Friday 17 August 2012

Robert Simpson

The issue I had with Robert Simpson"s music was that it was too intensely cerebral. Also I don't always agree with his choice of composers he champions. Nielsen and Beethoven fine; but Bruckner?
The music itself? Words like integrity, strength of purpose and stubborn refusal to be anything but his own man occur. His music takes no prisoners. It can be stern and uncompromising but also visionary and startlingly violent at times in a cosmic Varesian sense. If the above summary makes it sound humourless, then in a general sense it is but Simpson's music does display small doses of wit and charm. And the music is also intensely physical.

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