Robert Simpson

Most of the chamber music of Robert Simpson (1921-97) was recorded by Hyperion in the 1980s and '90s, but there remained some gaps in that discography. The Robert Simpson Society has sponsored two albums to plug them, this first one including an early string quartet and two songs that came to light only after the composer's death. In later life Simpson used to say that poems good enough to set to music didn't need it - but these two youthful essays prove that he was already a master. Simpson wrote the D major string quartet as a student at Durham; an examiner described it as 'fearless'. The two mature works - vintage Simpson - bring his sense of symphonic momentum into the clarinet repertoire.

Most of the chamber music of Robert Simpson (1921-97) was recorded by Hyperion in the 1980s and '90s, but there remained some gaps in that discography. The Robert Simpson Society has sponsored two albums to plug them, this first one including an early string quartet and two songs that came to light only after the composer's death. In later life Simpson used to say that poems good enough to set to music didn't need it - but these two youthful essays prove that he was already a master. Simpson wrote the D major string quartet as a student at Durham; an examiner described it as 'fearless'. The two mature works - vintage Simpson - bring his sense of symphonic momentum into the clarinet repertoire.

Robert Simpson wrote his Fifth Symphony in 1972 in response to a commission by the London Symphony Orchestra. The first performance of the symphony took place on 3 May 1973 at the Royal Festival Hall, under the direction of Andrew Davis. Another London performance took place on 29 March 1984, again in the Royal Festival Hall, with the Philharmonia, the conductor again being Andrew Davis. In both cases audience and press reception was unanimously enthusiastic. Desmond Shawe-Taylor, in a review in the Sunday Times headed “Power of Robert Simpson”, detected “some shattering personal crisis” and observed that the 4th and 5th Symphonies “compel all but the most rigidly advanced of listeners to take a closer look at this remarkable composer.” He found the Fifth “bolder, tougher and more mysterious in substance.” Simpson’s Sixth Symphony, of 1977, was commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with funds provided by the Arts Council, who later sponsored the recording of the Sixth and Seventh, and also contributed to a number of later Commissions. It received its premiere performance on 8 April 1980 at the Royal Festival Hall with The London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Charles Groves.

A work filled with ambition, Circlesong is a musical portrayal of the human life cycle as captured in the indigenous poetry of North America. Composed by Bob Chilcott and based on poetry from the Chinook, Comanche, Dakota, Inuit, Iroquois, Kwakiutl, Navajo, Ojibwa, Pueblo, Seminole, Sioux, and Yaqui traditions, the thirteen movements, in seven parts, mark the different stages of life, from birth and childhood to adulthood, middle age and death.