NICHOLAS SIMPSON (b.1958) : He Was Despised (Variations on a Theme of Handel), Fastness (Huw Wiggin: Soprano Saxophone), Bachianas Mancuniensis, Little Suite

Description: Simpson has been in the happy position of being the definition of an amateur (in the best sense) musician, while drawing on, and excelling at, formal musical study (he was a Tavener pupil) when he chose. He had a career in a completely different field for a while, and has always surrounded himself with music and musicians as an amateur violinist and more recently, a provincial but professional conductor. So while his music is tonal it is very individual, drawing freely on a wide range of influences without adhering to any particular school. His output includes three symphonies, a piano concerto, chamber music, an oratorio and an opera. These works, like everything of Simpson's we’ve encountered so far, are totally accessible and enjoyable, in his characteristically warm and generous neo-romantic language. His variations on Handel's despairing aria from Messiah are probably not quite what you expected, although they are, as advertised, ingenious and characterful variations on the theme. They arose from some personal tribulations that the composer suffered, and the realisation that they weren’t all that bad after all, as Simpson descibes in an amusing and very British self-deprecating note which explains the autobiographical origins of the piece. A number of references to other music are worked into the quasi-programmatic argument, before a resumption of a more respectful Baroque idiom at the end. Fastness (as in unbreakably bonded) is a tribute to a longtime friend of the composer, with whom he shared many outdoor adventures in the natural splendour of the highlands of Scotland, who was subsequently struck down by illness. The solo saxophone is eloquent and loquacious in the work’s early stages, and its lively interaction with the strings suggests the camping and fishing expeditions, the landscape and birdsong of youthful expeditions. Later, though, the soloist is less articulate, and the work transitions into a heartfelt, tragic lament, full of hollow sounds and those of shuddering grief too deep for words. Bachanias Mancuniensis obviously takes its impetus from Villa-Lobos' gloss on Bach and, like the Handel variations, they are impeccably crafted pieces in a traditional form - in this case a Baroque suite in five movements - seen through a modern prism, with some rhythmic, harmonic, and textural features that would certainly have raised some eyebrows (and perhaps prompted a few audience members to walk out, especially the syncopations in the final Gigue) in the days of the Bach family. The eloquent, expressive Little Suite is arranged from the composer’s own six-part choral Angelus, and takes as its model Sibelius' Rakastava, which also seems to be an influence on its language, along with Nielsen (who also supplied the title), and Vaughan Williams. NICHOLAS SIMPSON, MANCHESTER CAMERATA, HUW WIGGIN