The music of Ruth Gipps has seen only sporadic revivals despite the growing interest in music by women composers, but this fine release on the Somm label should help her cause along. Gipps was an oboist until her career was sidelined by a hand injury, and she wrote a great deal for that instrument and for the clarinet, the instrument of her husband, Robert Baker. Some of the latter are recorded here, including The Kelpie of Corrievreckan, the piece that launched the pair's relationship. Like Deep Space Nine 's Odo, a ...
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The music of Ruth Gipps has seen only sporadic revivals despite the growing interest in music by women composers, but this fine release on the Somm label should help her cause along. Gipps was an oboist until her career was sidelined by a hand injury, and she wrote a great deal for that instrument and for the clarinet, the instrument of her husband, Robert Baker. Some of the latter are recorded here, including The Kelpie of Corrievreckan, the piece that launched the pair's relationship. Like Deep Space Nine 's Odo, a kelpie is a shape-shifter, and the piece offers a good introduction to the evocative and slyly humorous world of Gipps' pictorial works. Chamber music is her forte, and she is equally effective in abstract works like the central Quintet for oboe, clarinet, and string trio, Op. 16, wherein the handling of the winds is nothing short of exquisite. Gipps studied with Ralph Vaughan Williams, and one can detect his imprint on her music; it is in a quiet, pastoral vein, but Gipps' voice is...
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