The YouTube Orchestra plays Villa-Lobos

2009 was the "Villa-Lobos Year", the 50th anniversary of his death in 1959. There was lots of activity around the world (and here at The Villa-Lobos Magazine: I put up 224 posts, by far the most of any year since this blog began in 2001). In the same year the YouTube Orchestra launched, under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas.  MTT is an ardent Villa-Lobosian: I'm still a big fan of his 1998 album with another group of fine young instrumentalists, the New World Symphony.

Battle of the Bands! Here is the New World Symphony:

New scores for BB#9 and the Guitar Concerto

There are two new scores in the major publication project undertaken by Éditions Max Eschig and the Academia Brasileira de Música: the orchestral version of Bachianas Brasileiras no. 9, and the Guitar Concerto. These scores, edited by Roberto Duarte, should remove the errors that have plagued Villa-Lobos scores from the beginning. More information is here.

Camerata Atlântica Concert

Euroradio: La influencia de Latinoamérica

From Spanish Radio RTVE, an April 11, 2016 concert by Camerata Atlântica, conducted by Ana Beatriz Manzanilla. This will be available until June 15, 2016.

Alberto Nepomuceno: SERENATA PARA CORDAS
Juan Bautista Plaza: FUGA CRIOLLA
Piazzolla: MILONGA DEL ANGEL, TRES MINUTOS CON LA REALIDAD, MELODIA EM LA MENOR, LA MUERTE DEL ANGEL
Luis Garcia: QUIRPA (DANCA VENEZUELANA)
Villa-Lobos: BACHIANAS BRASILEIRAS No IX
Eurico Carrapatoso: CHORINHOS I E II
Aldemaro Romero: FUGA CON PAJARILLO
Cesar Guerra Peixe: MOURAO

There's more on the Fuga para a América Latina project here.

South America Week

Just in time for this year's (very early) Carnival, it's South America Week on BBC Radio 3, Feb. 3-10. There are quite a few works by Villa-Lobos scheduled, including a few that are rarely programmed. Amazonas, a large work for orchestra, was written in 1916 and first performed in Paris in 1929.

Performance on 3
7 February 2008
BBC Symphony Orchestra

Thursday 7 February 2008 19:00-20:45 (Radio 3)

Petroc Trelawny introduces highlights from the BBC Symphony Orchestra's recent South American Week, featuring orchestral music from Brazil and Argentina, including Astor Piazzolla's tango-influenced Bandoneon Concerto.
Duration: 1 hour 45 minutes
Playlist:

Per Arne Glorvigen (bandoneon)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Enrique Diemecke (conductor)

Ginastera: Panambi Suite, Op 1a
Piazzolla: Bandoneon Concerto (Aconcagua)
Villa-Lobos: Amazonas

Plus tangos played by Tango for 3, bossa nova sung by Monica Vasconcelos and samba drumming.

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On Feb. 4th, two great choral works of Villa-Lobos are featured on Afternoon on 3. Bendita sabedoria is one of VL's last works, written in 1958. The rarely performed choral version of Bachianas Brasileiras #9 (1945) is one of my all-time favourite Villa-Lobos works. It must be wickedly hard to sing this amazing music.

Feb. 4, 2.00pm South American Week

A week of music celebrating all things South American as performed by the BBC Orchestras, BBC Singers and friends. Music by South American composers features alongside recordings made on tour in Argentina, Mexico and Brazil.

Villa-Lobos: Bendita sabedoria
BBC Singers
Celso Antunes (conductor)

Ginastera: Variaciones concertantes for chamber orchestra
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Susanna Malkki (conductor)

Ginastera: Panambi, Op 1
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Enrique Diemecke (conductor)

Villa-Lobos: Bachianas brasileiras No 9
BBC Singers
Odaline de la Martinez (conductor)

Lindberg: Chorale (based on Bach: Es ist genug)
Bruckner: Symphony No 9 in D minor
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Jukka-Pekka Saraste (conductor)

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Later that week on Afternoon on 3, more choral works are featured, along with works by Brazilian composers Mignone, Krieger, Guarnieri, and Santoro.

Feb. 6, 2.00pm

South American Week

Continuing Radio 3's celebration of all things South American as performed by the BBC Orchestras, Singers and friends.

Mignone: Festas das igrejas
Krieger: Passacaglia for the New Millennium
BBC Symphony Orchestra
John Neschling (conductor)

Villa-Lobos: Ave Maria; Pater noster
BBC Singers
Celso Antunes (conductor)

Ginastera: Concerto for piano and orchestra No 1, Op 28
Rolf Hind (piano)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Leonard Slatkin (conductor)

Piazzolla: Suite del angel transc. for string quartet by Eckart Runge
Artemis String Quartet

Guarnieri: Ave Maria
Santoro: Ave Maria
Escobar: Ave Maria
BBC Singers
Celso Antunes (conductor)

Ginastera: Lamentations of Jeremiah
BBC Singers
Stephen Cleobury (conductor)

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And on Afternoon on 3, on Feb. 7, after a bunch of rarities, the big VL gun: BB#5.

Feb.7, 2.00pm South American Week

Continuing Radio 3's celebration of all things South American as performed by the BBC Orchestras, BBC Singers and friends.

Revueltas: El Renacuajo paseador (ballet suite)
Guarnieri: Abertura concertante
Piazzolla: Las Cuatro estaciones portenas
Ulster Orchestra
Celso Antunes (conductor)
...
Palau: Concierto levantino for guitar and orchestra
Fabio Zanon (guitar)
Ulster Orchestra
Max Bragado-Darman (conductor)

Chavez: Symphony No 5
Moncayo: Huapango
Ulster Orchestra
Enrique Barrios (conductor)

Villa-Lobos: Bachiana brasileira No 5
Catherine Bott (soprano)
Ulster Orchestra
Josep Caballe-Domenech (conductor)

Marquez: Danzon for orchestra No 2
Ulster Orchestra
Enrique Barrios (conductor)

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Finally, on Feb. 8th, also on Afternoon on 3 (what a great show!), there are more choral works, and an amazing finale, the Quatuor for Flute, Harp, Celesta, Alto Saxophone, and Women's Voices. This is one of Villa's great modernist works.

2.00pm South American Week

Continuing Radio 3's celebration of all things South American as performed by the BBC Orchestras, BBC Singers and friends.

Chopin: Fantaisie-impromptu in C sharp minor for piano, Op 66
Ginastera: Danza del gaucho matrero (Furiosamente ritmico...)
Ingrid Fliter (piano)

Ginastera: Ollantay
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Gisele Ben-Dor (conductor)

Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain for piano and orchestra
Martin Roscoe (piano)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
David Charles Abell (conductor)

Villa-Lobos: 2 Lendas Amerindias em Nheengatu; Canide Ioune
Cardoso: Os Atabaques da Pombagira
BBC Singers
Celso Antunes (conductor)

Ginastera: Harp Concerto
Catrin Finch (harp)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Josep Cabelle-Domenech (conductor)

Ginastera: Popul vuh
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Gisele Ben-Dor (conductor)

Villa-Lobos: Quatuor
BBC Singers
Lontano
Odaline de la Martinez (conductor)

Bizet: Carmen Suite Nos 1 and 2
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
David Charles Abell (conductor)

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The great thing about Radio 3 is that you can listen to programmes online for seven days after they've been broadcast live. Go to the Listen Again page.

Bachianas Brasileiras no. 9 for an "Orchestra of Voices"

Villa-Lobos wrote his Bachianas Brasileiras no. 9 - the last in the series - in 1945. The work was originally written for an "orchestra of voices" in six parts, though most of us know this piece best in VL's version for strings. As David P. Appleby says in his excellent new book Heitor Villa-Lobos - A Life (1887-1959):

"Even though Bachianas brasileiras no. 9 is a short piece, the writing appears as formidable to today's singers as the vocal writing of Beethoven in the last movement of Symphony no. 9 must have appeared to sopranos of his time. It seems that both Beethoven and Villa-Lobos considered the human voice the ultimate musical instrument to conclude a series of important musical works. Villa-Lobos, concerned with a different vocal timbre for the various voices of the fugue in vocal performance, gave a different syllable to each of the voices. The various performances by stringed instruments are generally able to project the desired contrast of timbre much more easily."

I know of no currently available recordings of the vocal version of BB#9. For those who live in the Boston area, there's a chance to hear this piece live in concert with the Spectrum Singers. Here's the concert information from their website:

Music from the Americas
Friday, May 17, 2002 at 8:00 pm
First Church Congregational, 11 Garden Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge

Irving Fine - The Hour Glass
Heitor Villa-Lobos - Bachiana Brasileira No. 9 for Orchestra of Voices
Harry Somers - Songs of the Newfoundland Outports
William Schuman - Carols of Death
Ernst Bacon - Three American Songs
Conductor: John W. Ehrlich

Luckily, the concert is being recorded for later broadcast on WGBH radio. I will contact the station and try to find out the broadcast date, and post it here.