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Simpson: Chamber Music, Vol. 1 on CD

Most of the chamber music of Robert Simpson (1921-97) was recorded by Hyperion in the 1980s and '90s, but there remained some gaps in that discography. The Robert Simpson Society has sponsored two albums to plug them, this first one including an early string quartet and two songs that came to light only after the composer's death. In later life Simpson used to say that poems good enough to set to music didn't need it - but these two youthful essays prove that he was already a master. Simpson wrote the D major string quartet as a student at Durham; an examiner described it as 'fearless'. The two mature works - vintage Simpson - bring his sense of symphonic momentum into the clarinet repertoire.