Radio 3 in Concert: Pioneers of a Century

Georgia Mann presents a live concert by the BBC Concert Orchestra from the Watford Colosseum, devised and conducted by Jessica Horsley as part of the fith Swiss Frauenkomponiert festival, whose stated aims are to give a voice to women composers and spread enthusiasm for their music, thus enriching the musical world. There are two early pieces by Ruth Gipps, who was an oboist, pianist, conductor, teacher and prolific composer. A pupil of Gordon Jacob and Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music, an early success came when she was only 21, when Henry Wood conducted her tone poem Knight in Armour at the Last Night of the Proms in 1942. Peggy Glanville-Hicks also studied at the RCM for a while with Vaughan Williams, and also had conducting lessons from Constant Lambert and Malcolm Sargent. Adrian Boult was an early champion of her music, before she emigrated to America and ran concert series for the Museum of Modern Art in New York and was music critic for the New York Herald Tribune, among other things. She wrote operas and ballets as well as concert works (two of which are given their UK premieres in this concert), and after living in Greece for many years, finally returned to her native Australia and was a dynamic force on the music scene there. Cécile Marti is a contemporary Swiss prize-winning composer, who also combines music and visual arts with her stone sculptures. Wave trip, revised for this concert, is the culmination of a four-part cycle, with two orchestral works framing a violin concerto and solo violin piece. Gipps: Chanticleer Overture; Cécile Marti: Wave Trip; Gipps: Symphony No 2 (in one movement), Op 30. Interval: Music from the BBC Concert Orchestra's Composer in Residence Dobrinka Tabakova. Glanville-Hicks: Tragic Celebration; Sinfonia Pacifica. BBC Concert Orchestra, Jessica Horsley (conductor)