It's nice to see these pictures of domestic life. One of the great love matches in classical music: Villa and Mindinha.
And I always love seeing Tom Jobim talk about his idol. I wish I knew what he was saying, but maybe the Villa-Lobos-inspired cigar says it all!
Thanks for sharing it Dean. How nice :)
ReplyDeleteDean, that PratoFeito blog about Yerma is interesting. Thanks for the link in Twitter.
ReplyDeleteThe author certainly isn't short on hyperbole! I don't know any musicologist who would seriously claim that V-L was "the greatest composer of the 20th century", as the blog asserts. Come off it, mate! -- as we say in England. Similarly it annoys me when people claim that V-L's string quartets are the 'equal' of those by Bartok or Shostakovich. Patently absurd. Still, there is only one 20C composer I hold in higher esteem than V-L -- and I'm not talking about that odious man Stravinsky!
Talking of Yerma, I hope some company made a video of the Manaus production (?)
ReplyDeleteThanks for these comments, Harold. The PratoFeito link is here: http://bit.ly/cnT4by
ReplyDeleteI agree about the Villa-Lobos Quartets. Definitely a strong cycle, but it doesn't belong at the very top. Interesting looking at Evan Jones' "shortlist", from his excellent recent 2-volume book "Intimate Voices": http://www.urpress.com/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=9493
Thanks for the link to Evan Jones' shortlist, Dean -- I will follow it up. It's a pity the video clip doesn't show the whole of Tom Jobim's contribution. In this bit I think he is conveying V-L's ability to focus on writing music in the middle of a cramped and busy domestic environment - working on a huge score with staves running from piccolos at the top to double basses at the bottom, sharing the room with an enormous piano and other household furniture ...
ReplyDeleteI don't recall that clip from the recent Globo TV documentaries about V-L -- perhaps it's from another program. Nice to see Mindinha looking so fresh and sparkling and talking with such animation!