Walter Meyer responded to Steve Schwartz's query of Ray Stamford's
description of Simpson's 5th:

>>> It's either brilliant or IMHO, as a lot of
>>>music in this genre, a bit of a curate's egg.
>>
>>What's a curate's egg?  A curiosity?
>
>The curate was a house guest whose egg, the hostess realized, had not
>been fresh, and may indeed have been rotten.  Totally embarrassed, the
>hostess apologized that the egg had not been fresh, and the curate, to
>put her at her ease assured her that 'parts of it were excellent'.  ...

The original source of this phrase was a cartoon in the sadly defunct
English satirical magazine Punch.  It turns up fairly regularly in reviews
in Gramophone.

The last movement of the 5th is definitely one of the excellent bits.  It
reminds me of some of the Stan Kenton stuff on Capitol that was part of my
misspent youth.  I wouldn't be surprised if Simpson owned the same LPs.

Richard Pennycuick
[log in to unmask]