By request:
Recording Simpson's Nielsen Variations

This account only covers the day of the recording of the Nielsen Variations,
the 11th Symphony was recorded the following day.

Simpson's Variations and Finale on a theme by Carl Nielsen was recorded
by the City of London Sinfonia with Matthew Taylor conducting, at the
church of St Jude-on-the-hill Hampstead, on December 11th 2003.  Vernon
Handley had been scheduled to conduct, but fell ill two days before the
recording.  I, along with the chairman of the Simpson society, had been
invited to the session by Simon Perry, with strict instructions to keep
quiet and stay out of the way!  Angela Simpson, Robert Simpson's widow,
was also present.

The recording equipment was set up in the morning under the central
spire, with the control room at the back of the church, ready for the
session beginning in the afternoon.  After the orchestra settled in,
Matthew began rehearsing the Variations.  He started with a few words
about the comic character of the theme.  It was originally the 2nd number
from FS 117, the incidental music that Carl Nielsen wrote in 1925 for a
play, based on the folk tale 'Ebbe Skammelsen', by Harald Bergstedt that
was performed at the open air theatre in Dyrehavsbakken, a public park
in the northern suburbs of Copenhagen.  In the play, Ebbe Skammelsen, a
soldier, is betrothed to Adelil, his foster sister.  While away on duty,
his parents, inpatient for Adelil to marry, wed her to his brother.  Ebbe
returns, too late, on the wedding day, and after failing to persuade her
to elope with him, kills both Adelil and his brother.  While the 15 short
pieces for wind, percussion, and voices that Nielsen wrote for the play
contain some deeply probing music in his late style (it was completed
immediately following the Sixth Symphony), the piece that attracted
Simpson's attention is a rambunctious allegretto, lasting just over
a minute, complete with comic flatfooted interjections for tuba and
a tune that sounds like an off kilter version of a sea shanty.

Simpson's variations were written in 1983, after the 9th quartet.
They require a large orchestra, consisting of  strings plus 2 flutes,
one piccolo, 2 oboes, one cor-anglais, 2 clarinets, one bass clarinet,
2 bassoons, one contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, one
tuba, timpani, cymbals, and a side drum.  Simpson starts his piece with
the theme, exactly as written by Nielsen.  The 1st variation, following
quickly on the theme, is an opening flourish declaring, in no uncertain
terms, that weightier matters are to come.  There follows another 8
variations and a finale, their broad outlines seemed to constitute a
small symphony in four continuously played movements: variations 1-7
forming a kind of first movement, the 8th is a scherzo, the 9th a slow
movement and the finale is just that.

After his introductory remarks, Matthew led the orchestra in the theme
and first variation, and after a couple of run-throughs, asked Andrew
to try a take. Once Andrew was ready, the red recording light came on,
the church fell silent and Mathew conducted the first take of the session.
After the take, Matthew conferred with the control room via the microphones
and speaker system, with Andrew pointing out some passages or details
that needed work.  After a couple more takes, when they were both happy
with the general shape of the music, Andrew asked for some passages to
be repeated, initially longer sections that he felt he needed, working
down to some small patches to cover moments where there were problems
of intonation or ensemble, or other small fluffs in otherwise good takes.

This set the pattern for both days of recording - the orchestra would
rehearse a section (usually less than 5 minutes of music, ending at some
natural break or transition in the structure of the piece), until Matthew
felt the music was ready, and then they would do two or three takes
of the passage, followed by corrections of specific passages and small
patches as Andrew and Matthew felt necessary.  It rapidly became apparent
that Andrew had a fantastic ear for details, and could spot the minutest
of problems with single instruments, or tiny deviations from the score.

After the first variation, the 2nd begins an intense fugato section,
with a seamless transition to the next variation and subsiding at the
end of it.  Tension builds in Variations 4, 5 and 6, culminating in the
major climax of the piece so far in Variation 7.

Variation 8 is effectively an intricate and humorous scherzo, in which
the variation flits rapidly through the orchestra, and the absurd humor
of the original theme returns.  It proved to be by far the trickiest
music to bring off up to that point.  The first run through sounded dire,
- as though amongst all those notes there was no music to be found!  With
subsequent rehearsal and guidance from Matthew, the music began to emerge.
The necessary intricate balance and timing between the orchestral sections
was extremely difficult to maintain as the theme jumped between them.
At one point, at the suggestion of the woodwinds, the orchestra practiced
one particularly hard passage at 2/3 speed - and suddenly the delightful
ingenuity of the music jumped out for all to hear.  After a couple of
passes at this speed, the orchestra found the shape of the music, and
they began making takes.

The Scherzo winds down to an exaggerated tuba solo, recalling the absurd
humor at the close of Nielsen's original music.  The tuba descends to
a final held note and this provides the base for the start of the 9th
Variation.  So at the end of each take of the close of the 8th variation,
the orchestra provided an enigmatic taste of the marvelous string music
that opens the 9th, but by now it was 5:30, and time for a break. I would
have to wait an hour before the next session got underway and I could
hear the rest of it.

The evening was entirely devoted to the last variation and the finale.
The 9th variation, a wonderful slow movement that prefigures the ethereal
sound to be found in Simpson's later music (in the Coda of the Ninth
Symphony, the Flute Concerto, and the opening of the 11th Symphony, for
example), was the highlight of the day for me.  The transition to the
finale is seamless, since it begins with similar slow music.  The finale's
development centers on prominent rhythmic figures that emerge as the
music accelerates continuously through some tricky and challenging time
changes to its climactic end.  All in all, a marvelous piece.

Thanks are due to Simon Perry for allowing us to attend, and to Matthew
Taylor, Andrew Keener and the Orchestra for putting up with us.

Andy Jackson