Robert Simpson(1921-1997)

[calyptorhynchus]

I'm having fun now going through all the Simpson recordings I have which aren't symphonies or string chamber works. I'm reminding myself what other marvellous works RS wrote. At the moment I'm treasuring the Cello Concerto. Now I'm listening to it on a device which gives me better quality from this recording off the radio I can appreciate it better. Unlike the Flute Concerto it doesn't achieve blissful serenity, but continues in a typical Simpson tough musical argument all the way to the end, but like other Simpson works from the very end of his career (11th Symphony &c) this struggle has become refined to a higher level so the amount of overt of striving is less, but you know it's still there.

The other discovery was the Piano Sonata form the very beginning of RSs published oeuvre. Another marvellous piece, on one level as good as anything he wrote subsequently. Oh, and the Horn Trio... but my enthusiasm must be getting a bit boring.

[Re: HB and his two movement symphonies. I know that various other of his symphonies are also in two movements, but these function as two movement symphonies... first movement, second movement. I just get the feeling from the 23rd that HB wrote it as first movement, [   ], [    ], last movement.  ]

[calyptorhynchus]

I was listening the other day to the 2 clarinet quintet (string trio, clarient and bass clarinet) (on the Hyperion disc with the SQ 14 and (single) Clarinet Quintet).

I don't about jazz, but parts of this work sound a bit jazz influenced to me. Can anyone comment?

[calyptorhynchus]

I've known Simpson's Quartets for a few years, and I have known the Beethoven quartets for longer, but it never occurred to me before to listen to the three Razumovsky Quartets alongside the Simpson quartets 4-6.

What a revelation, here you have six of mightiest quartets in the repertoire, and the second set was written explicitly as a musical commentary on the first. Where to start talking about them? of course Simpson and Beethoven's styles are like a hand and a glove, so the fast outer movements of the Simpson quartets match the tough argumentative style of the Beethoven outer movements, but Simpson rises to the challenge of writing slow movements to match the Beethoven ones. The first two are glorious and lyrical, even if subdued and tragic in places. In Simpson's sixth the second movement is a marvellous essay in disquiet and restlessness (again following the Beethoven lead). I have to say though, and this would have Simpson tut-tutting furiously, I think Simpson is the greater composer.

Then I topped this exercise off by listening to Beethoven's op 95 ('Serioso' Quartet) and the Simpson Quartet 11. Although this quartet was not written as a musical commentary on the op 95, and doesn't correspond to it structurally as 4-6 do to the respective Razumovsky Quartets, Simpson said he was influenced by it. And again, what an amazing coincidence of style and feeling in two composer separated by 170 years.

I recommend listening to these works this way.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Thanks! I am a great admirer of the Quartettto Serioso, so Simpson's (veiled) take on that sounds very enticing.

[Dundonnell]

Ok, just listened to Davis' (apologies for calling him Davies earlier) Simpson 4 (undated) from the BBC.

The quality is worse than his BBC No.5 broadcast from 1978, so I'm thinking it might be earlier. In which case might he be playing the first version with the Adagio slow movement? His 3rd movement is about 13' as opposed to Handley's 10' 30" on Hyperion, which is about how long that movement should last if it's adagio not andante.

Anyway, I preferred this recording to Handley's in nearly every way, the first movement was both more playful (in the playful bits), and scary (in the scary bits), the scherzo was more grounded, less manic, but more titanic in its energy and more impressive, the slow movement (regardless of whether it is the andante or adagio version) is slower, and more measured, and the finale is more exultant. In Handley's recording Simpson use of side-drum and piccolo and high fifth harmonics is sometimes made to sound shrill and unbalanced, this recording is much better in that regard (side-drum less foregrounded).

Writing as the person who made the recordings back in the 1970s with the somewhat primitive technology then available to him ...........

I rue the day that I decided to delete my recording of the 1973 premiere of the Simpson 4th. It was, incidentally, the very first radio broadcast I ever taped and I bought a tape-recorder for the specific purpose of recording the Simpson That first performance was given by the Halle Orchestra under James Loughran.

For some reason lost in the mists of time I taped the BBC Symphony Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis performance over the Loughran Now when that performance was broadcast I cannot tell and we have not so far been able to find out. The recording of the 5th is definitely the premiere from 1973. Nor can I be sure when precisely Simpson quickened the slow movement from Adagio to Andante. However I have read that the change came "after the first few performances" so the Davis COULD be at Adagio speed

What I can be sure of is the reason. Malcolm MacDonald, who was a friend of Simpson's, told me that the composer was self-confessedly-and this, of course, is the familiar criticism of his music-an "intellectual composer" determined to make an appeal to the emotions ONLY through intellectual argument. Simpson felt that at Adagio the movement was too "straightforwardly emotional" in its impact.

I can understand why, for some people, this can leave an impression of sterility. I recall listening in amazement to that slow movement back in 1973 and thinking that it represented some of the most beautiful music I had ever heard and I still think that.

I also know that right at the end of his life Simpson was thinking seriously about restoring the movement at its original speed but that his work on that was unfinished. Matthew Taylor at the Royal Academy of Music in London is the ideal man (as a Simpson-pupil) to undertake such a revision/restoration

Daniel.....you have my permission to ask him to do so

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I've known Simpson's Quartets for a few years, and I have known the Beethoven quartets for longer, but it never occurred to me before to listen to the three Razumovsky Quartets alongside the Simpson quartets 4-6.

I've only heard Simpson's #6 (his "3rd Razumovsky"). Of the three quartets, which do you like the most? And which one most closely follows its Beethovenian model?

[calyptorhynchus]

I've only heard Simpson's #6 (his "3rd Razumovsky"). Of the three quartets, which do you like the most? And which one most closely follows its Beethovenian model?

OK, the first Razumovsky has fast outer movements (the finale with the Russian theme), a slow, funereal, slow movement and a scherzo. The Simpson 4 follows this closely, except for a funereal slow movement he has a more lyrical movement. In the finale he has a slow lyrical interlude before the end. In all these quartets he follows Beethoven's tonal plan, but expands the tonal conflict, so if Beethoven suggests a tonal conflict between the tonic and  a classically unconventional related key, like the mediant, Simpson expands this.

The second Razumovsky follows much the same plan, except its slow movement is a more exalted lyrical movement (the Russian theme is the trio section of the Scherzo). Simpson follows this plan closely, of the three Simpson Razumokskys this is probably the greatest for my money. (Simpson doesn't use Russian or folk themes, but in the scherzo here he uses a plain theme that gets tangled up in counterpoint, as Beethoven does with the Russian theme).

In the third Razumovsky I think Beethoven might have been getting a bit bored with the format of the previous two, so the slow movement is faster and more disturbed (and Russian-sounding). The scherzo is a minuet and trio. Here Simpson writes two outer movements that are similar to Beethoven's but writes a marvellous movement of restlessness and disquiet for the second (it might be called 'modernity and its discontents') and a canonic third movement that definitely isn't a minuet and trio!

So, to answer your question, 5 is the greatest OMHO and follows the original most closely.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

So, to answer your question, 5 is the greatest OMHO and follows the original most closely.

Thanks for the detailed response. For what it's worth, the Razumovskys are my favorite Beethoven quartets (I like them even more than the Lates) and probably for that reason, I liked Simpson's #6 right away. Must get hold of the first two installments!

[calyptorhynchus]

I've just been listening to the radio recording of the Violin Concerto. Previously I had only listened to it on my iPod, then I listened on my iPad and it sounded a little better, finally I found an app for the iPad called "Equ" that is a graphic equaliser program and this makes this recording much better. I feel I'm actually hearing the work now.

Now we know that Simpson in later life withdrew the work, but listening to the recording I regret this. I think it would be a valuable adjunct to other Simpson works if it was recorded and would show a different side to Simpson. It was written in 1959, i.e. after the first two symphonies and the first three string quartets. It's about 43 minutes long and contains the following four movements:

1. An introductory movement, about 10 minutes long, very dramatic, with dotted rhythms and shakes in the orchestra, the violin responding
2. An angry scherzo 5-6 minutes long
3. A beautiful slow movement about 15 minutes long, calm and peaceful but with a more dramatic central section where a solo cadenza leads to brass ejaculations, before a return to the opening music
4. A final rondo [sic], about 12 minutes, very lively and good humoured before a gruff but perhaps not serious dramatic ending.

It doesn't sound much like Simpson, it's much more lyrical and less chromatic (I have no idea what's going on tonally in the work). Each movement has its own material and there doesn't seem to be much cross referencing of material between the movements. My jaw dropped when I heard Simpson writing a rondo-finale, but it's all in the best high spirits.

I guess Simpson thought it wasn't serious enough, or he felt he had gone too far in the direction of popular classics  , which is why he withdrew it. But I like, inasmuch as I can hear it, and I'm sure a good modern recording would meet with a good reception, especially amongst Simpsonites.

[calyptorhynchus]

Article on the Simpson String Quartets by Edward Green

http://www.chambermusicjournal.org/pdf/Vol21-no2.pdf

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Many thanks! Fascinating read. My first resolution for 2013 - systematic exploration of RS.

[Dundonnell]

Many thanks! Fascinating read. My first resolution for 2013 - systematic exploration of RS.

And like all good resolutions made by JZH I am sure that it will be kept

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Your belief is both commendable and gratifying.   

[calyptorhynchus]

A few pages ago on this thread I asked whether anyone had written a biography of Simpson.

Well, I discovered that someone has

The Power of Robert Simpson by Donald Macauley (a family friend) is available from Google Books as an e-book for $10.

I've just finished reading through the main part (still have various appendices to read). I reckon it's well-worth downloading, it certainly has lots of information about Simpson I wasn't aware of before and background to his various compositions.

From it learnt of five compositions I wasn't aware of:

The Variations and Fugue for Recorder and String Quartet date from the 50s, the book mentioned an out of catalogue CD which has this work and I have ordered a copy from Amazon.

The remaining works are unrecorded (like the Flute and Cello Concertos):

Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano (1960s)
Sonata for 2 Pianos (1979)
Quintet for Brass (late 80s)
Variation and Fugue on a Theme of J S Bach for String Orchestra (1990)

[kyjo]

A few pages ago on this thread I asked whether anyone had written a biography of Simpson.

Well, I discovered that someone has

The Power of Robert Simpson by Donald Macauley (a family friend) is available from Google Books as an e-book for $10.

I've just finished reading through the main part (still have various appendices to read). I reckon it's well-worth downloading, it certainly has lots of information about Simpson I wasn't aware of before and background to his various compositions.

From it learnt of five compositions I wasn't aware of:

The Variations and Fugue for Recorder and String Quartet date from the 50s, the book mentioned an out of catalogue CD which has this work and I have ordered a copy from Amazon.

The remaining works are unrecorded (like the Flute and Cello Concertos):

Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano (1960s)
Sonata for 2 Pianos (1979)
Quintet for Brass (late 80s)
Variation and Fugue on a Theme of J S Bach for String Orchestra (1990)

You might be pleased to know that Nimbus is releasing a disc including the Simpson CC coupled with the Joubert and Christopher Wright CCs. See the related thread at the Art-Music Forum: http://artmusic.smfforfree.com/index.php/topic,2861.0.html

Also, Simpson's PC badly needs a modern recording. John Ogdon's recording of it was released years ago on the Carlton Classics label, but that disc is now well out of print.

[calyptorhynchus]

Cool.

Should just clarify that Donald Macauley was a family friend of Simpson, not of mine!

[lescamil]

Also, Simpson's PC badly needs a modern recording. John Ogdon's recording of it was released years ago on the Carlton Classics label, but that disc is now well out of print.

Agreed, although I do like that old Ogdon recording! Hopefully some British pianist with a focus on British 20th century music can take it up. Perhaps Ashley Wass or Howard Shelley?

[calyptorhynchus]

Hey everyone

I have just posted a download of Simpson's Variations and Fugue for Recorder and String Quartet (1959)

A fine work

Enjoy!

http://artmusic.smfforfree.com/index.php/topic,506.msg14421.html#new

[calyptorhynchus]

I see from Naxos's list of forthcoming concerts that the City of London Sinfonia are giving Simpson's Variations and Fugue on the Theme of Bach for String Orchestra (1991) on Jan 29 at St John's Smith Square, London, at 7.30pm.

If this is broadcast on BBC 3 either then on later PLEASE could someone record it and post it at the Art Music Forum or somewhere accessible, the Simpson is an unrecorded work and should be a ripper. The whole concert looks really good it also has "Allegro Deciso" by Simpson (no idea what this is), and Taylor's Adagio in Memoriam Robert Simpson, amongst other works.

Please Please Please

[snyprrr]

Wondering if I should reacquire 6-7... hmmm...

...off to YT...