My post yesterday about the centenary of Robert Simpson brought a recommendation in the comments section for his Symphony No. 9. That reminded me that Simpson’s Ninth was made possible through the munificence of an unlikely source – Phil Lesh.
Prior to cofounding the eclectic, long-running rock band The Grateful Dead, Lesh studied at Mills College with Luciano Berio, alongside Steve Reich and Robert Moran. His interest in contemporary classical music endured, so that he became the anonymous benefactor of numerous English composers.
Among them was not only Robert Simpson, but one of Simpson’s great enthusiasms, Havergal Brian. Lesh financed the first recording of Brian’s “Gothic Symphony,” a work that made it into the Guinness Book for being the world’s largest symphony.
You can learn more about it in this article from 1991 in the Los Angeles Times:
Integrity never guarantees popularity. But it may get you a mention on Classic Ross Amico on your centenary.
Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of English composer Robert Simpson. A conscientious objector during World War II, Simpson served in a mobile surgical unit during the London Blitz. On the side, he studied composition with Herbert Howells. Eventually music got the upper hand, and Simpson abandoned medicine. He did, however, become a doctor – a Doctor of Music – on graduation from Durham University.
In 1951, he joined the staff of the British Broadcasting Corporation. There, he became one of the organization’s most-respected producers. He would remain with the BBC for the better part of three decades. When corporate meddling began to erode the quality of broadcast in the late ‘70s, Simpson was among those who protested the loudest. He clashed with management, went to the press, and ultimately resigned, only months before he would have been eligible to retire with full pension. (Ah, the world of radio. I know it well.)
That kind of integrity is also reflected in his music, which includes 11 expertly-crafted symphonies and 15 string quartets. Simpson’s music has always had his admirers. Unusually for a living composer, a Robert Simpson Society was formed in 1980, with the aim of promoting his work.
Simpson himself greatly respected Beethoven, Bruckner, Nielsen, and Sibelius. He gave insightful talks on their music and added to their scholarship. As a producer, he was an active champion of the works of Havergal Brian, the eccentric autodidact who wrote 32 symphonies – 20 of them after the age of 80. In particular, Simpson supervised the historic Proms broadcast of Brian’s Symphony No. 1, the “Gothic,” frequently cited as the largest symphony ever composed.
In 1956, Simpson was awarded a Carl Nielsen Gold Medal. In 1963, he received a Medal of Honor from the Bruckner Society of America. Unusual for an amateur, he was also made a Fellow of the British Astronomical Association. (Astronomy was another one of Simpson’s great passions.) He refused an appointment as Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1980.
In 1986, he moved to Ireland. There, he lived on Tralee Bay in Kerry. Five years later, while on a lecture tour, he suffered a severe stroke which left him in debilitating pain for the remaining six years of his life. He died in 1997.
Most of his major works have been documented on the Hyperion label, the symphonies conducted by Vernon Handley. His music has also been recorded by Sir Adrian Boult, Jascha Horenstein, William Boughton, and Rafael Wallfisch.
The Fourth Symphony is as good an introduction as any, with a scherzo transparently modeled after its counterpart in Beethoven’s 9th. Further, the overall tone of the work strikes me as buoyant and optimistic. I hope you enjoy it. It’s not background music, but it is rewarding.
A lifetime of integrity counts for something. But it certainly doesn’t hurt to have the compositional chops to back it up. Happy birthday, Robert Simpson.
Purely by chance (well, also because I happen to like the music), our first hour on The Classical Network this afternoon will be all-English, as we celebrate the birthdays today of Frederick Delius and Havergal Brian. Along the way, we’ll also take a trip to a butterfly’s ball and enjoy a grasshopper’s dance.
In Hour No. 2, we’ll celebrate the anniversaries of the births of Danish composer Ludolf Nielsen, French operatic master Daniel-François-Esprit Auber, and Chinese-American violinist Cho-Liang Lin.
It will be an all-French program, avec piano, on “Music from Marlboro,” with chamber music by Francis Poulenc and Gabriel Fauré, from the legendary Marlboro Music Festival, tonight at 6.
Pull up a chair or cut a rug. It’s not just be the butterflies and grasshoppers who’ll be having a ball, from 4 to 6 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Three Blind Mice. Old King Cole. Peter, Peter, Pumpkin-Eater. A Frog He Went A-Courtin’. Favorite nursery rhymes recollected from childhood.
Before heading out to brunch with Mom tomorrow, tune in for a musical trip down memory lane. We’ll enjoy a full playlist of works inspired by nursery songs, fairy tales, children’s books, and bedtime stories. Featured composers will include Havergal Brian, Daniel Dorff, Paul Hindemith, Libby Larsen, Robert McBride, Robert Moran, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Grace Williams, among others
It will be the mother of all Mother’s Day shows, this Sunday morning from 7 to 10 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. We’ll remember Mama on Classic Ross Amico.
Pianist Igor Zhukov, an Emil Gilels pupil who remains largely unrecognized in the West, died on Friday at the age of 80. We’ll hear one of Zhukov’s remarkable concerto recordings this afternoon on The Classical Network. There will also be plenty of birthdays to observe, including those of composers Daniel-François-Esprit Auber, Havergal Brian, Frederic Cowen, Frederick Delius, Ludolf Nielsen, and Georg Christoph Wagenseil, as well as those of performers Malcolm Binns and Cho-Liang Lin. I honestly don’t know if there will be enough cake to go around. Join me for eight birthdays and a funeral, this Monday, from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
