The Rubaiyat (1995)

In The Rubaiyat, a melodrama, a speaker intones from the Fitzgerald translation, as the orchestra provides a Tiomkin background of orientalia which enhance the poems not a jot. On the other hand, Hovhaness provides beautiful interludes for orchestra and solo accordion. It's almost as if Hovhaness doesn't understand the poetry he sets. Based on other texts and other works, I fail to see what the composer has in common with the poet's nihilistic hedonism or what in the verses impelled the composer to write the music. (...)