I was lucky enough to be invited to the recording sessions for the CD. Vernon Handley was due to conduct the Nielsen Variations, but could not make it due to last minute health problems. Matthew Taylor stepped in at the last minute to conduct them - he was always scheduled to conduct the 11th, since Simpson had written it for him. I knew of the 11th Symphony before the recording, having heard the Malvern Festival Premiere (with the same forces, the City of London Sinfonia and Matthew Taylor conducting), and it's one of my favorite Simpson Symphonies, - there is an amazing cumulative force that develops in the 2nd (and last) movement. Something like watching one of those elegant express trains from the 20s get up a head of steam (e.g. http://www.train-sim.com/review/record/coronation3.jpg). The real suprise was the Nielsen Variations which blew me away. You can think of it as a Symphony in that the variations form a coherent whole. I wrote up the session for the Simpson Society, and can post some of that here if if anyone is interested. Andy Jackson