(4 / 5)


I recall being highly impressed with the Kensington Symphony Orchestra, doing Peter Grimes a few years back at the Southbank. Speaking with people involved with the players, they spoke they were most, if not all amateur.

Heading to this Smith Square Hall gig, the sea-faring views would not settle. Doreen Carwithen is new to me, her Bishop Rock was note worthy. Vivid in its sight-specific vista, you felt the sea foam as well as calmer moments too. This along with the finale piece of the afternoon would be discoveries of women composers who might not have always gotten their due. Sir James MacMillion followed with a work which put him on the musical map: The Confrssion of Isobel Gowdie.

Conductor Russell Keable introduced it and gave insight to the Scotland’s awful history of witch hunting. Isobel Gowdie was one of many people convicted of witchcraft, she was tried, tortured, made to confess to nonsense accusations and then executed. This wreathed scenario would be the basis for MacMillion’s intense pallet.

Pounding, Stravinsky like chords, relentless dancing rhythms and an over all turbulent violence are what you discover. The orchestra had clearly rehearsed intently and they shone. Not shying away from such a subject rewards the listener with a very powerful composition, rightly giving him the reputation he has as a composer of great talent and innovation.

The end would come with Ruth Gipps and her 4th Symphony. Dedicated to Arthur Bliss, this symphony from 1972 would take years to get recognition. Like Bliss, there was a faithfulness to tonality, just some of the reasons both were shunned, as more experimental forms had become the status quo. Hearing it live, you get a feel for a serious love of the convention. I won’t say I was wowed by it, yet its formal feel still had drama, beauty and thrills. Again, the players gave it their all, in what is music from yet another female composer who needs more recognition.