RCA
The Music Of Paul Bowles / Jonathan Sheffer, Eos Orchestra
$17.99
Details
- Artist
- Bowles, Eos Orchestra, Sheffer
- Format
- CD
- Label
- RCA
- Released
- Dec 13, 2011
- Catalog #
- RCA 63685
- UPC
- 090266368525
About
A delectable program. If you want to know what Bowles was all about, this CD is the one to have.
This delectable program was originally issued by BMG back in 1996 to commemorate the 1995 visit to New York of expatriate Paul Bowles (1910-99) to New York after several decades of self-chosen exile in Morocco. It is now being rereleased, and apparently it was never reviewed in Fanfare, although a couple of other overlapping Bowles collections (on the Koch and Largo labels) were covered quite favorably in these pages at that time.
Of these three, this is the most orchestrally plentiful and probably the most authentic, because Jonathan Sheffer, founder and conductor of The Eos Orchestra of New York, has long been associated with Bowles's music and was the guiding light behind the week-long celebration of the composer that took place back in September 1995. In fact, several of the works on this disc were recorded shortly after being performed in Alice Tully Hall.
It is customary to contrast the relatively lighthearted character of Bowles's compositions (most of them written before he devoted all of his attentions to literature) with the rather grim and stark existentialism of his exotic culture-clash novels and short stories, for which he is more universally acclaimed. All this writer is prepared to observe on the matter is the likelihood that his music may have been unfairly underrated to the extent that his fiction has been overrated; in any case, suffice it to underline that listening to the music is a lot more fun than reading the books!
The Suite for Small Orchestra of 1932-33 is the earliest orchestral work of Bowles to be recorded, and its three brief movements (Pastorale, Havanaise, and Divertimento) are all that is left of a projected "symphony." Although the idiom is a bit more dissonant and jagged than the theater-based music he wrote in the 40s (Bowles made a reputation for his incidental scores and ballets), its understated amiability—and populist overtones—are typical of the kind of spare and deliberately unpretentious manner and deadpan humor he cultivated in later years. Although the example of Virgil Thomson is germane here, the actual music sounds like a panoptic fusion of folk idioms stretching from Mexico to Spain, with divagations to New York and Tangiers. Perhaps a blend of Milhaud's Saudades do Brasil and Copland's El salón Mexico with a Jean Françaix-like personality best situates its stylistic profile.
Pastorela is drawn from a 1947 ballet with a Hispanic setting similar to the "zarzuela" mini-opera The Wind Remains after Lorca (once available on an MGM LP but here heard in a new version prepared especially by Sheffer). This relatively ambitious work—which comprises a quick succession of songs, instrumental interludes, and underscoring—is somewhat more low-key when compared to Bowles's masterpiece, the utterly nonpareil Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra of 1946—47. This irrepressibly jaunty, jaundiced, yet at times delicately sentimental four-movement quarter-hour montage features the most wonderfully wacky juxtapositions and discontinuities while brilliantly exploiting the sonorities of a percussion-heavy chamber orchestra. The best way to describe its spirit is as a kind of "concerto-in-drag." This careful but carefree performance brings out more felicitous details than the helter-skelter premiere recording by the work's commissioners and dedicatees—Gold and Fizdale—on an ancient 10-inch Columbia LP (which should be reissued along with their several other Columbia recordings of two-piano works). The program closes with a set of six elusive but evocative songs to poems by Bowles, his wife, the novelist and playwright Jane Bowles, and a single mock-valentine by Gertrude Stein. These highly melodic and occasionally bluesy settings reveal a tenderly lyrical aspect of Bowles that compares favorably with Barber's great Hermit Songs and indicate that he would have been capable of writing a musical comedy in the popular American vein. They bring a comprehensive musical portrait to a perfect finish.
Excellent and dedicated performances and a top-drawer annotation by K. Robert Schwarz, plus full texts. If you want to know what Bowles was all about, this CD is the one to buy.
-- Paul A. Snook, FANFARE [9/2000]
This delectable program was originally issued by BMG back in 1996 to commemorate the 1995 visit to New York of expatriate Paul Bowles (1910-99) to New York after several decades of self-chosen exile in Morocco. It is now being rereleased, and apparently it was never reviewed in Fanfare, although a couple of other overlapping Bowles collections (on the Koch and Largo labels) were covered quite favorably in these pages at that time.
Of these three, this is the most orchestrally plentiful and probably the most authentic, because Jonathan Sheffer, founder and conductor of The Eos Orchestra of New York, has long been associated with Bowles's music and was the guiding light behind the week-long celebration of the composer that took place back in September 1995. In fact, several of the works on this disc were recorded shortly after being performed in Alice Tully Hall.
It is customary to contrast the relatively lighthearted character of Bowles's compositions (most of them written before he devoted all of his attentions to literature) with the rather grim and stark existentialism of his exotic culture-clash novels and short stories, for which he is more universally acclaimed. All this writer is prepared to observe on the matter is the likelihood that his music may have been unfairly underrated to the extent that his fiction has been overrated; in any case, suffice it to underline that listening to the music is a lot more fun than reading the books!
The Suite for Small Orchestra of 1932-33 is the earliest orchestral work of Bowles to be recorded, and its three brief movements (Pastorale, Havanaise, and Divertimento) are all that is left of a projected "symphony." Although the idiom is a bit more dissonant and jagged than the theater-based music he wrote in the 40s (Bowles made a reputation for his incidental scores and ballets), its understated amiability—and populist overtones—are typical of the kind of spare and deliberately unpretentious manner and deadpan humor he cultivated in later years. Although the example of Virgil Thomson is germane here, the actual music sounds like a panoptic fusion of folk idioms stretching from Mexico to Spain, with divagations to New York and Tangiers. Perhaps a blend of Milhaud's Saudades do Brasil and Copland's El salón Mexico with a Jean Françaix-like personality best situates its stylistic profile.
Pastorela is drawn from a 1947 ballet with a Hispanic setting similar to the "zarzuela" mini-opera The Wind Remains after Lorca (once available on an MGM LP but here heard in a new version prepared especially by Sheffer). This relatively ambitious work—which comprises a quick succession of songs, instrumental interludes, and underscoring—is somewhat more low-key when compared to Bowles's masterpiece, the utterly nonpareil Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra of 1946—47. This irrepressibly jaunty, jaundiced, yet at times delicately sentimental four-movement quarter-hour montage features the most wonderfully wacky juxtapositions and discontinuities while brilliantly exploiting the sonorities of a percussion-heavy chamber orchestra. The best way to describe its spirit is as a kind of "concerto-in-drag." This careful but carefree performance brings out more felicitous details than the helter-skelter premiere recording by the work's commissioners and dedicatees—Gold and Fizdale—on an ancient 10-inch Columbia LP (which should be reissued along with their several other Columbia recordings of two-piano works). The program closes with a set of six elusive but evocative songs to poems by Bowles, his wife, the novelist and playwright Jane Bowles, and a single mock-valentine by Gertrude Stein. These highly melodic and occasionally bluesy settings reveal a tenderly lyrical aspect of Bowles that compares favorably with Barber's great Hermit Songs and indicate that he would have been capable of writing a musical comedy in the popular American vein. They bring a comprehensive musical portrait to a perfect finish.
Excellent and dedicated performances and a top-drawer annotation by K. Robert Schwarz, plus full texts. If you want to know what Bowles was all about, this CD is the one to buy.
-- Paul A. Snook, FANFARE [9/2000]
Tracklist 33 tracks
-
1 I. La Lucha 01:12
- Track
- 1
- Title
- I. La Lucha
- Duration
- 01:12
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
2 II. Caminata 02:11
- Track
- 2
- Title
- II. Caminata
- Duration
- 02:11
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
3 III. El Indio 01:11
- Track
- 3
- Title
- III. El Indio
- Duration
- 01:11
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
4 IV. Pieza Tranquila 01:08
- Track
- 4
- Title
- IV. Pieza Tranquila
- Duration
- 01:08
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
5 V. Danza General 02:34
- Track
- 5
- Title
- V. Danza General
- Duration
- 02:34
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
6 I. Pastorale 02:40
- Track
- 6
- Title
- I. Pastorale
- Duration
- 02:40
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
7 II. Havanaise 03:26
- Track
- 7
- Title
- II. Havanaise
- Duration
- 03:26
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
8 III. Divertissement 03:10
- Track
- 8
- Title
- III. Divertissement
- Duration
- 03:10
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
9 I. Allegro 04:32
- Track
- 9
- Title
- I. Allegro
- Duration
- 04:32
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Performer
- Alan Feinberg, Leslie Stifelman
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
10 II. Scherzo 01:29
- Track
- 10
- Title
- II. Scherzo
- Duration
- 01:29
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Performer
- Alan Feinberg, Leslie Stifelman
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
11 III. Andante 05:57
- Track
- 11
- Title
- III. Andante
- Duration
- 05:57
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Performer
- Alan Feinberg, Leslie Stifelman
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
12 IV. Galop 04:09
- Track
- 12
- Title
- IV. Galop
- Duration
- 04:09
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Performer
- Alan Feinberg, Leslie Stifelman
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
13 Overture 02:23
- Track
- 13
- Title
- Overture
- Duration
- 02:23
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
14 Setting the Stage 01:24
- Track
- 14
- Title
- Setting the Stage
- Duration
- 01:24
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
15 El Sueno 01:59
- Track
- 15
- Title
- El Sueno
- Duration
- 01:59
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Performer
- Carl Halvorson
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
16 Entrance of the Girl 00:26
- Track
- 16
- Title
- Entrance of the Girl
- Duration
- 00:26
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
17 Quien lo dice? 01:52
- Track
- 17
- Title
- Quien lo dice?
- Duration
- 01:52
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Performer
- Carl Halvorson, Lucy Schaufer
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
18 Clown Dance 01:33
- Track
- 18
- Title
- Clown Dance
- Duration
- 01:33
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
19 The Mask and the Stenographer 03:02
- Track
- 19
- Title
- The Mask and the Stenographer
- Duration
- 03:02
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
20 Donde vas? 01:25
- Track
- 20
- Title
- Donde vas?
- Duration
- 01:25
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Performer
- Carl Halvorson, Lucy Schaufer
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
21 Te he de Ilevar 01:05
- Track
- 21
- Title
- Te he de Ilevar
- Duration
- 01:05
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
22 Te he de Ilevar 01:58
- Track
- 22
- Title
- Te he de Ilevar
- Duration
- 01:58
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Performer
- Carl Halvorson, Lucy Schaufer
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
23 Donde vas? 00:41
- Track
- 23
- Title
- Donde vas?
- Duration
- 00:41
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Performer
- Lucy Schaufer
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
24 Servant's Dance 00:50
- Track
- 24
- Title
- Servant's Dance
- Duration
- 00:50
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
25 Si, mi hijo 01:34
- Track
- 25
- Title
- Si, mi hijo
- Duration
- 01:34
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Performer
- Carl Halvorson, Lucy Schaufer
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
26 Una musica de anos 01:15
- Track
- 26
- Title
- Una musica de anos
- Duration
- 01:15
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Performer
- Carl Halvorson
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
27 Una musica de anos 01:46
- Track
- 27
- Title
- Una musica de anos
- Duration
- 01:46
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
28 No. 1. Once a Lady was Here 02:23
- Track
- 28
- Title
- No. 1. Once a Lady was Here
- Duration
- 02:23
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Performer
- Kurt Ollmann
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
29 No. 2. In the Woods 01:20
- Track
- 29
- Title
- No. 2. In the Woods
- Duration
- 01:20
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Performer
- Kurt Ollmann
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
30 No. 3. April Fool Baby 02:22
- Track
- 30
- Title
- No. 3. April Fool Baby
- Duration
- 02:22
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Performer
- Kurt Ollmann
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
31 No. 4. Farther from the Heart 01:52
- Track
- 31
- Title
- No. 4. Farther from the Heart
- Duration
- 01:52
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Performer
- Kurt Ollmann
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
32 No. 5. My Sister's Hand in Mine 01:15
- Track
- 32
- Title
- No. 5. My Sister's Hand in Mine
- Duration
- 01:15
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Performer
- Kurt Ollmann
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer
-
33 No. 6. Secret Words 02:17
- Track
- 33
- Title
- No. 6. Secret Words
- Duration
- 02:17
- Composer
- Paul Bowles
- Performer
- Kurt Ollmann
- Ensemble
- EOS Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Jonathan Sheffer