The superb British symphonist, an independent-minded disciple of Beethoven, Bruckner, and Nielsen, was born a century ago today. Notwithstanding the early Jascha Horenstein / London Symphony recording featured above, the composer's recorded legacy resides almost exclusively with the Hyperion label, which offers cycles of his symphonies (eleven) and string quartets (fifteen), alongside various other orchestral and chamber works. The usual thinking would describe Simpson as a "conservative," which is a dubious designation in musical terms — there is nothing conventional about his intricately plotted, densely textured work — and entirely inappropriate in a political sense. Simpson was a socialist, a conscientious objector, an anti-nuclear activist, and a vociferous anti-Thatcherite; out of disgust with his country's rightward drift he moved to Ireland in 1986, and died there in 1997. Needless to say, little is being done to mark the anniversary, but tonight one can go to the Bromsgrove Concerts website to see the Tippett Quartet perform Simpson's Quartet No. 1. (I discovered this event thanks to the Robert Simpson Society.) Also, Lyrita has released the première performances of the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, with the London Symphony under Andrew Davis and the London Philharmonic under Charles Groves. And BBC Radio 3 will devote a week of broadcasts to the composer at the end of May. I wrote a bit about Simpson in a 2015 piece; my first published review, back in 1988, was of Simpson's Sixth and Seventh.
