It is only a few days before another new milestone is marked in the unfolding Ruth Gipps revival: this coming Saturday (25th January), the United States première of her haunting, otherworldly Fourth Symphony will be given by the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Adam Stern. The concert starts at 2 p.m. (US Pacific Time) in the Benaroya Hall in the orchestra's home city. Some other interesting pieces are on the menu as well, including a piece by Mel Bonis, a name I hadn't known before reading of this concert. More details are here: http://seattlephil.org/concerts-and-tickets/legendary-women/. I hope this performance scores as resounding a success as the same orchestra's première of the Second Symphony in March 2018, and that it brings the music of this remarkable, distinctive composer to ever more music-lovers.
Here's conductor Adam Stern explaining some of the hidden patterns and ideas that underpin the symphony:
Ruth Gipps' star is rising on this side of the Atlantic, too: at least two forthcoming British concerts will include her music. One is a concert at Bromsgrove School (Worcs.), whose first item is 'Cringlemire Garden', impression for string orchestra, op. 39: https://www.eso.co.uk/kannehmason-bromsgrove2020/: this will take place a week tomorrow, on Friday January 31, 2020 at 7.30 p.m.
The other is an interesting-looking concert whose centrepiece is 'On Windover Hill', a new cantata by Nathan James in praise of the curious chalk figure of the Long Man of Wilmington on the Sussex Downs, but which also includes an excerpt from 'Goblin Market', Ruth Gipps' setting (op. 40) of Christina Rossetti's poem. The concert starts at 7.45 p.m. on Saturday, 7 March, at Boxgrove Priory near Chichester. More information here: https://www.castleymusic.com/onwindoverhill.
The other is an interesting-looking concert whose centrepiece is 'On Windover Hill', a new cantata by Nathan James in praise of the curious chalk figure of the Long Man of Wilmington on the Sussex Downs, but which also includes an excerpt from 'Goblin Market', Ruth Gipps' setting (op. 40) of Christina Rossetti's poem. The concert starts at 7.45 p.m. on Saturday, 7 March, at Boxgrove Priory near Chichester. More information here: https://www.castleymusic.com/onwindoverhill.
Many thanks to all musicians and organisers of these concerts!
Dear Dominic,
ReplyDeleteThe performance yesterday of Ruth Gipps' Fourth was another triumph for her, another affirmation of the power, validity, and sheer beauty of what she had to say as a composer. As I just wrote to her son and daughter-in-law (who have been so amazingly supportive of our efforts on the music's behalf), the audience jumped to its feet immediately the last note sounded, cheering and applauding in the fashion usually reserved for performances of Tchaikovsky's Fourth or Brahms' First. It was simultaneously exhilarating and perplexing to have presented this masterpiece for the first time in the U.S. nearly fifty years after its creation; I dearly hope that other orchestras follow in our footsteps and share Gipps' extraordinary output with their audiences. If the supercharged enthusiasm generated yesterday is any litmus test, audiences would be nothing but grateful.
With my best wishes and thanks for your kind advocacy,
Adam
Dear Adam,
DeleteIt is just wonderful to hear that Gipps' Fourth received such an ecstatic reception! Congratulations! It certainly is a vindication of Gipps as a composer — 'sheer beauty', exactly — but is also proof of your musicianship and courage in programming an unknown work.
'Simultaneously exhilirating and perplexing' — I can imagine! In a way you shouldn't have had to be the first in the US to perform these symphonies (and frankly, we in Britain have done little better). But since you are, I can tell you directly how glad and grateful I am, as someone who only a few years ago never expected a Ruth Gipps revival. And it is thoroughly heartening to think that her music is genuinely loved and genuinely rejoiced in by audiences. It just goes to show that true beauty and craftsmanship wins out in the end.
Thank you very much for writing in. Very best wishes to you, too, and the whole Seattle Philharmonic,
Dominic