The orchestration is fairly standard, except Simpson required all three flutes to double on piccolos.
The work lasts about 31 minutes in performance (both recorded performances time in at a few seconds under that figure) and is in two movements:
Allegro ma non troppo
Adagio - Presto
In two movements, this Symphony conflicts C major and B-flat. The first movement is a dissonant, craggy sonata-allegro in B flat which strays into the orbit of C. The model of this movement has some parallels with the first movement of Symphony No. 9 by Ludwig van Beethoven, but it is still highly individual.
Simpson described the second movement as 'a huge composed accelerando, but with the dynamics repressed'. It is really a slow movement and finale, and the tempo is always increasing. The movement takes a good while to climax. There is a sort of scherzo section in the middle, and the music is always developing, with motives evolving and increasing in familiarity. The movement eventually climaxes, and at this point a great fortissimo blaze on the dominant seventh of C major is played from the orchestra. The climax subsides to a quiet close in C major (the key which eventually prevailed), although B flat can still be heard.
Discography
The symphony was first recorded on 5 June 1970 by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jascha Horenstein for the Unicorn (later Unicorn-Kanchana) label and was issued on LP in September 1970. It was reissued on CD, coupled with Simpson's Clarinet Quintet, in the 'Unicorn-Kanchana Souvenir Series' in June 1990. The recording was released again on the NMC label in 2006.
A pirated[citation needed] recording of Jascha Horenstein rehearsing this Symphony with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on 5 May 1966 was issued on CD in 1992 by the Italian record company Intaglio, coupled with a performance of Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 8.