The album's cover art features The Crab Nebula (M1) in the constellation Taurus, with enhanced colors to emphasize its structure, which is gaseous relics from a supernova witnessed in AD1045.
Composition History
Robert Simpson's String Quartet No. 13 was commissioned by the Cardiff Festival and premiered by The Delmé Quartet, who had a long relationship with Simpson's quartets.
Performer Biography
Thea King, the clarinetist on this recording, is one of Britain's most celebrated clarinettists and has played Robert Simpson's Clarinet Quintet previously.
Compositional Technique
Robert Simpson's Clarinet Quintet treats the five players as equals, similar to Brahms's Quintet, due to its predominantly contrapuntal style.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Robert Simpson openly acknowledged a parallel between his main motif in the Clarinet Quintet and Beethoven's C sharp minor Quartet, using the model as a stimulus for new creation.
Compositional Technique
The String Quintet No. 2 by Robert Simpson revolves around an opening melody shared between cellos and is fundamentally structured by rising and falling perfect fifths and tritones.
Composition History
Robert Simpson's String Quintet No. 2, commissioned by the Maggini Quartet, is his last composition to date, completed in 1994 and premiered at the Cheltenham Festival.
