Bachianas Brasileiras in Concert

I recently commented on how popular Bachianas Brasileiras #6 has become in live performance, based on my database of Villa-Lobos Concerts. How does it stack up against the other 8 in the series?

Here are the numbers:

• Bachianas Brasileiras #1 (23)
• Bachianas Brasileiras #2 (19)
• Bachianas Brasileiras #3 (12)
• Bachianas Brasileiras #4 (28)
• Bachianas Brasileiras #5 (67)
• Bachianas Brasileiras #6 (16)
• Bachianas Brasileiras #7 (6)
• Bachianas Brasileiras #8 (4)
• Bachianas Brasileiras #9 (24)

It's not a surprise that BB#5 is by far the most popular, and the above list probably under-estimates how often this piece is performed around the world. I don't always pick up every performance, especially in arrangements for voice and guitar (the composer's own, by the way), or for many other combinations of instruments.

BB#4 is in second place, partly because it's programmed as a solo piano work as well as an increasingly popular orchestral piece. Next is BB#9, which has recently become fashionable in its choral version as well as the version for strings. Cellists love BB#1, and there's a spill-over effect, since if you have 8 cellists performing BB#5, you might want to keep them busy in the same concert. BB#2 has the famous "Little Train" movement, so it's next, at 19 performances.

BB#6 follows that work; bassoonists love it. BB#3 used to be the rarest in performance, but it's been taken up by Sonia Rubinsky and others, and so it actually has become the most commonly performed VL work for piano and orchestra. #7 and #8 round out the list. I'm surprised by the relative rarity of #7, which I think is one of Villa's best orchestral works. Not so much with #8, though if you listen closely to a really good performance, it has the merits of many less-often-performed musical works in famous series (much like Beethoven's 8th Symphony).

There it is; Villa's signature series, from the more-or-less comprehensive list of world-wide concerts from 1999-2009.

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And speaking of the Bachianas Brasileiras series, I missed this programme when it was on BBC Radio 3 a year ago, but here are the recommendations for these works from the CD Review programme of June 30, 2007:

Building a Library Recommendations

VILLA-LOBOS Bachianas Brasileiras



Reviewer: Catherine Bott

Nos. 1, 2, 5 & 9:
Victoria de los Angeles (soprano), French Radio National Orchestra, Heitor Villa-Lobos (conductor)
(recorded 1956-8)
EMI CLASSICS 5669122 (CD, mid-price)

Nos. 1 & 5:
Juliane Banse (soprano), The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic
(recorded 2000; from CD entitled 'South American Getaway')
EMI CLASSICS 5569812 (CD)

Nos. 2, 3 & 4
Jean Louis Steuerman (piano), Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, Roberto Minczuk (conductor)
(recorded 2002)
BIS CD-1250 (CD)

Nos. 7, 8 & 9
Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra and Choir, Roberto Minczuk (conductor)
(recorded 2003)
BIS CD-1400 (CD)

Complete - Nos. 1-9:
Rosana Lamosa (soprano), Jose Feghali (piano), Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Kenneth Schermerhorn, Andrew Mogrelia (conductors)
(recorded 2004-5)
NAXOS 8557460/2 (3-CD, budget)

Villa-Lobos on Cultura FM: February 2008

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.

This month's highlight is the Feb. 18th Bachianas Brasileiras marathon (#1-#5, plus #9).

Feb. 1
06:00 A ESCRITA DE CÂMARA - Solistas e pequenas formações: Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Concerto para violão e pequena orquestra. Orquestra de Câmara Brasileira. Direção Bernado Bessler. Turíbio Santos (violão). Bachianas Brasileira N° 9 Orquestra de cordas. Fantasia para saxofone e orquestra. Orquestra de câmara Brasileira. Paulo Moura saxofone. Ciranda das sete notas. Orquestra de câmara Brasileira.Noel Devos (fagote)

Feb. 2
12:00 CONCERTOS DO MEIO DIA com o maestro Walter Lourenção Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Bachianas Brasileiras n° 4. Orquestra Sinfônica do Novo Mundo. Reg.: Michael Tilson Thomas./ Richard STRAUSS - Assim Falou Zarathustra, op. 30. Orquestra Sinfônica da Rádio Bávara. Reg.: Lorin Maazel

Feb. 3
22:00 KALEIDOSCÓPIO com Almeida Prado: VILLA-LOBOS - Momoprecoce. Orquestra Filarmônica de Jena. Reg.: David Montgomery./ Quarteto n°5. Quarteto de cordas Bessler-Reis.

Feb. 4
20:00 O BRASIL DE VILLA-LOBOS com Turíbio Santos: Suite Popular Brasileira , Choros N° 5, Paulo Pedrassoli (Violão)./ Amazonas, Orquestra Sinfônica da Rádio da Eslovaquia. Reg. Roberto Duarte

Feb. 6
13:00 DELICATESSEN com Kika Leoi. Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - "Impressões seresteiras" do ciclo básico. Miguel Proença (piano). / Pablo de SARASATE - Malagueña Op.21 No.1. Itzhak Perlman (violino). Samuel Sanders (piano) / Johannes BRAHMS - "Poco allegretto com variazoni - Doppio movimento" do Quarteto para cordas No.3 em si bemol maior Op.67. Quarteto Italiano. / Frédéric CHOPIN - Valsa No.1 "Grande valsa brilhante" em mi bemol maior Op.18. Maria João Pires (piano).

Feb. 10
19:00 NOVO MUNDO - A Música das Américas: Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Quinteto em forma de choros. Quinteto Villa-Lobos./ Manuel PONCE - Concerto para violino. Henryk Szeryng (solista) Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Dir.: Enrique Batiz./ Aaron COPLAND - Quiet City. Orquestra Filarmônica de Nova York. Dir.: Leonard Bernstein

Feb. 11
11:00 TEMA E VARIAÇÕES com o Maestro Julio Medaglia. Concertos para piano de villa-Lobos.

20:00 O BRASIL DE VILLA-LOBOS com Turíbio Santos: Erosão, Alvorada na Floresta Tropical, Gênesis . Orquestra Sinfonica da Rádio Tcheca. Reg. Roberto Duarte

Feb. 14 - Happy Valentine's Day!
13:00 DELICATESSEN com Kika Leoi. Johann Nepomuck HUMMEL - Primeiro movimento do Concerto para piano em lá maior, S4/W24. Howard Shelley (piano). London Mozart Players. Reg.: Howard Shelley. / Jean-Baptiste LULLY - Chantons tous de l'Amour. Les Arts Florissants. Reg.: Willian Christie. / Antonio VIVALDI - Concerto para flauta transversal em ré maior RV 427. Barthold Kuijken (flauta). Academia Montis Regalis. Reg.: Barthold Kuijken. / Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Plantio do Caboclo. João Carlos Assis Brasil (piano).

Feb. 18
20:00 O BRASIL DE VILLA-LOBOS com Turíbio Santos: Sinfonia n° 4 e Sinfonia n° 6. Orquestra Sinfônica de Stuttgard. Reg. Carl St. Clair

22:00 SALA DE CONCERTO: Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Bachianas Brasileiras n° 1. The Yale Cellos. / Bachianas Brasileiras n° 2. Orquestra Sinfônica de São Paulo. Reg.: Roberto Minczuk. / Bachianas Brasileiras n° 3. Jean Louis Steuerman (piano). Orquestra Sinfônica de São Paulo. Reg.: Roberto Minczuk. / Bachianas Brasileiras n° 4. Orquestra Sinfônica de São Paulo. Reg.: Roberto Minczuk. / Bachianas Brasileiras n° 5. Victoria de Los Angeles (soprano). Orquestra Nacional da Radiodifusão Francesa. Reg.: Heitor Villa-Lobos. / Bachianas Brasileiras n° 9. Orquestra Nacional da Radiodifusão Francesa. Reg.: Heitor Villa-Lobos.

Feb. 25
20:00 O BRASIL DE VILLA-LOBOS com Turíbio Santos: Choros n° 6. Orquestra Rias. Reg. Heitor Villa-Lobos/Bachianas Brasileiras n° 4. Orquestra Nacional Da Rádio Francesa.Reg. Heitor Villa-Lobos

Feb. 27
13:00 DELICATESSEN com Kika Leoi. Joseph HAYDN - Quarteto em ré maior Op.103, Hob. III .83. Quarteto Festetics. / Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - "Ballada" de Homenagem a Chopin. João Carlos Assis Brasil (piano). / Johann Sebastian BACH - Sonata para viola da gamba e cravo No.1 em sol maior, BWV 1027. Perez Dworecki (viola). Paulo Gori (piano). / Antonin DVORÁK - "Allegro con brio" Sinfonia em sol maior Op.88. Orquestra Sinfônica da Galícia. Reg.: Victor Pablo Pérez.

O Estilo Antropofágico de Heitor Villa-Lobos

A new book/CD-ROM has been published in Brazil: O Estilo Antropofágico de Heitor Villa-Lobos by Gil Jardim. This comes out of Jardim’s research at the University of Sao Paulo in 2002.

The book looks at the influence of Bach and Stravinsky on Villa-Lobos’s work, with a special focus on Bachianas Brasileiras #7 (according to this May 2006 article in Folha da Bahia.) I look forward to a closer examination of the book and CD-ROM, and puzzling through it with the aid of Google’s machine translation.

I’m hoping that I don’t get too many more translations like this one I came across in the Folha da Bahia article:

Fugas do cravo bem temperado = Leakage of carnation and temperate.

I don’t know enough about Portuguese to know why this happened. Machine translation is a work in progress, I guess. I’m not complaining; I couldn’t do so much of my Villa-Lobos work without it.

Villa-Lobos on BBC Radio 3

I've been posting upcoming Villa-Lobos performances on Cultura FM, which is an excellent source of Brazilian music. Here are a few interesting items coming up on BBC Radio3:

On BBC Radio 3's Through the Night, which often includes interesting concerts from Europe and beyond. November 27, 2007, at 5.56am (UK time):
Villa-Lobos, Heitor (1887-1959): Bachianas Brasileiras No 9 - The Amadeus Polish Radio Chamber Orchestra in Poznan. Agnieszka Duczmal (conductor).
And later that morning: 6.56am:
Villa-Lobos, Heitor (1887-1959): Song of the Black Swan. Henry-David Varema (cello), Heiki Mätlik (guitar)

And this looks interesting!:
19:00
Performance on 3
28 November 2007
The Britten Sinfonia at the London Jazz Festival
With Martin Handley. One of Britain's leading chamber orchestras morphs into a big band for a jazz-inspired programme performed last Saturday as part of the London Jazz Festival. And one of Brazil's most celebrated vocalists, Luciana Souza, adds her brilliantly elastic vocals to the Miles Davis sound, with Radio 3's first New Generation jazz artist, Gwilym Simcock, contributing a new piece of his own.

Luciana Souza (vocals), Romero Lubambo (guitar), Alex Acuna (percussion), Britten Sinfonia, Gil Goldstein (conductor)

Villa Lobos, arr. Goldstein: Bachianais Brasilerias Nos 5 and 6, with much other music by Bach, Mompou, Gismonti, Jobim, Rodrigo, and others.

Anna Stella Schic complete piano works

I recently blogged the news about the last two volumes of Sonia Rubinsky's 8-CD set of VL piano music. Here is another version finished: Anna Stella Schic's 7-CD set on Solstice Records.

Thanks to Borris Mayer for this. He also mentions that EMI is re-releasing the Batiz set of the Bachianas Brasileiras, complete. Here's the link at the UK Amazon site. While we wait for it in North America, why not download Barbara Hendricks' excellent BB#5 from Amazon MP3.

More Villa on the radio...

France Musiques is the name of the French National Radio's classical music network. Their website includes a number of pages of interest, beginning with an interesting biography that emphasizes Villa's French connection. For example, I didn't know that Albert Roussel helped Villa become a member, in 1923, of the Societe Internationale de Musique Contemporaine.

Speaking of contemporary music, on March 17th at 9:49 p.m. Paris time, you can hear tenor Marcel Quillevere, pianist Noel Lee and the Ensemble Erwartung, under the direction of Bernard Desgraupes, performing the following Miniaturas:
. Viola
. Cromo no2
. Cromo no3
. Sino da aldeia
. Japonesas
. Sonho
This is from a recently-released Opus 111 disc that I really must purchase soon.

On March 19th at 7:05 p.m., you can hear the Violoncelles de l'Orchestre du Gurzenich de Cologne perform Bachianas Brasileiras no. 1. This is apparently from a 1976 recording - I've never heard this particular version.

Meanwhile, on March 29th, the well-known Michael Tilson Thomas recording of Bachianas Brasileiras no. 4 is featured at 7:05 p.m. You can hear France Musiques here on the Internet.

Before I finish this last post of the evening, I must apologize for a couple of things. The first is the number of posts you might be receiving in your email from the topica.com subscription list. Each time I make a slight change in my posts, it's generating a new email posting. I'll have to be more careful about catching typos before I publish each posting to the blog.

Secondly, a number of people have asked about non-html posts, since some email clients can't handle anything but plain text. Unfortunately, I haven't come up with a way to fix this - the only thing to do right now is to delete the email posting and visit The Villa-Lobos Magazine on the web at http://villa-lobos.blogspot.com, where you can see everything properly formatted. By the way, if you'd like to receive emails of each new posting, put your email address in the box on the left-hand side of this website.

Villa on the BBC

The Brazilian Service of the BBC recently celebrated its 65th birthday, as I learned from the Google translation from this Portuguese-language page on BBCBrazil.com.

The quick history includes a picture (above) of Villa-Lobos being interviewed in 1949 by William Tate.

Elsewhere on the BBC website, I came across an excellent feature called "Brazil Inside Out", in which journalist Alex Bellos reports on his visit to five Brazilian regions. I really enjoyed the Brazilian-themed computer wallpapers and the page of Brazilian links (including one to the Heitor Villa-Lobos Website, though it has the older, more awkward URL of http://www.rdpl.red-deer.ab.ca/villa, rather than the newer, streamlined http://www.rdpl.org/villa).

While in Manaus, in the Amazonian rain-forest, Bellos attends a classical music concert in the great Teatro Amazonas, and interviews soprano Tais Bandeira, who has this to say about Bachianas Brasileiras no. 5:

"The music of this aria is typically Brazilian. But, at the same time, it manages to get to the heart of every person.
This song seems to come from the earth, a song of nostalgia."

Villa-Lobos on Cultura FM - March 2004

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.

Paul Moura plays the soprano saxophone in the Fantasia for saxophone on Thursday, March 18, at 11:00 a.m.

A week later, on March 25th at the same time, Enrique Arturo Diemecke conducts the Royal Philharmonic in the second Bachianas Brasileiras. The same program includes some interesting works by the next generation of Brazilian composers: Guerra Peixe, Guarnieri and Gilberto Mendes.

Nashville Symphony Bachianas Brasileiras

In the spring the Nashville Symphony will begin their recording sessions of the nine Bachianas Brasileiras. This query recently arrived from Wilson Ochoa, music librarian of the Nashville Symphony:

"We are performing and recording all 9 of the "Bachianas Brasileiras" in March, and I have been busy proofreading the parts to make sure we record these with no errors.

"I have some questions about the printed music conductor scores, and was wondering if you can shed some light on some problems I have encountered.

"In "Bachianas Brasileiras No. 2":

"In the third movement "Dansa": The Violin 2 is marked pizzicato at the beginning. Could this be a mistake? It is unplayable that way (too fast to be able to play it pizzicato), and should be arco to match the violas? (It is arco at rehearsal 15 when the same music returns.) The recordings I have play it arco.

"In the same movement, in the seventh measure, the Violin I is in octaves on the first beat of the measure, should they be in octaves on beat 2? Currently I have the upper part playing E, E, D (above the staff), and the lower part playing C, C, B (in the staff--and this would seem to clash with Violin 2, although Villa Lobos does do this sometimes).

"In the same movement, in the fifth measure after rehearsal 2, should Violin I be pizzicato (as at the beginning of the movement?) Also, the fifth measure of rehearsal 17, should that be pizzicato as well? In the same piece, last movement "Tocata", there is no marking as to when the Violins remove their mutes. Would that occur at rehearsal 3?

"In "Bachianas Brasileiras No. 8":

"In the second movement "Aria": after rehearsal 3, the third and the fifth measure, the strings and horns have a musical figure that sometimes has marked a glissando between beats 3 and 4. In the third measure, the strings have the glissando, and the horns do not. But in the fifth measure the horns have the glissando, but the strings do not. Then, at rehearsal 4, third measure, the strings have this and the horns do not. Should these all match? Should there be a glissando every time? Or is it correct the way it is printed? In the same movement, rehearsal 3, fourth measure, the strings have beat 3 slurred together, but the horns do not. Should these match? Is there a slur?

"Thanks for your help with this.

"Wilson Ochoa, Principal Music Librarian, Nashville Symphony" - wilson@nashvillesymphony.org

I'm hoping some of the readers of The Villa-Lobos Magazine might be able to help Wilson with these questions. If you're in Nashville this March, you'll be able to attend the concerts of all nine Bachianas. I'm not sure if live recordings will be made from the concerts given this March, or if the concerts will be preparations for studio recordings. In any case, you can get all the information from the Upcoming Villa-Lobos Concerts page, and at the website of the Nashville Symphony.

Villa-Lobos Concerts & CDs Analyzed

I've been tracking performances of Villa-Lobos works at concerts and recitals from around the world since January 1997, in the Upcoming Villa-Lobos Concerts page of the Villa-Lobos Website. I've recently put together a list of the works played at those concerts. As well, I've looked at the 445 CDs containing works by Villa-Lobos that are currently available at Amazon.com. I'll be posting a spreadsheet with this information on the Website - it's here - and I'll keep it updated as I receive new information.

In the meantime, here are some interesting results. The most commonly performed works:

Bachianas Brasileiras #5 (48)
Harmonica Concerto (20)
Unspecified Pieces for Guitar (20)
Assobio a Jato (19)
Bachianas Brasileiras #2 (17)
Bachianas Brasileiras #1 (12)
Guitar Etudes (12)
Bachianas Brasileiras #6 (8)
Bachianas Brasileiras #9 (8)
Bachianas Brasileiras #4 (7)
Guitar Preludes (7)
Saxophone Fantasia (7)

No real surprises here. The Bachianas Brasileiras series looms large in terms of the popular view of Villa-Lobos. BB#5 is one of the standards of the orchestral repertoire, and in its version for soprano and guitar for that of chamber music. Robert Bonfiglio has nearly single-handedly brought a high level of popularity to the Harmonica Concerto. The works for guitar are probably under-reported by a factor of at least three, since many concert notices do not refer to particular works.

Many of these pieces show up at the top of the CD list as well:

Bachianas Brasileiras #5 (98)
Guitar Preludes (70)
Guitar Etudes (57)
Choros 1 (33)
Suite Popular Bresilienne (32)
Bachianas Brasileiras #2 (22)
Guitar Concerto (22)
Bachianas Brasileiras #4 (20)
Choros #5 (16)
Bachianas Brasileiras #1 (14)
Song Recitals (14)
Ciclo Brasiliera (13)
Prole de Bebe #1 (13)

The guitar music is well represented on CD, with every one of the works Villa-Lobos wrote for the instrument (with the exception of the Introduction to Choros, which has unaccountably received only a single recording) in the top ten most popular works. The best works for piano are well represented as well. It's nice to see a work from the Choros series - Choros #5, subtitled Alma Brasileira - getting as many recordings as some of the Bachianas Brasileiras series.

At the other end, there are a few great works that received no performances (as reported on my page - my collection of this information is very hit and miss). These include most of the Symphonies; four of the Piano Concertos; Choros 8, 9 and 12; and the String Trio. Luckily, the list of works with no recordings in the Amazon.com list (nearly all of which are available throughout the world) is really quite short:

Cello Sonata 1
Choros 4
Choros 6
Daughter of the Clouds
Duas Lendas Amerindias
Fantasia de Movementos Mixtos
Nonetto
Sinfonietta #1
Symphony 2
Symphony 3
Symphony 7
Symphony 9
Vidapura
Yerma

From this short list, we'll soon be able to remove the 3rd and 9th Symphonies, coming soon from cpo. Symphonies 2 and 7 will presumably follow, from the same source, within a year. After that, we badly need recordings of the 6th Choros, the Fantasia de Movementos Mixtos and the Nonetto. As for the other hole in the Choros series, number 4, that's available in the indispensable CD Os Choros de Câmara from the Brazilian company Kuarup. I ordered this CD, and others, from Kuarup's website. Kuarup's CDs are very inexpensive, and the discs arrived amazingly quickly.

I think that, overall, the works of Villa-Lobos are fairly well represented both discographically, and on the concert stages of the world. The complete cycles of string quartets recently performed at the Kuhno Festival in Finland and by the Cuartetto Latinoamericano brought many hidden gems to the surface. Naxos is especially to be commended for their well-played, well-recorded budget CDs. I'm sure, though, that there are many works that I've left out in my list that need performances and recordings. Why not tell me what you think?

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.