LONDON: St John's Waterloo Church

Saturday 20th May, 2023

7:00pm

Event information

WPO at 50!!

The WPO was founded in autumn 1972 and gave its first concert in 1973, so this concert celebrates our Fiftieth anniversary, with Ruth Gipps’ Fifth Symphony, Tippett’s Ritual Dances from The Midsummer Marriage, and Mozart’s youthfully fresh concerto for Flute and Harp.

One of the major rediscoveries of recent years has been the music of Ruth Gipps, whose centenary was celebrated in 2021. She was one of those multi-talented British musicians who achieve so much in so many fields and manage to be ignored or forgotten in all of them. As well as being a composer, Gipps built a career as a pianist, as an oboist (with the CBSO), as a conductor, leading not only her own music, but also music of composers she admired, including Arthur Bliss, and an administrator, all in a male-dominated musical world which did its utmost to disparage her efforts. The Fifth Symphony has had one solitary performance so far, in March 1983, conducted by the composer, and although her first four symphonies are now recorded, the Fifth awaits its rediscovery.

Michael Tippett may well have known Ruth Gipps; they were active as composers for a long period in parallel, but musically, their paths went in entirely different directions. Gipps had little or no interest in opera, but Tippett composed five. The Ritual Dances from his first opera, The Midsummer Marriage, have become a favourite concert item.

Mozart’s harp and flute concerto is considered one of the most popular of double concertos in the repertoire, and we welcome Judith Lewis who was our flautist for many years.