Search - Robert [Composer] Simpson, Matthew Taylor, City of London Sinfonia :: Robert Simpson: Symphony No. 11; Variations on a Theme by Carl Nielsen

Deeply moving

Alwa | 09/19/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have waited for at least 2 years to hear this recording of Robert Simpson's last symphony. Suffice it to say that I was not disappointed! It will take many hearings for me to adequately assimilate this work and to be able to judge it in relation to Simpson's other symphonies but my first impressions are of a work that is deeply moving, especially the first movement, perhaps more introspective and intimate than most of Simpson's works. It seems that Simpson's art might have been entering a new phase of greater rarification and sensitivity when his career was so brutally cut short by a debilitating stroke. It seems so characteristic of Simpson's total lack of pretension (and does nothing to minimize the profundity of the work) that his final symphonic utterance should end with such a simple gesture, as Simpson puts it, "with a flick of the wrist". If you are moved and/or fascinated by Simpson's music (and not everyone is) then this will not disappoint you and will perhaps be mandatory listening leading to a greater perspective on this great man and his art."

A highly structured, beautifully wrought work of art

Daniel R. Greenfield | Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States | 04/21/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In plain and simple terms, Robert Simpson's last symphony is one of his very best. Strikingly it bears little resemblance to his others. As one other reviewer has noted, there are traces of Shostakovich in the first movement, but traces only. This is a very mature, highly structured work. It possesses the same austerity of many other Simpson symphonies, but is milder in tone; almost stoic, not given to the outbursts of earlier works. But mixed in with this milder structure there are the beautiful hammering staccato pulses in the strings that occur in the middle of the first movement, and then return to mesmerize the listener in the gradual build-up of the second movement. The ending is ironic: you would expect Robert Simpson to go out raging against the dying of the light, but no; he goes out as the magician: a sudden puff of smoke, and he is gone, with only silence left behind. The Nielson Variations are old-style Simpson, though still quite good. One final note: The UK music establishment will one day realize what a truly great composer Simpson was; the sooner the better."

Superb

litefoot | CA, south | 12/22/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Without doubt one of the major symphonies of the last century. Regrettably Simpson's final symphony.



Not so much a concluding work as a new turn--a polyphonic creation of Sibelian clarity and organic development. To my knowledge the astonishing fragmented coda is unique in symphonic history. Strongly recommended.



One issue: there are major compositions by Simpson still unrecorded. Why no one has tackled the cello and flute concertos escapes me. We're due for a Simpson renaissance."