3 Comments

1. 

   EDWARD CLARK on March 2, 2021 at 1:34 pm

   I got to
   know Bob quite well. I joined his society and we met at his house I seem to recall. We gave him a fax machine for his birthday one year.
   He was a likeable and interesting person who could be blunt on occasions. I invited him as a corporate guest to the Summer Exhibition with his wife. Both expressed a lot of interest in the broad range of art on offer. He knew his way round anyway, a man of many interests beyond the arts too.
   I once told him I thought his Piano Concerto could be one of his most popular works . He thought it was more or less worthless!!
   Oh dear!!
   Such happy memories. He joined me to
   hear his explosive 5th Symphony nearly blow the roof off SJSS. Then we had to contend with the coda of Sibelius 5. What an evening and Wimbledon had just won the FA Cup causing the biggest upset in history of the Cup. What a day in my life.
   During our friendship
   we exchanged letters on many topics and he sent me broadcast recordings of his emerging works. I have his first version of the 4th Symphony.

   Bob you are firmly in my heart even if I cannot fully enjoy all your hard won symphonies.
   But your music will last of that am sure.

   Reply
2. 

   Matthew Taylor on March 2, 2021 at 3:02 pm

   What an honour it was to know, study and conduct the music of one of the most magnificent human beings that I have ever met – honesty, intelligence, courage, integrity, compassion and selflessness dominated everything that he did. There is nothing for me in later 20th Century music that quite matches big hearted Simpsonian exuberance and very little that offers such a profound feeling of contemplation and depth of expression.
   I would end by saying ‘God rest his soul’ but If I did the gruff retort from Bob would consist of two words, the second being ‘off’.

   Reply
3. 

   EDWARD CLARK on March 3, 2021 at 9:37 am

   I am taking bets as to which symphonies will
   be played at The Proms by our centennials.
   No’s 5 are a safe bet. No one really knows the cycles on offer at the Proms office, any more than Nick Kenyon knew the best symphony ( no 6) that should have celebrated the centenary of Rubbra. He chose No 4 based on the famous photo
   of the composer conducting it in battle dress at a war time Prom.

   So back to Simpson and Arnold.
   Personally I would love an outside bet on nos 4 for each. Arnold wrote his 4th to a Prom commission. The leadership changed and In came Glock who nobody expected to arrange the due premiere based on his supposed dislike of all things modern tonal. But to his great credit he did authorise the premiere and to great success. Time for another Proms outing?
   I hope so. It was written at the time of strained race relations in Notting Hill. So topical today?
   It is too much to expect for the original
   version of Simpson’s 4th perhaps but the final version deserves to celebrate Bob’s symphonic authority in my opinion.
   After all it was used in a truly spell binding R 3 programme pitting the question of “what makes a modern symphony”. We had No 4 against Berio’s Sinfonia. Quite a discussion. But who remembers it now, only a few years later?

   Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.