Multi-volume series have a habit of tailing off as time goes by, but not Chandos’s ongoing survey of the music of Ruth Gipps. Conducted by Rumon Gamba, and featuring the BBC Philharmonic on top form, Volume 3 makes if anything the strongest case yet for a composer who is finally receiving her due after decades of toil and struggle.

Gipps (1921–1999) was born in the seaside resort town of Bexhill-on-Sea and accepted by London’s Royal College of Music when she was just 16. There she studied composition with Vaughan Williams and Gordon Jacob, as well as oboe with Leon Goossens. Joining the City of Birmingham Orchestra as oboe doubling cor anglais, her original compositions were championed early on by conductor George Weldon. Indeed, at this point the future looked moderately bright.

Moving to London post-war, however, performances opportunities dried up. Especially frustrating was the attitude of the BBC, one of whose representatives responded to the submission of her first symphony by writing: “An audience will applaud anything if a young girl is taking a bow”, adding, “you see Dr Gipps… you are simply not a composer at...