Customer Reviews

Robert Simpson: Symphony No. 3; Symphony No. 5

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Surely Robert Simpson ranks among the greatest symphonists of the twentieth century. The Third, Fifth, and Ninth symphonies are probably his greatest achievements, though I would be hard-pressed to say which of these three is the greatest. A good case can be made for the Fifth, however, which is certainly one of the most original works ever composed. If you have never sampled any of Simpson's symphonic works, this is probably the best place to start. Be prepared, however: Simpson's works are highly dissonant in nature, and they demand a lot from the listener. That dissonance is produced primarily as a result of his style of composition, which is governed by the presence of two opposing tonal centers, which often collide against each other. Simpson's music is not atonal, but bi-tonal.

Not for Simpson the angst that characterizes the symphonies of Shostakovich and Pettersson. Instead, there is a much more formal detachment, devoid of any traces of emotion. It might well be described as industrial symphonic music, as wikipedia describes industrial music as "harsh and challenging"; it brings to mind massive, cold, impersonal (albeit interesting) sonic structures. All the same, his music is fraught with a Brucknerian majesty. As one reviewer has said, it is as though one is encountering some sort of strange interstellar phenomenon, utterly beyond the realm of human experience. This is of course their weakenss and their strength.

The Third is probably best-known for its extended last section, which starts as an Adagio and gradually accelerates over the space of some 15 minutes to eventually explode in "Beethovenian momentum". The Fifth is best-known for that incredible single-note pulse which plays in the background throughout most of the work, for the most part inaudible, except at the beginning and at the very end of the work where it quietly endures sphinx-like in absolute triumph. It brings to mind that same enigma that confronts the listener in Ives' "Unanswered Question": Whence the cosmos?, and all those unutterable questions that flood the mind when looking up into the night sky.

This is a remarkable recording, with exceptionally well-written album notes. Bravo to Hyperion for its most excellent Simpson series! It's my sincere hope that Simpson's time will eventually come. His music deserves to be heard. These two symphonies are undeniably among the most original symphonic works of our time.

I agree with the previous reviewer - Robert Simpson is definitely one of the greatest composers of the 2oth century, and his works deserve more attention and performance from symphony orchestras. Hopefully, the set of recordings conducted by Handley on Hyperion will hep to rectify that matter. I just think that the other reviewer should have given 5 stars instead of 3. Just give his music a try. It's based on tonal principles and very drammatic!

Elsewhere, I recommend the remarkable Hyperion CD containing Robert Simpson's 9th Symphony along with a spoken exegesis of the work's themes by the composer himself, a splendid concept that the remarkable Simpson carried out to perfection. This disk lets the music speak entirely for itself, with conductor Vernon Handley, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and gifted recording engineer Tony Faulkner all carrying out their duties close enough to perfection to suit even the most demanding listener.

Although many American audiophiles have never heard of Robert Simpson, just a few years ago (before his death in 1997), he was often praised as the greatest living composer of symphonies, and this recording will give you an inkling of why that praise was bestowed. Take my word for it--before you buy yet another recording of Beethoven's Third or Fifth, buy this CD first.

I was sent back to Hyperion' s glorious cycle of the complete Simpson symphonies by EMI's reissue, on their "British Composers" series, of Sir Adrian Boult's 1956 premiere recording of the first symphony from 1951 (see my review of Fricker, Orr, Simpson: Symphonies). I then pulled out of my shelves Handley's recording (paired with Symphony No. 8) for sake of comparing. I had duly followed Hyperion's successive instalments (maybe with a few years delay), but that was in the 1990s (I completed my own collection in 2001) and, alas there is so much to listen to, I rarely go back. So thank you EMI for giving me this opportunity of hearing Simpson's symphonies again - and being reminded how tremendous these compositions are.

Just try the beginning of Symphony No. 5 from 1972: it starts with a single sustained, string-dominated chord at the threshold of silence, vaguely reminiscent of the opening A in Mahler's First Symphony but more unsettling, something that could be the primeval sound of silent nature - but according to the composer, it represents "the part of the mind that quietly watches you, regardless of the sort of experience you are having" (it plays a fundamental structural role, recurring at various points in the symphony and closing it). And suddenly comes a startling, gigantic explosion of brutal force and Ivesian cacophony, and off we go.

The Symphonies of Nielsen were an avowed model for Simpson; it was very much in evidence in the First Symphony, which was less Nielsen's 7th, so to speak (because Nielsen's 6th is rather subdued, so a 7th might have been as well) than a combination (in terms of tremendous power) of the Danish composer's 4th and 5th; and it is still at work here, twenty years after, albeit in a more concealed manner: in the alternation of violently explosive passages of huge kinetic energy and tremendous excitement (for which I can think of little equivalent in Western music - or any music, for that matter: maybe Steven Martland's Babi Yar, Drill & Babi Yar, or some finales of Peter Mennin?), and moments that are atmospheric and even bucolic (5th Symphony, track 14, flute-oboe-clarinet dialogues over hushed pedal of strings), sometimes slowly but doggedly marching on, but with an undercurrent of inquietude always lurking. There are also moments that are saucy and powerfully brash (the scherzino, track 15) and others that convey a sense of lurking menace and pent-up energy, especially in the finale - and the energy always erupts. The use of the snare drum to generate excitement is also directly out of Nielsen (5th Symphony).

The impact and excitement of Simpson's symphonies are hard to resist, but there is much more than just excitement in them, although the casual listener may not (and needs not) consciously perceive it. The cogency and intricacy of their architecture and logic is also breathtaking, and the Hyperion liner notes are invaluable for clarifying all the secrets of Simpson's fabric (added to an abundance of cue points at all the structural articulations). For instance, the bucolic woodwind dialogue refered to above is in fact a canon, whose first note for each woodwind instrument is given by the opening (and underlying: the "hushed pedal of strings") 6-note chord, from top to bottom, and as the succeeding solo woodwinds pick up his note, the chord looses it and progressively collapses; then it is reconstructed by the same but inverted process in the slow movement (track 16), from bottom to top (that same chord is exposed at the end of the symphony by a gradual dissolution of the orchestra after the finale's gigantic outbursts of energy, and itself dissolves as well). But none of this is mere intellectual exercice, you don't even need to know it: the adagio based on these procedures is brooding and menacing and develops to awesome dramatic impact.

No need I think to give detailed comments on Symphony No. 3 (composed ten years before the 5th, in 1962). Same tremendous power, Nielsen to the power of Nielsen in the first movement, and the second (there are only two) unfolding, in the course of its circa 15 minutes, a huge accelerando within a unity of pulse throughout, kept subdued from the initial adagio (something vaguely reminiscent of Britten in the softly stabbing string phrases) to the explosion (track 8), some four minutes before the end. Returning to Handley's recording of Symphony No. 1 in comparison to Boult's mono recording (Robert Simpson: Symphony No. 1; Symphony No. 8, see my review), I was dismayed at realizing how inferior his reading was to his predecessor's: his acoustics were more spacious evidently, but still his orchestra was less present and vivid and with less visceral impact, and moreover his conducting was ponderous to the point of feeling soporiphic; the bite and power were Boult's. In view thereof, I am happy to report that, in comparison to Jasha Horenstein's pioneering 1970 recording of the 3rd Symphony on Unicorn (Robert Simpson: Symphony No. 3 (1962) / Clarinet Quintet (1968) - Jascha Horenstein / London Symphony Orchestra / Bernard Walton / Aeolian String Quartet, reissued by NMC, Robert Simpson: Symphony No. 3; Clarinet Quintetor Simpson: Symphony No 3), it is Handley who has the edge in terms of sonic presence, bite and raging energy in the first movement; the situation is reversed in the second movement, where Horenstein is perceptibly more urgent and generates more immediate excitement; the impression with Handley is of bonhomie rather than of bubbling and accumulating energy; but Handley's way of holding back until the final explosion also has its merits. Plus, I can always transfer Handley's first movement and Horenstein's second on my Ipod and have the best of both worlds.

That Simpson is one of the most essential symphonists of the 20th Century, and simply one of its most essential composers, is not yet fully recognized. I trust that, as with this other great symphonist and composer of the turn of the 19th-to-20th, when the ashes of fashion and aesthetic controversies will have settled down, his time will come.

Robert Simpson was one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century. This is moving, inventive music. It is hard to conceive of anyone listening to it and not being moved. The third symphony is probably my favorite by Simpson. It has a certain charm that the others lack. I recommend this CD. Listen to it at twilight on an autumn evening ... and you'll know why.