Gold and Fizdale Perform Bowles and Poulenc

The compositions of Paul Bowles have been presented here a few times, notably in an M-G-M LP combining his music with that of Peggy Glanville-Hicks.

In today's post, his work is mated with a composition by Francis Poulenc. The source is a Columbia LP presenting two works commissioned by duo-pianists Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale.

For this post, in addition to the LP, I've added an early Concert Hall 78 set containing a Bowles sonata, also written for and performed by Gold and Fizdale.

Bowles - A Picnic Cantata

The main work on the Columbia album is "A Picnic Cantata," Bowles' setting of a poem by his contemporary, James Schuyler.

Paul Bowles, 1946

In the poem, four women make plans for a picnic, drive to Hat Hill Park, discuss its namesake (Henry Hat), then look into the Sunday newspaper, particularly the garden section. The protagonists are in turn robotic and dreamy. ("We can't go on a picnic/without ketchup and a car./Have you got a car?/You are in my car./So we are.") In a droll turn, the most colorful section of the poem comes not from a description of the park but from reading an ad for flowers - "tulips in balanced color,/flame pink, shaded rose,/glowing orange, shaded yellow". Similarly, the sole conflict in the poem is found not among the participants but in the newspaper's advice column. The friends do become reflective on the way home - "Is the evening star/Venus or Mars?/I see it set/in the peal of the moon,/a bit of ice/in an iced-tea sky."

James Schuyler by Fairfield Porter

As you can tell, I am taken with the Schuyler poem, and the setting by Bowles is entirely apt. It's been said that the work was inspired by Virgil Thomson's opera Four Saints in Three Acts, with libretto by Gertrude Stein, and there's that.

Gloria Davy as Aida

Bowles was a protégé of Thomson. The producers went so far as to cast three vocalists from the 1952 revival of Four Saints - sopranos Gloria Davy and Martha Flowers and contralto Gloria Wynder. The other singer was mezzo Mareda Gaither, who had recently been in Earl Robinson's Sandhog. Also participating in the recording was percussionist Al Howard.

The members of the vocal ensemble all had successful careers. Perhaps the most notable was Gloria Davy. In 1958, she was first Black artist to perform the role of Aida at the Metropolitan Opera. The download includes a lengthy New York Times obituary for her.

Poulenc - Sonata for Two Pianos (1953)

Francis Poulenc

Poulenc wrote two sonatas for duo pianists, among his many keyboard compositions. A Sonata for Piano Four Hands from 1918 had been recorded by Gold and Fizdale in 1953. This Sonata for Two Pianos, written in that same year, was commissioned for the pair.

A word about the artists: Arthur Gold (1917-90) and Robert Fizdale (1920-95) met at Juilliard and formed a lifelong partnership. They premiered a long list of works, including three by Poulenc and four by Bowles, as well as works by Germaine Tailleferre, Samuel Barber, John Cage and Vittorio Rieti.

Bowles - Sonata for Two Pianos

Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale, 1952

Among the works commissioned by Gold and Fizdale was the 1946-47 Sonata by Bowles. The transfer of this angular work comes from an early 78 rpm release on Concert Hall that I remastered from a lossless needle drop on Internet Archive. The sound is good enough, although there is some discoloration on the characteristically ringing tone of the pianists.

The download includes the usual restored front and back LP covers (with the text of "A Picnic Cantata"), label scans, photos and High Fidelity and Billboard reviews of the LP. I've also included an excellent New York Review of Books article, "So Why Did I Defend Paul Bowles?" by Hisham Aidi, which discusses the relation between Bowles and Tangier, where the composer-writer lived for many years. (The earlier post mentioned previously includes Peggy Glanville-Hicks' settings of Bowles' "Letters from Morocco.")

I do like the cover of the LP above, with all participants stuffed into a jitney for the trip to Hat Hill Park, except for the composer, who is buzzing by in a streamlined mini-car. I assume this signifies that Bowles was not on hand for the April 1954 recording session.