Dora Bright & Ruth Gipps: Piano Concertos

[Mark Thomas]

This CD/digital download from SOMM comes as a very welcome surprise. Samantha Ward and Murray McLachlan are the soloists with Charles Peebles
conducting the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Full details and audio extracts here.

[Alan Howe]

It's on my purchase list.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Mine too.

[Mark Thomas]

Whereas I have shiny new downloads gleaming on the rocky surface of my hard disk!

[Gareth Vaughan]

Well, I might go for the download instead, now you mention it.

[Richard Moss]

Since I downloaded this CD a couple of weeks ago when it was first issued, I've played it about 4 times and each time the BRIGHT works I find very appealing and the GIPPS not so (she is tending too much towards an 'avant-garde' style for my conservative 'romantic' taste!)  However, whichever way you look at  it and like/don't like it, it is great to have so much new unsung repertoire becoming available now in almost a small avalanche.

I'm now waiting impatiently for the TOCCATA release of the Moszkowski  orchestral works.

Cheers

Richard

[Gerhard Griesel]

Thanks you for making me aware of this CD. What a pleasant discovery! I immediately downloaded it, and, as with other downloaded works, changed it into a CD with old-fashioned LightScribe CDs. A first superficial listening makes me agree with Richard that Bright is better-sounding than Gipps, for the reason he mentioned.

[eschiss1]

... actually, in 1948 Gipps' style was very much derrière-garde, but okay! (I'm not talking about the quality of her music, just about how ridiculous it is to call her music avant-garde in the context of the musical world of 1948, considering what else was written that year. Maybe that's why I keep reminding myself I really _do not belong here anymore_ )

[Alan Howe]

Oh, you do belong here, Eric. You're one of our most valued members.

[matesic]

Yes, I think Ruth Gipps would have been more than a bit surprised to find herself lumped with the avant-garde! I played in her orchestras for a number of years during time which we read through or performed several of her works (also a string quartet at her house if I remember correctly). In 1981 to celebrate her 60th birthday her friends arranged for her to conduct a programme consisting mostly of her own works in the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Unfortunately this proved to be a bit of a hall-emptier!

[Richard Moss]

Eric,

When I used the phrase 'avant-garde' I was just trying to find a phrase to be taken more as a broad sentiment of what I personally felt in the context of what I feel is 'traditional' romantic music, not more specifically to the context of the actual date when Ruth Gipps wrote her concerto (which I wasn't aware of when I made my earlier post but that doesn't affect my thoughts).

As you will perhaps know from my (few) previous posts, I am first to hold my hand up as NOT any sort of musicologist - just a lay person of advancing years with a love of old-fashioned romantic music.  Please don't take any unintended offence - your insightful comments and encyclopaedic knowledge are a tremendous asset to all UC members and long may that continue.

Best wishes

Richard

[Alan Howe]

I'd say the Gipps PC just about creeps in here at UC, but only on the back of the Bright!!

[Mark Thomas]

I agree, but it remains a pretty good piece IMHO.

[Gareth Vaughan]

It is a first rate piece and, at my suggestion, Cameo recorded it on a disk with the 1st PC of Kenneth Leighton: Angela Brownridge; Malta Philharmonic under Muchael Laus. It was one of their best disks. I hope Lyrita, who took over the Cameo catalogue, will release it.

[semloh]

I wonder what are the respective merits of the two recordings of the Gipps PC. Anyone heard both?