This newly-formed orchestra, consisting entirely of women players, gave its first concert at Queen's Hall yesterday afternoon under the auspices of the British Women's Patriotic League. Miss Gwyne Kimpton conducted a programme of British music in which three women composers were represented - Dame Ethel Smyth, Miss Dorothy Howell, and Miss Phyllis Norman-Parker.
Competent women players, trained as they are side by side with men at the musical colleges, have a legitimate grievance in the fact that most of the established symphony orchestras exclude them, and in forming this orchestra on a co-operative basis and aiming at performance of the finest type, they are going the right way to fight the grievance. They deserve all support, and at present, as Dame Ethel Smyth told the large audience, they need financial support. One hundred pounds has been promised if four other supporters will give a similar amount. It is a very modest capital on which to start an orchestra, and we sincerely hope that this and more will be forthcoming.
The orchestra acquitted themselves well; the strings and the wood-wind were more than adequate as individuals. The tone of the brass was inclined to waver, and the horns are deficient in numbers. The material is there, but naturally the orchestra requires shaping by steady rehearsal. We doubt if Miss Kimpton's own technique as a conductor is strong enough for the task, good musician as she is known to be. Elgar's Violoncello Concerto, with its delicacy of line and its wayward rhythm, is one of the most difficult things to conduct, and apart from the solo player the performance could not be called finished.
Dame Ethel Smyth conducted her prelude to Act II of The Wreckers, and then addressed the audience. She spoke seriously, and traced the growth of women's orchestral playing in the last generation, laying particular stress on the work of such public schools as Wycombe Abbey and St Paul's. Her main plea, that the movement deserves encouragement and sympathy from all music-lovers, was one with which all sensible people must agree.
