The latest release in
this series features works by Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988) and Ruth Gipps
(1921-1999). Angela Brownridge www.ctcinternationalartists.com/page_1698974.html joins the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra www.maltaorchestra.com conducted by Michael Laus www.um.edu.mt/performingarts/music/staff/visiting-staff/michaellaus
in
piano concertos by both these composers as well as two attractive works for
solo piano by Gipps.
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| CC9046CD |
This new disc includes the first of his three piano concertos.
Leighton was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire and was a chorister at Wakefield
Cathedral. He attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School where he performed at
school assemblies and concerts, while also composing settings of poetry for
voice and piano and solo piano pieces. While still at school he obtained the
Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music (LRAM) in piano performance. As a
university student at Queen's College, Oxford, on a Hastings Scholarship to
study Classics, he continued to study music, tutored by the composer Bernard
Rose. At Oxford he came to the attention of Gerald Finzi, an early supporter
and friend, who performed some of his works including his Symphony for Strings Op.3.
He gained the support of Vaughan Williams who attended some of his performances
in London. After gaining a BA in Classics in 1950, and a BMus in 1951, he was
awarded a Mendelssohn Scholarship, which enabled him to study with Goffredo
Petrassi in Rome.
On his return from Italy, he taught at the Royal Marine
School of Music in Deal and held a Gregory Fellowship in music at the
University of Leeds. In 1956 he was appointed lecturer in music at the
University of Edinburgh. Following a period as Fellow of Worcester College,
Oxford University from 1968 to 1970, Leighton returned to Edinburgh as Reid
Professor of Music, where he remained until his death.
Leighton’s Piano
Concerto No.1 in D minor, Op.11 dates from 1950, the year he graduated from Oxford. The first movement has a lively
start for piano and orchestra, full of life and momentum with the piano and
orchestra sharing the vibrant theme. It rises in romantic, virtuoso music, complete
with massive descending scales right up to the end.
Brass opens the second movement before the full orchestra
enters with the soloist playing chords in this rather serious, gloomy theme.
Slowly the piano reiterates its chords with more definition before moving into
a real tune, still with an underlying insistent feel. A melancholy flute melody
is picked up by the clarinet before the piano enters with large chords as the
orchestra moves the music passionately forward. Eventually the music reaches a peak before falling
back. The piano plays a florid passage as the music heads to the coda which,
after a quiet cymbal clash, arrives peacefully.
The soloist opens the finale before the orchestra joins in
this decisively played music, the piano providing a rhythmic theme with more
virtuosic passages. There are cascading orchestral passages before the music
quietens with attractive woodwind passages. As the movement progresses there is
a terrific interplay between soloist and orchestra before a cadenza that is full
of demanding writing, superbly handled by Angela Brownridge. A fugal theme
appears for the piano, picked up by the orchestra that leads to the coda concluding
on a rising scale for piano.
Michael Laus draws enthusiastic playing from the Malta Philharmonic
Orchestra though their string section can often sound rather thin. Angela
Brownridge is an excellent soloist in this repertoire. The recording, made in
the Manuel Theatre, Valletta, Malta is rather dry and boxy.
Ruth Gipps was
born in Bexhill-on-Sea, England and was something of a child prodigy,
performing her first composition at the age of eight. Gipps studied music
theory, composition, piano, and oboe at the Royal College of Music where her
teachers were Leon Goosens, Tobias Matthay, Gordon Jacob and Ralph Vaughan
Williams.
She was thirty three when an earlier hand injury ended her
performance career, causing her to concentrate on conducting and composition. A
major point in her compositional career was her Symphony No. 2, Op. 30, first
performed in 1946, which showed the beginnings of her mature style. She went on
to write five symphonies in total as well as two piano concertos, a large
amount of chamber music, choral works, vocal works and piano music.
She founded the London Repertoire Orchestra in 1955 as an
opportunity for young professional musicians to become exposed to a wide range
of music, and the Chanticleer Orchestra in 1961, a professional ensemble which
included a work by a living composer in each of its programs. She held faculty
posts at Trinity College, London, the Royal College of Music and, finally, Kingston
Polytechnic.
There is a leisurely, nostalgic opening theme Ruth Gipps’ Theme and Variations for Piano,
Op.57a which is soon given over to a series of richly imaginative
variations that have a freshness that is wholly appealing. There is a hint of
John Ireland at times before the beautiful, gentle, reflective coda.
There is occasionally a French feel to Ruth Gipp’ Opalescence, Op.72 that has a rippling, undulating
melody that develops into moments that are quiet florid before returning to the
rather simpler nature of the opening and ending gently.
Again Angela Brownridge proves to be a first rate advocate
of this music. The recordings of these two solo works were made in the
Fairfield Hall, Croydon, England and are full of clarity and fine piano tone.
Ruth Gipps’s Piano
Concerto, Op.34 comes from the era of her Second Symphony, a fine work that
has been recorded by Douglas Bostock and the Munich Symphony Orchestra for Classico.
www.amazon.co.uk/Butterworth-Symphony-No-1-Gipps-No-/dp/B000026BZN/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1396956322&sr=1-4&keywords=gipps
I found her concerto to be equally fine
with a first movement that opens with a broad orchestral theme, full of passion
and momentum. The music quietens for the piano to enter playing the theme, full
of romantic ardour. Gipps’ use of the orchestra is very attractive with a
freshness and expansiveness that is instantly appealing. This first movement,
almost as long as the two succeeding movements, presents the material in
various guises, sometimes gentle and more reflective before rising to a climax.
There is a gentle woodwind theme before a virtuoso passage for piano as well as
light and faster sections for piano and orchestra. Angela Brownridge is terrific in this freely
virtuosic work that retains its rather windswept nature right up to the
decisive coda.
A clarinet opens the second movement, soon joined by the
orchestra in a gentle, rather pastoral theme. The piano enters to mull over the
theme before being joined by the orchestra. This is beautifully atmospheric,
nostalgic music that later becomes more animated, calming for the exquisite
coda.
A trumpet announces the piano theme for the finale, a fast,
rolling theme. The orchestra enters as this folksy theme moves forward with a
rapid piano part. The music soon slows a little but picks up in a jaunty
rhythmic theme, again with an appealing freshness that leads to the coda.
I found this to be a very appealing concerto brilliantly
played by Brownridge. Whilst the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra is not in the top
league of orchestras they play their hearts out for their conductor, Michael
Laus. The recording is, again, a little dry.
We should be enormously grateful that Cameo Classics have
brought us these fine works. There is a well illustrated booklet with informative
notes by Angela Brownridge. Oddly there are no tempo markings shown for either
concerto.
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