Search - William Bolcom, Leonard Slatkin, Joan Morris :: William Bolcom: Symphony No. 4; Session 1

William Bolcom, Leonard Slatkin, Joan Morris
William Bolcom: Symphony No. 4; Session 1
Genre: Classical

Track Listings (3) - Disc #1
1. Session I
2. Symphony No. 4: I Soundscape
3. Symphony No. 4: II The Rose

CD Details

All Artists: William Bolcom, Leonard Slatkin, Joan Morris, Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra
Title: William Bolcom: Symphony No. 4; Session 1
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: New World Records
Release Date: 12/8/1992
Genre: Classical
Styles: Historical Periods, Modern, 20th, & 21st Century, Symphonies
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 093228035626

Synopsis

Amazon.com

The music of William Bolcom (b. 1928) is characterized by his staunch refusal to obey any rules. He's a cross between Frank Zappa and Edgar Varese. Session 1 (1965) is a loose free-for-all that has at its core a strict 12-tone base. It sounds like several instrumentalists tuning their instruments and percussionists beating away at their drums. It's almost entirely a work of abstract "colors." Symphony 4 (1987) has some elements of serialism, but Bolcom mixes into it a subtle tonality, particularly in the second movement which centers around the poem "The Rose" by Theodore Roethke. This music does have its rewards. --Paul Cook

CD Reviews

The clearest delivery of a text

03/28/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"William Bolcom's fourth Symphony is a wonderful piece of music. It is huge, diverse and wonderfully focused. The most notable thing about it is the setting of the text of Roethke's poem "The Rose", a description of a mystical experience of the integration of memory, present experience and maybe the whole universe. Bolcom's music is an extension of the poem, much more than just a setting. When one of the major climaxes comes on the word roses it is like experiencing a hot house in full bloom (I've worked in a rose house and know the experience at first hand.) Joan Morris' singing is a miracle of clarity and delivery. Her work here should be required listening for anyone speaking or singing a text.Session 1 is a fairly early work, an intersection between jazz and twelve tone (more or less) writing. I liked it."