Ruth Gipps: Clarinet Concerto in London this Saturday

Another milestone in the unfolding Ruth Gipps revival is about to be reached!  This Saturday, 2nd November, her Clarinet Concerto (in G minor, Op. 4, 1940) will be performed in London.  The concert — at St James’ Church, 197 Piccadilly, and starting at 7.30 p.m. — will be given by the London Repertoire Orchestra, which Ruth Gipps herself founded in 1955.  David Cutts is the conductor.  According to the website — https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lro-gipps-and-sibelius-tickets-53223710551 — this will be the première of a 'new edition' of the work which has been prepared by the soloist, Peter Cigleris.

All this is following swiftly on the heels of the rendition of Gipps' Second Symphony by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) under Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla earlier this month, the news of the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra's forthcoming United States première of the Fourth Symphony, and several fine new recordings.

Here is one small example of the sort of music that Ruth Gipps could write for solo clarinet and orchestra.  It is from the first movement of her Fifth Symphony, which was written almost fifty years after the Clarinet Concerto.  If the music that will be performed on Saturday is remotely as lyrical as this, then we are in for a treat.