1 to the Volume 2 disc under consideration here.
The program opens with Chanticleer, a concert overture that
begins brashly and steps along briskly. Perhaps because of the way it plays off
the brass against the strings, or perhaps because of its generally impish mood,
the music seems to nod a bit toward that of Malcolm Arnold, another prominent
British composer. Arnold was, by the way, a contemporary and friend of Gipps,
even composing a piece titled Variations for Orchestra on a theme of Ruth
Gipps, which was first performed by the Chanticleer Orchestra conducted by
none other than Ruth Gipps. So perhaps the hints of Arnoldian sonority are more
than purely imaginary after all. In any event, the program is certainly off to
a lively and pleasant start.
Given that Gipps’s chosen instrument was the oboe, it should come
as no surprise that she would compose a concerto for that instrument. Her
concerto is cast in the usual three-movement form, with two quicker outer
movements surrounding a slower inner movement. I do not mean this at all
disparagingly when I say that it sounds like what one would expect a fine
British oboe concerto to sound like: lively, pleasant, tuneful, pastoral in
spots. In a word, delightful. There follows Death on the Pale Horse,
which from its title might seem to promise frightening and fearful passages,
but that is not the case. This is death on a pale horse, after all, not
a technicolor stallion. The music is moody, unsettled, perhaps disturbing – but in a
reflective, not bombastic way.
The program closes with the major work of this set, Gipps’s
Symphony No. 3, which she composed in 1965. It is in four movements, I
Moderato; II. Theme and Variations; Scherzo; IV. Finale. The music throughout
the symphony is rich in in texture. By that I mean not that it is thick in
terms of scoring, but rather it is rich in terms of color and musical ideas.
Gipps seems to use all the sections of the orchestra, but not in the sense of
making it sound like a concerto for orchestra. The impression is of a musical
tapestry woven of many colors and textures. The overall mood is somewhat
subdued, reflective, quietly restless. In the end, the work leaves a pleasant
but not particularly memorable impression. For all its beauty and color, the
symphony never seems to gain any real momentum. At any moment, the work sounds
something like music that Vaughan Williams might have written; however, the
symphonies of Vaughan Williams have a dramatic flow, a dynamic structure, while
this music never quite seems to develop in the same way. Still, it is a decidedly
pleasant, well-crafted symphony, very much in that familiar English pastoral
mode. On the whole, this is an appealing release for fans of British music that
should help to increase recognition for the considerable talents of Ruth Gipps.
Let’s hope to see a Volume 3 in the foreseeable future.
