Twentieth Century Secret

A winner of a Gramophone award for best contemporary album on its' initial release in 1989, this recording of Robert Simpson's 9th Symphony by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Vernon Handley shows what a supreme symphonist Simpson was and how ridiculously neglected his work now is, at least in terms of live perrformances. Without getting into any dogmatic ranking sytem, he can be compared with such twentieth century staples of the concert hall as Sibelius and Shostakovich and not be found wanting. It seems all the more strange given the glowing reviews for this disk, I guess fashion and patronage must play a part along with an English reticence to recognise our own. The interest of this particular disk is enhanced by an additional track which has the composer talking about the symphony with sound illustrations of his points. It is rather like having an edition of the Radio 3 series Discovering Music on the disk with the advantage of having the composer speak for himself without the need of an interpreter to intercede. The symphony is written in one uninterrupted broad sweep with use of palindrome structures played forwards and backwards. It can be listened too with pleasure without this detailed knowledge however.