We begin with the delightful Three Billy-Goats Gruff from 1943, for narrator and wind trio (oboe, horn, bassoon) in which Gipps successfully complements the narration (charmingly delivered here by Ruth Rosales) with some effective wind writing.
The album is arranged chronologically which means we can hear how her sound-world developed. The sound of her teacher, RVW, along with Bliss and Bridge, features strongly in this music.
The music on the disc covers a wide range of her career from 1943 to 1995, a remarkable testament to her strength of mind, continuing to compose and perform even though lacking encouragement from the mainstream. Gipps died in 1999 and last year was her centenary, yet only now is her wonderfully well-made music coming out of hibernation. The horn features strongly in her output partly because her son (for whom the Horn Concerto was written) was a horn player. Like her friend Malcolm Arnold, Gipps' music fell out of circulation and the struggle that she had because of gender prejudice also played a big role. Whilst Ruth Gipps did not live under the radar as far as her career was concerned - she was the first female conductor to conduct at the Royal Festival Hall, and had many other firsts as well - her music was determinedly not aligned to prevailing post-war orthodoxies. Goldscheider is joined by pianist Huw Watkins, soprano Mary Bevan, narrator Ruth Rosales, conductor Hannah von Wiehler and members of the London Chamber Orchestra for a disc which moves across the whole of Gipps career, including the Sonatina for horn and piano, Wind Octet, Wind Sinfonietta, and Sonata for alto trombone (or horn) and piano along with numerous smaller items. Having recorded her Horn Concerto, Ben Goldscheider has recorded a disc of Ruth Gipps' chamber music for wind, Winds of Change on Three Worlds Records. An imaginative survey spanning the whole of Gipps career, concentrating on her chamber music for wind right through to one of her last works.
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