Release Date: 01 February 1996
Label: Hyperion Records Ltd
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 034571168272
Genres: Classical Solo Instrumental
Description
Issued to celebrate the seventy-fifth birthday of Robert Simpson on 2 March 1996.
This, the seventeenth issue in the Hyperion cycle of the works of the prolific composer Robert Simpson, features all of his works for solo piano. The programme opens with the Sonata from 1946. This is Simpson's first published work and already shows traces of that large-scale organization of tonality which so characterizes his output.
The Variations on a theme of Haydn takes the palindromic theme from Haydn's Symphony No 47 (also found in his piano Sonata No 41 and Simpson's own ninth String Quartet) and is a fascinating exercise in the rhythmic structure of music as well in basic tonality.
Written for a symposium celebrating the life and works of Tippett, Michael Tippett, his mystery was first performed in 1993 by the soloist on this recording, Raymond Clarke, for whom Variations on a theme of Beethoven was also written (Simpson having heard the pianist give an impressive performance of Beethoven's Opus 111). Here the theme is a little-known miniature inscribed by Beethoven in a visitors' book in 1825. Simpson's work is similarly a triumph of organization in miniature.
Tracklisting
Roberto Prosseda, London Philharmonic Orchestra / Nir Kabaretti
The Brabant Ensemble / Stephen Rice
Steven Isserlis
The Nash Ensemble
MultiPiano Ensemble, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin / Ivor Bolton
Marc-Andre Hamelin
Marc-Andre Hamelin, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Andrew Litton
Gothic Voices / Christopher Page
Slava Guerchovitch
Nora von Marschall
Lea Suter
Aart Bergwerff
Ran Jia
Johannes Krahl
Elke Volker
Henry Fairs
