The prolific French composer Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983) showed her sense of rebellion early by changing her name from Taillefesse as a rebuff to her father, who objected to her musical ambitions. For too long, her work has been neglected. In Germaine Tailleferre: Her Piano Works, Revived 1 (Grand Piano) the pianist Nicolas Horvath has embarked on an invaluable project, including several world premiere recordings.
Hanging out in artist circles in Montmartre in the 1920s, Tailleferre was the only female in the group of composers known as Les Six (others included Francis Poulenc and Darius Milhaud). In her comprehensive liner notes, Caroline Potter writes that Tailleferre composed at the piano, making it hard to know how many works were starting points for other music: this disc alone has 55 tracks, some gathered together in groups: Fleurs de France (1930), Suite dans le style Louis XV, and transcriptions by Monteverdi, Lully, Scarlatti and others.
The Monaco-born Horvath’s versatility (check out his discography) lends itself to the chameleon Tailleferre: she switches from neoclassical to radical, tonal to bitonal, rhythmic and familiar to irregular and dissonant. Horvath is a great advocate.
Ruth Gipps (1921-99) may be remembered by the many musicians who benefited from her tutelage or played in her various orchestras, but most know little of her five symphonies, choral works or chamber music. Her centenary last year redeemed her dusty profile – a pupil of Vaughan Williams, predominantly writing in outmoded pastoral mode – with more to be done.
Spearheaded by the brilliant horn player Ben Goldscheider, leading soloists and the London Chamber Orchestra have combined to produce Ruth Gipps: Winds of Change (Three Worlds) conducted by Hannah von Wiehler: chamber music featuring horn, with Huw Watkins, piano, Mary Bevan, soprano and Ruth Rosales, narrator. The 10 works, some stronger than others, reflect Gipps’s range of instrumental voices, colours and combinations, from the chirpy A Taradiddle for Two Horns, Op 54 (1959) to her last large-scale work, the Wind Sinfonietta, Op 73 (1989). Gipps is honoured by these excellent players.