Composer: Mark Simpson, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer: Mark Simpson, Fraser Langton, Nicholas Daniel, Emma Fielding, Amy Harman, Dom Tyler, Oliver Pashley, Ausias Garrigos Morant, Ben Goldscheider, Angela Barnes, James Pillai, Fabian van de Geest, David Stark
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Orchid Classics
Release: 2020
Size: 959 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Mark Simpson:
01. Geysir
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:
Serenade No. 10 in B flat major, K361 ‘Gran Partita’
02. I. Largo – Molto allegro
03. II. Menuetto
04. III. Adagio
05. IV. Menuetto. Allegretto
06. V. Romance. Adagio
07. VI. Tema con variazioni
08. VII. Finale. Molto allegro
A stunning pairing of Mozart’s glorious ‘Gran Partita’ Serenade with a work written specifically to be performed alongside it, Geysir by the exceptional clarinettist-composer, Mark Simpson. Mark Simpson’s simmering, volcanic Geysir was inspired by the rich opening chord of Mozart’s ‘Gran Partita’, and by its bubbling clarinet writing, which develop into what Simpson describes as a “flurry of colour and harmonic shifts”. As a clarinettist himself, writing Geysir “was an instinctive thing – it never felt like trying to overcome any limitations… I’m very proud of it…” Mark Simpson, who performs on this release alongside a line-up of other extraordinary musicians including oboist Nicholas Daniel, was the first ever winner of both the BBC Young Musician of the Year and BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composer of the Year competitions in 2006. By 2019 he was composer in residence at the Leicester International Music Festival, and is currently working on a Violin Concerto for Nicola Benedetti and commissions for the LSO, WDR Sinfonieorchester and RSNO.