SPONSORED: CD Spotlight. On Buoyant Form - Orchestral music by Andrew Downes, heard by Roderic Dunnett.
All sponsored features >>
VIDEO PODCAST: Women Composers - Our special hour-long illustrated feature on women composers includes contributions from Diana Ambache, Gail Wein, Hilary Tann, Natalie Artemas-Polak and Victoria Bond.
Danish composer Rudolph Hermann Simonsen was born on 30 April 1889 and studied with Otto Malling.
Simonsen's Symphony No 1, 'Zion', was probably the first symphony with a Jewish programme. His Symphony No 2, 'Hellas', won a bronze medal in the art competitions of the 1928 Olympic Games. From 1931 he was head of the Royal Danish Academy of Music.
Rudolph Simonsen died on 28 March 1947, aged fifty-seven.