Guitar Concerto from New Zealand

Here's a very fine performance of the Concerto for guitar and small orchestra, 1951. Matthew Marshall plays the guitar, and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Sir William Southgate. Wellington Town Hall, 1993.

RIP Roland Dyens

It was a sad day last Saturday when I heard of the death at the age of 61 of the great Tunisien/French guitarist and composer Roland Dyens. The main Villa-Lobos/Dyens connection is one of the best known of his compositions: Hommage à Villa-Lobos. Here it is, played by Elena Papandreou (tracks 6-9).



There are a few Villa-Lobos pieces included amongst Dyens' large discography. I haven't heard this 1987 Valois CD; unfortunately it seems to be quite rare and expensive. Besides the Villa-Lobos Concerto it includes Dyens' own Hommage recording as well as the Choros no. 1 and the Suite populaire bresilienne. And I've never seen even a cover picture of the 1990 Arc en Ciel CD that includes the 5 Preludes.

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.

Through the Night

One of my favourite radio programmes is BBC Radio3's Through the Night, presented by John Shea.  It's six hours of interesting music, often including recent concert recordings from around the world.  The show begins at 1:00 a.m. London time, a convenient 6:00 p.m. here in Red Deer.

For the next seven days you can listen to a March 2010 concert of Brazilian music by the Orchestra della Svizzera Italia [pictured above], conducted by Emmanuel Siffert.  Alvaro Pierri is the soloist in the Villa-Lobos Guitar Concerto, and the concert also includes the amazing Saudades do Brasil by Darius Milhaud.  Listen until January 6, 2011.

Villa-Lobos on Bartok Radio

I received this comment on my last post:

Bartok Radio (Hungary) Mar 8th 22:36

Villa-Lobos concert with Emmanuel Krivine conducting Orchestre National de Lyon

Bachianas Brasileiras No 2
Guitar Concerto (Roberto Aussel)
Amazonas

broadcast on the web.

Bartok Radio is a really interesting station that has a variety of web streams. Click here for the current playlist.

Here are the streams:
80 kpbs Windows Media
MP3 Stream
RealAudio Stream

Check out this concert on Saturday - Budapest is on Central European Time, so 22:36 is 21:36 Universal Time, 4:36 p.m. EST, and 2:36 in the afternoon here in Red Deer.

A night of Brazilian classics

Performed by the Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Blair, "A Night of Classics" was recorded live at Saint John's Smith Square, London, on 6 May 2004. The soloists were Fabio Zanon (guitar), Linda Bustani (piano), Claudia Ricitelli (soprano) and David Curry (tenor). You can listen in MP3 format.

Guitar Concerto in Concert

The Villa-Lobos Guitar Concerto will be performed this Sunday, April 28, by guitarist Fukuda Shin-ichi and the Japan Philharmonic under the direction of Toyama Yuzo.

For other Villa-Lobos concerts from around the world, check out the Upcoming Villa-Lobos Concerts Page.