Robert Simpson as genial pedagogue

[Karafan]

Having read and enjoyed Simpson's writings on Bruckner and Nielsen, I was attempting to find if any of his broadcast material/recorded lectures still exist.

Nothing listed by the RS Society that I could see and just a shortish snippet on YT relating his youthful discovery of Bruckner from inside a radiogram(!). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys90UXfPzWg

Does anyone know of/have any of his BBC broadcasts at all?

Thanks

Karafan

[teamsaint]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=homMLfg6ctk

this is great.

(Simpson on Nielsen 5)

[jayne lee wilson]

I don't know of any anthologies, but how well I remember those talks - especially his analytical hatchet-job on describing a composer as "using an advanced language"...

...well-ferretted TS as usual!

[ahinton]

I don't know of any anthologies, but how well I remember those talks - especially his analytical hatchet-job on describing a composer as "using an advanced language"

I remember that too and thinking at the time about whether anyone would dare describe a composer as having used a retarded one...(!)...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Do not miss this, Karafan ('tho the second-hand option is probably the one to go for!):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beethoven-Symphonies-BBC-Music-Guides/dp/0563092718/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381693135&sr=1-2&keywords=robert+simpson%2C+beethoven

... it's essentially a 62 page essay illustrating Beethoven's technical biography as revealed in the Nine Symphonies. Utterly characteristic of the man's writing - astonishing insights, completely connected with the subject, talking to the reader (not down at him/her), gruffly and entertainingly opinionated. I bought mine in 1974 for 45p and I still return to it.

[teamsaint]

some (sleeve?) notes about the String Quartets here.

http://robertsimpson.info/writings/simpsons-writings/beethoven-string-quartets.html

what we really need is access to the Bodleian Library............#

http://robertsimpson.info/society-archive.html

actually, you can access the archive if you are a member of the RS society.

[jayne lee wilson]

Do not miss this, Karafan ('tho the second-hand option is probably the one to go for!):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beethoven-Symphonies-BBC-Music-Guides/dp/0563092718/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381693135&sr=1-2&keywords=robert+simpson%2C+beethoven

... it's essentially a 62 page essay illustrating Beethoven's technical biography as revealed in the Nine Symphonies. Utterly characteristic of the man's writing - astonishing insights, completely connected with the subject, talking to the reader (not down at him/her), gruffly and entertainingly opinionated. I bought mine in 1974 for 45p and I still return to it.

This is very good isn't it? A real system-side companion for me too.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

This is very good isn't it? A real system-side companion for me too.

Oh yes; I wish I'd remembered what Simpson said about the repeats in the Scherzo and Finale of the Fifth on the Mahler Sixth Thread:

My feeling is that the proper thing to do is to restore Beethoven's first colossal idea despite his own apparent uncertainty. The "final decisions" of the great masters (insofar as they are known) are often the subject of pious nonsense uttered by those to whom words are, as Alistair Sim has perfectly said, "the anodyne for the pain of thinking";

I don't know of any other writer on Music (with the possible exception of Richard Osborne) to whom it would ever occur to refer to Alistair Sim in a discussion of Beethoven's Fifth!

[ahinton]

Oh yes; I wish I'd remembered what Simpson said about the repeats in the Scherzo and Finale of the Fifth on the Mahler Sixth Thread:

My feeling is that the proper thing to do is to restore Beethoven's first colossal idea despite his own apparent uncertainty. The "final decisions" of the great masters (insofar as they are known) are often the subject of pious nonsense uttered by those to whom words are, as Alistair Sim has perfectly said, "the anodyne for the pain of thinking";

I don't know of any other writer on Music (with the possible exception of Richard Osborne) to whom it would ever occur to refer to Alistair Sim in a discussion of Beethoven's Fifth!

Well, even as writers on music go, Robert Simpson's never did grow on trees! A great communicator indeed!

[BBMmk2]

When anybody talks about Robert Simpson, I shall always remember the meeting I went to, in Brighton, with him giving a talk(can't remember what it was about now), but his brass band music is certainly worth hearing as well.

[richardfinegold]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=homMLfg6ctk

this is great.

(Simpson on Nielsen 5)

I watched this a few weeks ago. It really is wonderful

[BBMmk2]

Thanks to teamsaint, for this headsup here. Just makes you aware, on how great a man RS was, and how he could get you yto understand the music. Jascha Horenstein!! Yes!

[Serial_Apologist]

One needs to remember that Robert Simpson did have a very particular view of classical music - one that took Bach, Beethoven, Bruckner, Nielsen and Brian on board but not Debussy, Mahler, the Second Viennese School, Bartok, or the Darmstadt composers, let alone John Cage and Fluxus. A limited view.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

One needs to remember that Robert Simpson did have a very particular view of classical music - one that took Bach, Beethoven, Bruckner, Nielsen and Brian on board but not Debussy, Mahler, the Second Viennese School, Bartok, or the Darmstadt composers, let alone John Cage and Fluxus. A limited view.

Oh, yes - but within the tunnel vision: such insights! (Pretty good on Brahms, too. Misses the point completely with Stravinsky - not that he's alone in that limitation )

[teamsaint]

One needs to remember that Robert Simpson did have a very particular view of classical music - one that took Bach, Beethoven, Bruckner, Nielsen and Brian on board but not Debussy, Mahler, the Second Viennese School, Bartok, or the Darmstadt composers, let alone John Cage and Fluxus. A limited view.

interesting.
I suppose that is true of any teacher, S_A.