Ruth Gipps was a prolific and original composer who was only sparsely appreciated during her lifetime, but she has been the subject of renewed interest in the 21st century. She was also active as a conductor and, early in her career, as a pianist and oboist. Three of the works on this album were composed during the war: the Oboe Concerto, the tone poem Death on the Pale Horse, and the overture Chanticleer (derived from an opera which, sadly, she never completed). The manuscript of the Third Symphony is dated 1965 and the work was first heard when Gipps introduced it with her London Repertoire Orchestra. It has since gone largely unheard, until now.