Paul Bowles and Peggy Glanville-Hicks

Here is a second entry in a series devoted to M-G-M's classical recordings of the 1950s. This LP presents two works by composer-author Paul Bowles, and one by composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks, setting words by Bowles. The two were close friends.

Bowles's "The Wind Remains" is a 1943 setting of an excerpt from Federico García Lorca's 1931 play Así que pasen cinco años. The work was introduced in 1943; this recorded version is an adaptation that Glanville-Hicks commissioned for a 1957 concert series at the Metropolitan Museum. It was prepared with her assistance and that of conductor Carlos Surinach, per Edward Cole's detailed notes. The recording was made shortly after the concert.

Paul Bowles

The M-G-M record does not include the text nor a translation, but the synopsis provided in the notes may be helpful. (Here is a link to the text of Lorca's play.)

Also by Bowles is "Music for a Farce," composed in 1938, performed here by an ensemble led by Arthur Winograd, who was just beginning a career as conductor after leaving the Juilliard Quartet, where he was the founding cellist.

Arthur Winograd

The contribution by Glanville-Hicks is "Letters from Morocco," her 1953 setting of excerpts from correspondence to her from Bowles. He had left the U.S. in 1947 to take up residence in Tangier, intending to write the novel that became The Sheltering Sky, a major literary success in 1949. Bowles had always been both a composer and writer, but the balance shifted to literary endeavors after the novel was published. Bowles said he was tired of writing things "for other people" - principally incidental music for plays. (An example of that output can be found on this blog - music for Jose Ferrer's 1946 production of Cyrano de Bergerac.)

Peggy Glanville-Hicks

Glanville-Hicks, born in Australia, was a music critic for the New York Herald-Tribune when these recordings were made. She in fact succeeded Bowles in the post. Both were appointed by Virgil Thomson. A few years ago I transferred a promotional recording of her brief "Prelude and Presto for Ancient American Instruments," which can be found on my other blog.

Loren Driscoll

Tenor Loren Driscoll is featured in "The Wind Remains" and "Letter from Morocco." A specialist in contemporary music, he sang the lead role in the 1958 production of Glanville-Hicks's opera The Transposed Heads. Soprano Dorothy Renzi, heard in "The Wind Remains," also was noted for performances of new music. She sang on the M-G-M recording of works by Marga Richter.

The performances here are sturdy (although I do not care for Driscoll's voice), and the sound is good. [Note (July 2023): I've now remastered the recording in ambient stereo.]

Quick note: this transfer is from a 1960s reissue series. To save money, M-G-M reprinted some of its classical titles in simpler packaging. The color covers were jettisoned, and the original back covers became the front. The cover you see above was sourced from the web. There are high-res scans of the front and back in the download.