Theme and Variations for Ruth Gipps’ Birthday

Today is the anniversary of Ruth Gipps, who was born in Bexhill-on-Sea on the 20th February 1921, and whose legacy of melodic, characterful music is now at last enjoying the recognition it deserves.

Here is the second movement, a Theme and Variations, of her Third Symphony (1965), played by the BBC Philharmonic under Rumon Gamba in their superb recent CD release.  The piano reduction of the same movement is also worth a listen.

The next exciting development on the Gipps front will be the United States première of the fine Fifth Symphony (1982), which will be given on April 15th by the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra.  I am hopeful that some way might be found to stream the concert over the Internet for listeners in Gipps’ native country, but in any case, the ‘Seattle Phil’ has excelled itself again.  More information here: https://seattlephil.org/concerts-and-tickets/concert/gipps-fifth/ .