The Guardian March 2020

The profoundly moving story of how love, courage and determination brought Greta Thunberg's family back from the brink

The soundtrack will be released digitally on March 5, 2021 and will be available to stream/download on Amazon, where you can also check out audio samples. Primates created by the BBC Studios Natural History and narrated by Chris Packham follows our closest animal relatives and reveals how much we have in common with them. The 3-part series, which was filmed over two years in locations around the world, from the snowy Atlas Mountains to the flooded jungles of Sumatra and Brazil, premiered last May in the UK on BBC One and made its U.S. debut last fall on PBS.

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.