Gough, Rachel

Bassoonist who studied at Aldeburgh Music and was a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra before becoming co-principal bassoonist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. After that, she joined the London Symphony Orchestra as their principal bassoonist. Other groups with whom she has worked include the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Guildhall Strings, the Serenata of London, and the World Orchestra for Peace.

On 18^th April 1997, she was a guest woodwind musician with the Guildhall String Ensemble at Wigmore Hall, where they performed “Brandenburg Concerto No. 1” and “Orchestral Suite No. 1” by Johann Sebastian Bach and the “Six-Minute Symphony” of John McCabe.

She was one of the featured soloists with the LSO at Barbican Hall on 21^st June 2000 who opened their concert with “Sinfonia Concertante in B flat” by Franz Joseph Haydn. It was followed by “Symphony No. 8 in C minor” by Dmitri Shostakovich.

On 16^th August 2002, the LSO appeared at Royal Albert Hall where they offered up Don Quixote—Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character, Op. 35 by Richard Strauss and “Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95” (“From the New World”) by Antonin Dvorak.

They presented an all-Russian program at the Barbican on 4^th November 2004 which consisted of the Ruslan and Ludmilla overture by Mikhail Glinka, “Symphony No. 8, Op. 65” by Dmitri Shostakovich, and “Violin Concerto No. 2” by Sergei Prokofiev.

On 18^th May 2005, they gave the world premiere of Huw Watkins’ “London Concerto” and sandwiched it in between Giuseppe Verdi’s La forza del destino overture and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64”.

They participated in Prom 47 at Royal Albert Hall on 18^th August 2006, where they opened with highlights from The Golden Age by Dmitri Shostakovich, followed by “Viola Concerto” by Alfred Schnittke with soloist Yuri Bashmet, and “Symphony No. 6” (“Pathetique”) by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

On 29^th March 2007, they joined forces with tenor Avgust Amonov and the London Symphony Chorus for a concert that included Claude Debussy’s La mer and “Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune” and Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and “Symphonies of Wind Instruments”.

They performed a concert version of Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet ballet at the Barbican on 23^rd November 2008.

On 8^th October 2009, they delivered the world premiere of “Surface” by Paul Newland and surrounded it with “Symphony No. 5 in E flat, Op. 82” by Jean Sibelius and “Violin Concerto in D, Op. 61”, with soloist Arabella Steinbacher.

Rachel and pianist Susan Tomes teamed up for a recital at LSO St. Luke’s on 29^th April 2010 that comprised “The Enchantress Plays” by Anthony Payne (written for Rachel), “Romance” by Sir Edward Elgar, “Sarabande et Cortege” by Henri Dutilleux, and a pair of sonatas by Paul Hindemith and Camille Saint-Saens.

On 13^th March 2011, the LSO premiered Vlad Maistorovici’s “Halo” and backed it up with Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 3”, with Jonathan Biss at the keys, and “Symphony No. 7”.

They gave the world premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell’s “Fanfare: Her Majesty’s Welcome” at the Queen’s Medal for Music Gala Concert in Barbican Hall on 5^th December 2012.

Recordings on which Rachel appears include: Benjamin Britten: The Turn of the Screw with Felicity Lott; Britten: Symphony, Op. 4/Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel/Dvorak: Op. 77 with the Serenata of London; Debussy/Saint-Saens: Complete Chamber Music for Woodwinds with Clifford Benson, James Campbell, Nicholas Daniel and Richard Watkins; Georg Friedrich Handel: Concerti Grossi Op. 6 Nos. 1-4 with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields; Holst: The Planets, Mahler: Symphony No. 4, Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 and Sibelius: Symphony No. 2/Pohjola’s Daughter with the LSO; James Dillon 1: Ignis Noster/Helle Nacht with the BBC Symphony Orchestra; and, Sonata: The Woodwind Music of Graham Lyons.

She can also be heard on the television soundtrack albums, Inspector Morse, Vol. 3 and Pride and Prejudice (1995 version).

In the field of music education, she has given master classes and served as a professor on the faculties of the LSO Centre for Orchestra and the Royal College of Music.

Sources:

Gough, Rachel

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