Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Villa-Lobos on Cultura FM: January 2009

Here are Villa-Lobos performances upcoming on Cultura FM from Sao Paulo. Listen here on the Internet. Times are local Sao Paulo times, one hour ahead of EST. Check out the live concert from the OSESP on the 14th.

New Year's Day:
12:00 CONCERTOS DO MEIO-DIA com o Maestro Walter Lourenção:
Chôros nº 9 de Heitor VILLA-LOBOS com o maestro Kenneth Schermerhorn e a Orquestra Filarmônica de Hong Kong.
15:00 TARDE CULTURA - Música e Notícia com Sérgio Roberto Ribeiro:
Entre outras obras, Sonata op.120 n°2 de Johannes BRAHMS. Emmanuel Pahud (flauta). Yefin Bronfman (piano). Quatro Cirandas de Heitor VILLA-LOBOS. Marcio Carneiro (cello). Wener Genuit (piano). Sonata n° 29 op. 106 "Hammerklavier" de Ludwig van BEETHOVEN. Daniel Baremboim (piano).

January 3:
10:00 CIRANDA - Academia Brasileira de Música:
André MEHMARI - Sete Miniaturas para quinteto de sopros. Quinteto Villa-Lobos. / Radamés GNATTALI - Sonatina. David Chew (violoncelo) Fernanda Canaud (piano). / Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Rudepoema. Nelson Freire (piano).

January 10:
10:00 CIRANDA - Academia Brasileira de Música:
Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Pensées d'enfant. Claudia Riccitelli (soprano). Toninho Carrasqueira (flauta). Diogo Maia (clarinete). Watson Clis (cello). Dir.: Gil Jardim. / Noneto. Toninho Carrasqueira (flauta). Luís CArlos Justi (oboé). Sérgio Burgani (clarinete). Aloysio Fagerlande (fagote). Dílson Florêncio (saxofone). Maria Elisa Risardo (celesta). Paulo Braga (piano). Elizabeth Del Grande (tímpanos). Ricardo Bologna e Eduardo Gianesella (percussão). Coro Misto. Dir.: Gil Jardim./ Ciranda das sete notas para fagote e cordas. Lev Petcherski (fagote). Orquestra de Câmara de Leningrado. Dir.: Lazare Gozman.

January 14:
21:00 OSESP AO VIVO - Gravações realizadas na Sala São Paulo:
VILLA-LOBOS - Alvorada na Floresta Tropical. / TCHAIKOVSKY - Concerto nº 1 para piano em si bemol menor, Op. 23. Solista: Olga Kern. / BEETHOVEN - Sinfonia nº 3 em mi bemol maior, Op. 55 - Heróica. Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo. John Neschling, regente.

January 18:
10:00 ENCONTRO COM O MAESTRO com João Mauricio Galindo:
Roberto Duarte rege Villa-Lobos.

January 22:
07:00 DESPERTE COM OS CLÁSSICOS:
Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Bachianas Brasileiras n° 2. Orquestra Filarmônica Real Britânica. Reg.: Enrique Bátiz.

January 24:
12:00 CONCERTOS DO MEIO DIA com o maestro Walter Lourenção:
O pianista Paulo Emiliano Pía de Andrade é o solista das Bachianas Brasileiras nº 3 de Heitor VILLA-LOBOS.

January 25:
23:00 NOTURNO - Musica romântica na Cultura FM:
PUCCINI - Prelúdio Sinfônico. Orquestra Radio-Sinfonie, Berlim. Dir.: Riccardo Chailly. / Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Bachianas Brasileiras no. 3. Orquestra Nova Filarmonia. Dir.: Vladimir Ashkenazy.

January 31:
10:00 CIRANDA - Academia Brasileira de Música:
Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Pequena Suíte./ Elegia op. 87. Rebecca Rust (cello). David Apter (piano). Bachianas Brasileiras no. 6 de Villa-Lobos. Emmanuel Pahud (flauta). Friedrich Edelmann (fagote).

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

New String Trio recording


I've been waiting for this disc for a while. The Jacques Thibaud Trio Berlin has been performing the great String Trio recently. It's one of my favourite chamber works of Villa-Lobos, and it's nice to have another recording. I'm a big fan of this kind of programming on CD: the JTTB has chosen three string trios written in 1944 (Gideon Klein, who died soon after at Auschwitz), 1945 (Villa-Lobos) and 1946 (Arnold Schoenberg).

This blog seems to be stuck in 1945 (which was a busy year for Villa-Lobos). Read the last few posts for more.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

1945 again!


Meanwhile, back in New York in 1945, here's a picture of Villa-Lobos between Aaron Copland and Brazilian Consul-General Oscar Correia, at a reception at the Waldorf Astoria. This is one of the many great photos on the website of the Museu Villa-Lobos.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

New Piano CD


The stream of strong new recordings of Villa-Lobos's piano music continues. Fabiane de Castro's new disc A Prole do Bebê on the Oïda label looks like a winner, to judge by the streaming audio of three Villa-Lobos pieces - Branquinha, A Baratinha de Papel, and the 5th Choros - on her excellent website.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Talk of the Town 1945

"...we rolled over to the Waldorf last week to have a talk with Heitor Villa-Lobos, the Brazilian composer..."
So begins a typically breezy "Talk of the Town" story, from the February 10, 1945 issue of The New Yorker.

"When we encountered him he was perched on the edge of a chair, like a small, plump, excited sparrow, wearing a sleeveless sweater, gray slacks, blue shoes, and a look of vast amiability."
Here's the amiable composer from the same year, in this LIFE photograph by W. Eugene Smith - © Time Inc.:


"A few years ago he composed 'New York Skyline' after studying a photograph of Manhattan. We asked him how the city compared with his preconception of it and whether he thought his 'Skyline' needed any remodelling. His musical interpretation, he said proudly, was right on the nose."
Here's a 1945 photograph of the New York Skyline by Andreas Feininger, also from Google's LIFE archive:


I came across the "Talk of the Town" thanks to Alex Ross's mention of the New Yorker Digital Reader, which is indeed an amazing resource. What riches here! All of Pauline Kael's reviews, complete with period ads + cartoons! Oliver Sacks's long articles! And plenty of Alex Ross as well! Oh, and the amazing Hockey columns from the 1930's. Go Maroons!


This column is one of a regular series the New Yorker ran, in this case from March 31, 1934. The Maroons went on to beat the Rangers, but lost to the Black Hawks in the finals.