Presto Recording of the Week
4th December 2020

Presto Recordings of the Year
Winner 2020

Gramophone Magazine
February 2021
Editor's Choice

Mark Simpson, Fraser Langton (clarinet), Nicholas Daniel, Emma Fielding (oboe), Amy Harman, Dom Tyler (bassoon), Oliver Pashley, Ausias Garrigos Morant (basset horns), Ben Goldscheider, Angela Barnes, James Pillai, Fabian van de Geest (horn), David Stark (double bass)

Simpson, M: Geysir
Mozart: Serenade No. 10 in B flat major, K361 'Gran Partita'

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.

"The skill and virtuosity with which the entire ensemble performs their parts is quite something, and the balance of sounds and textures is simply superb...I would have been happy recommending this recording based purely on Geysir alone, so it's even more pleasing that it is followed by a glorious account of Mozart's Gran Partita…Magnificent!" - James Longstaffe, Presto Classical, 4th December 2020.