Villa-Lobos on Cultura FM: January 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.

January 07: 20:00 O BRASIL DE VILLA-LOBOS com Turíbio Santos

January 08: 13:00 DELICATESSEN com Kika Leoi:
Antonin DVORÁK - Humoresque em sol bemol maior Op.101, No.7. Yo-Yo Ma (violoncelo). Itzhak Perlman (violino). Orquestra Sinfônica de Boston. Reg.: Seiji Osawa / Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - "Poco adagio" do Concerto para piano No.5. Cristina Ortiz (piano). Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Reg.: Miguel Gomes-Martínez. / Pyotr Ilyitch TCHAIKOVSKY - "Valsa: Allegro Moderato" da Sinfonia No.5 em mi menor, Op.64. Orquestra Filarmônica Jovem de Boston. Reg.: Benjamin Zander. / Claude DEBUSSY - Le jet d'eau. Orquestra Sinfônica da BBC. Reg.: Thierry Fischer.

January 12: 13:00 DELICATESSEN com Kika Leói:
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART - "Minueto: Allegreto" do Quinteto para cordas em ré, K 593. Lawrence Power (viola). Karol Szymanowski Quartet. / Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - "O Trenzinho do Caipira" da Bachianas brasileiras No.2. Orquestra Sinfônica Petrobrás Pró Musica. Reg.: Roberto Tibiriçá. / Frédéric CHOPIN - Fantasia em fá menor Op.49. Maria João Pires (piano) / Jean SIBELIUS - Rakastava. Violaine Lucas (soprano). Rigoberto Marin-Polop (baixo). Coro de Câmara Accentus. Reg.: Eric Ericson.

January 13: 07:00 DESPERTE COM OS CLÁSSICOS:
BACH/ BUSONI - Prelúdio e Fuga em ré maior, BWV 532. Emil Gilels (piano)/ VIVALDI - Concerto em lá maior, RV 552, "Per ecco lontano". Christophe Coin (violoncelo). Il Giardino Armonico. Dir.: Giovanni Antonini/ VILLA-LOBOS - Prelúdio nº 1. Yves Storms (violão). RAVEL - La Valse. Orquestra Nova Philharmonia. Reg.: Lorin Maazel.

January 13:
19:00 NOVO MUNDO - A Música das Américas:
Carlos CHÁVEZ - Sinfonia Índia. The New World Simphony. Dir.: Michel Tilson Thomas./ Heitor VILLA LOBOS - Amazonas. Orquestra Sinfônica Simon Bolivar da Venezuela. Dir.: Henrique Arturo Dimecke./ Alberto GINASTERA - Concerto para cordas. I Musici de Montreal. Yuri Turovsky. / Augustin Barrios MANGORÉ - Julia Florida. Sharon Isbin. (violão).

January 14: 20:00 O BRASIL DE VILLA-LOBOS com Turíbio Santos:

January 20: 23:00 NOTURNO:
Alberto NEPOMUCENO - Quarteto n° 3. Quarteto de cordas da Cidade de São Paulo. / Heitor VILLA-LOBOS -Trio n° 1 em dó menor. Artistrio.

January 21:
20:00 O BRASIL DE VILLA-LOBOS com Turíbio Santos.

January 25: 13:00 DELICATESSEN com Kika Leoi:
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART - Sonata para piano No.3 em si maior KV 281 (189f). Karl Engel (piano). / Max BRUCH - Romance em fá maior para viola e orquestra Op.85. Gerard Caussé (viola). Orquestra da Ópera de Lion. Reg.: Kent Nagano. / Johann Joachim QUANTZ - Concerto em mi bemol maior para corno da caccia, oboé, cordas e continuo. Ludwig Güttler (corno da caccia). Andreas Lorenz (oboé). Solistas da Virtuosi Saxonae. / Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - "Ária (cantiga)" da Bachianas brasileiras No.4. Flavio Varani (piano).

January 26: 10:00 CIRANDA - Academia Brasileira de Música:
Luís Álvares PINTO - Te deum. XVIII-21 Musiques des Lumières./ Manuel DIAS DE OLIVEIRA - Tractus para Missa dos Pré-santificados/ Te Deum Laudamus. Ensemble Turicum / VILLA-LOBOS - Remeiro de São Francisco. / Viola quebrada / Improviso no. 7. Robert Buonfiglio (harmônica de boca). Orquestra de Câmara de Nova York. Dir.: Gerard Schwartz/ Milton NASCIMENTO - Canção amiga. Ricardo AMADO (violino), Flávio Augusto (piano)./ VILLA-LOBOS - Prelúdio de Bachianas 4/ Modinha / Melodia Sentimental. Carlos Barbosa Lima (violão)/ Laurindo ALMEIDA / Dante VARELA - Batuque. Carlos Barbosa Lima (violão)/ Ernani AGUIAR - Sonatina no. 2. Ernani Aguiar (piano).

January 28: 20:00 O BRASIL DE VILLA-LOBOS com Turíbio Santos.

January 29: 13:00 DELICATESSEN com Kika Leoi:
Robert SCHUMANN - Fantasiestücke Op.73 para violoncelo e piano. Antonio Meneses (violoncelo). Gerard Wyss (piano). / Franz SCHUBERT - "Allegro vivace" da Deux Marches caractéristiques em dó maior, D 968 B, No.2. Yaara Tal e Andreas Groethuysen (piano). / Francesco CAVALLI - Lamento di Clori. Frederica Von Stade (mezzo-soprano) Orquestra de Câmara Escocesa. Reg.: Raymond Leppard. / Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Desesperance. Davi Graton (violino). Scheilla Glaser (piano).

Another Nonetto post

It's amazing what comes up on the web when you keep digging. I had seen a reference to the CD "Villa-Lobos em Paris", conducted by Gil Jardim, but the track list missed out the most important piece, the Nonetto. Here's the disc on the Brazilian music retailer Causa Sonora.

Jardim, it turns out, wrote the book O Estilo Antropofágico de Heitor Villa-Lobos, which I talked about in the previous post. He conducts an impressive group of musicians:

Quatuor
Toninho Carrasqueira, flauta - Dilson Florêncio, sax - Luba Klevsotova, harpa - Maria Elisa Risarto, celesta - Mara Campos, Reg. Preparadora do Coro Feminino - Gil Jardim, Regente.

A Prole do Bebê nº1
Nahim Marum, piano

Epigramas Irônicos e Sentimentais
Claudia Ricchitelli, soprano - Nahim Marum, piano

Pensées D'Enfant
Claudia Ricchitelli, soprano - Toninho Carrasqueira, flauta - Sérgui Burgani, clarinete - Watson Clis, violoncelo

Nonetto
Toninho Carrasqueira, flauta - Luis Carlos Justi, oboé - Sérgio Burgani, clarinete - Aloysio Fagerlande, fagote - Dilson Florêncio, sax - Silas Lima, harpa - Maria Elisa Risarto, celesta - Paulo Braga, piano - Elizabeth Del Grande, Ricardo Bologna e Eduardo Gianesella, percussão - Mara Campos, Regente Preparadora do Coro Misto - Gil Jardim, Regente.

The group of musicians includes the members of the Quinteto Villa-Lobos.

So, another disc with the Nonetto shows up, just when I'm complaining the loudest about not having one at hand.

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.

Nonetto (Impressao rapida de todo o Brasil)

The Nonetto is currently without a modern recording easily available in North America and Europe. I hope this will change shortly. Earlier this year, Conductor Adrian Leaper performed the Nonetto in Madrid with the RTVE Symphony & Chorus. Here is a reference to the concert, which was recently played on Spanish radio:

SÁBADO 17 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2007

06:00 ORQUESTA SINFÓNICA Y CORO DE RTVE
CICLO COMPOSITORES IBEROAMERICANOS (XI)
DIRECCIÓN: ADRIÁN LEAPER
ORQUESTA: ORQUESTA SINFÓNICA DE RTVE
Desde el Teatro Monumental de Madrid, actuación de la Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE que, bajo la dirección de Adrián Leaper, interpreta "Sesemaya" de Silvestre Revueltas, "Nonetto, para coro y orquesta" de Heitor Villa-Lobos y "Serenata concertante Op. 40" de Juan Orrego Salas.

There is a new Brazilian version of the Nonetto, from the Sociedade Musicale Bachiana Brasileira, available on CD and DVD. You can hear the Nonetto online on the excellent Bachiana Brasileira website (it's on the CD Obras Raras na Música Brasileira de Concerto - choose the final track in the Flash player.) The DVD is called Quadros de Uma Alma Brasileira, and you can preview four of the tracks online in low or high resolution. Unfortunately, the Nonetto video isn't online, but you can see and hear portions of the work on the Documentario (special features) portion of the site.

The works on the DVD were recorded almost exactly a year ago, December 15, 2005, at the Sala Cecília Meireles.

This is a very, very exciting project. I can't find a place on the website where you can order the CDs or DVDs directly, but read this recent post in Tumbling Villa-Lobos to find out about a Brazilian onine retailer who sells the DVD.

The CDs and DVDs on the Bachiana Brasileira website include many other rare Brazilian works; I'll be featuring it in a future post on the Magazine.

Nostalgia Alert!

There are two famous recordings of the work from the 40s and 50s; it would be great if both were re-issued.

On a Capitol LP (CTL 7037), the Roger Wagner Chorale and the Concert Arts Ensemble performed two chamber works with chorus: the Quatour and the Nonetto. The sound on the disc was demonstration quality; the final movement of the Nonetto was included on Capitol SAL-9020 "Full Dimensional Sound: A Study in High Fidelity."

Here is a citation to a contemporary review:

Review: [Untitled]
Reviewed Work(s):

• Villa-Lobos: Nonetto, for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Saxophone, Bassoon, Harp, Celesta, Battery, and Mixed Chorus; Quatuor, for Flute, Harp, Celesta, Alto Saxophone, and Women's Voices by The Roger Wagner Chorale and the Concert Arts Players, Roger Wagner, Villa-Lobos

Author(s) of Review: Richard F. Goldman
The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Jan., 1954), pp. 157-158

Villa-Lobos thought very highly of Roger Wagner and his singers. Here's a quote from the official RWC website:

"Roger Wagner deserves all my admiration for his dedicated work...a notable achievement in technique and sound as well as perfect interpretation."

The second disc, "Festival of Brazilian Music," was released as a 78 rpm album by RCA Victor: disc #LCT 1143. In the Nonetto, Hugh Ross conducts the Brazilian Festival Orchestra and the Schola Cantorum. The album also includes Bachianas Brasileiras #1 (with Walter Burle Marx conducting the Brazilian Festival Orchestra); the Quatour (with the great Brazilian soprano Elsie Houston, soprano and Ross/Brazilian Festival Quartet/Schola Cantorum); and Cancao do Careiro (sung by Elsie Houston, accompanied by Miguel, piano). This album was recorded in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art and the Commissioner General from Brazil. Another record number for this set is Victor DM-773(5).

Here's a short review from the May 19, 1941 issue of Time Magazine:

A Festival of Brazilian Music (Victor; 10 sides; $5.50). First big phonographic collection of works by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazil's No. i composer and one of the lustiest living. Beautifully recorded by Soprano Elsie Houston, the Schola Cantorum, conducted by Hugh Ross, a scratch orchestra under Burle Marx. Villa-Lobosities: a Bachiana Brasileira for eight cellos attempting to fuse the spirits of Bach and Brazil; a Nonetto for chorus and small orchestra, purporting to describe Brazil's geography.

So, besides the advantage of having the Nonetto on CD, a reissue of this set would provide us with another rarely heard work (the Quatuor), plus a chance to hear the legendary Elsie Houston.

Let's get to work on these re-issues, record companies!

**********

Check out this page on the Nonetto at the Heitor Villa-Lobos Website. It uses a new template for Villa-Lobos's works; some day in the future there will be a page on the site for each of the major works.

More Digitization

As exciting as the previous post on the Villa-Lobos home movies was, here's an even bigger story.

Earlier this week conditional approval was given for a new project costing R$867,000 (about $490,000), which will digitize the orchestral and chamber music scores of Villa-Lobos, and make them freely available online and on CD-ROM. The focus of the project will be on the Symphonies (none of which is easily available in study score format). A catalogue of the works in the project will have a print run of 1,800.

The project will take place in 2008, and will be complete in time for the 50th anniversary of Villa-Lobos's death in 2009.

Villa-Lobos Home Movies

This isn't a new story, but I hadn't heard about it yet. Fifty hours of home movies from the 30s, 40s and 50s have been donated by Villa-Lobos's family to the Museu Villa-Lobos. The films, according to the story, will show "the intimacy of the family." Apparently the Museum is planning to digitize the films, and make them available in 2008.

Also included in the donation are 100 scores and 300 unpublished photos.

Villa-Lobos Concerts

Twenty years ago, we were in the middle of the Villa-Lobos Centennial celebrations. Here's a New York Times article that shows what kind of activity there was in those days.

Now that Villa is 120, we're right back in another mini-boom of VL concerts. Villa's star has certainly risen these past few years! I've re-started the Villa-Lobos Concert Calendar, and the dates are filling up.

I'm struck by a number of things. First of all, the concerts are coming from around the world: Asia and Europe as well as the Americas. Secondly, it's no longer just about Bachianas Brasileiras #5. Once rare works are being programmed in multiple concerts. Next year you can hear the Ciranda das Sete Notas for Bassoon and Orchestra in New York, Berlin and Sydney, and the Saxophone Fantasy in Winnipeg, San Antonio and San Jose.

As I dig into the web more deeply, I'll be coming up with lots more concerts, especially from South America. Check the calendar regularly, so you can plan your Villa-Lobos listening. Also, send me a note about concerts I've missed.

Experiencing Villa-Lobos Schedule

The schedule for the international Experiencing Villa-Lobos Conference in Richmond VA has been published on the conference website. Besides the paper presentations, which I'm sure will be fascinating, here are some highlights:

• March 27, 2008, 8:00pm – Opening Concert featuring VCU faculty, alumni, and guest artists in Concert Hall (pianist Sonia Rubinsky will perform on this concert).
• March 28, 2008, 9:30-11:00am – Sonia Rubinsky piano master class in Concert Hall.
• March 28, 2008, 8:00pm – VCU Symphony Concert in Concert Hall featuring saxophonist Albert Regni.
• March 29, 2008, 1:30pm – 3:00pm – String Master Class featuring members of Cuarteto Latinoamericano in Concert Hall.
• March 29, 2008, 3:30pm – 5:00pm The Brazilian Guitar – from Villa-Lobos to the Present, featuring VCU faculty/alumni/students/guest artists in Concert Hall.
• March 29, 2008, 8:00pm - Closing concert by Cuarteto Latinoamericano in Concert Hall.
  

The Villa-Lobos credentials of Sonia Rubinsky and the Cuarteto Latinoamericano are really solid - I've posted many times about both over the years. I wasn't familiar with the work of saxophonist Albert Regni, but learned lots more from this excellent Sons of Sound website. Nice to put a face to one of the people involved in the Twin Peaks music I love. Regni is Principal Saxophonist with the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, and New York City Ballet Orchestras, and also Professor of Saxophone at The College of New Jersey.

Villa-Lobos wrote beautiful things for saxophone, and not just his 1948 Fantasia for soprano or tenor saxophone and chamber orchestra (which I assume Regni will perform with the VCU Orchestra in Richmond). There are also these important chamber works featuring the saxophone:

• the Sextuor Mystique, for flute, oboe, saxophone, harp, celesta and guitar (1917/1955)
• Choros #7 for flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, violin, and cello, with tam-tam ad lib. (1924)
• Choros #3 for clarinet, bassoon, saxophone, 3 horns, trombone, or for male chorus, or for both together (1925)
• the Nonetto, scored for flute/piccolo, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, celesta, harp, piano, percussion, and a mixed chorus (1923)

And you can find many, many amazing bits for saxophone in the orchestral works. One of my favourites is in the first suite from the Descobrimento do Brasil (1938).

Native Brazilian Music

The Library of Congress 2006 National Recording Registry includes this recording project from the time of the Good Neighbour Policy.

Native Brazilian Music. Recorded under the supervision of Leopold Stokowski. (1942)

Leopold Stokowski and his All-American Youth Orchestra performed in Rio de Janeiro as part of a goodwill tour to South America in the summer of 1940. Prior to his visit to Brazil, Stokowski asked composer Heitor Villa-Lobos to help him collect and record popular Brazilian music, of which the conductor was a great admirer. Villa-Lobos assembled an elite group of musicians, including Pixinguinha, Donga, Cartola, Jararaca, Ratinho and José Espinguela. Forty recordings were made onboard the ship carrying Stokowski and the orchestra. Seventeen of the recordings, embracing musical styles such as sambas, batucadas, macumba and emboladas, were released in 1942 by Columbia Records on a 78-rpm album, “Native Brazilian Music".

The story of this recording project is told by Daniella Thompson in Stalking Stokowski. What a great example of research in action!

Here's a review and story from Time Magazine, March 16, 1942, following the record's original release. The project is also mentioned in Harold Lewis's Presença de Villa Lobos essay at the Villa-Lobos Website.

So we're left waiting for Sony to release this music on CD - I wonder if that will ever happen? In the meantime, here's a link to the original 16 tracks from the Som Barato MP3 blog. I'll continue watching for the 78s (or the Museu Villa-Lobos LP) on eBay.

Villa-Lobos in the blogosphere

This is neat, but I'm not sure exactly what real significance it has, if any. The Trend Tool on the icerocket.com search engine site shows you how many blog posts it finds for up to three search terms. In the last three months, there were 5,774 blog posts with the search term "Jobim" (an average of 64 per day - sorry, I mean 64.16 per day). For "Villa-Lobos", 1,542 searches, an average of 17 per day. For "Milhaud", 456, or 5 per day.

It's hard to see any trends over this period. I'll check out the numbers in early 2008, and see if they're changing.

By the way, was November 25 "Blog About Darius Milhaud Day"?

Here's another look at Villa-Lobos in the blogosphere, from BlogScope. This is a graph of VL posts in the past six months.

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.

Piano concertos in Cuba

It's raining piano concertos in Cuba. Following a very successful series of concerts and an award-winning disc of the five Villa-Lobos concertos, some of the participants are planning a series of the five Beethoven concertos in Havana, with the Matanzas Symphony Orchestra (OSM).

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.

Villa-Lobos on Cultura FM: December 2007

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. The highlight of the month: the live performance of the first piano concerto performed by Nelson Freiere on the 18th (repeated on the 19th).

December 1:
10:00 CIRANDA - Academia Brasileira de Música: VILLA-LOBOS - A lenda do caboclo./ Ondulando. Sonia Rubinsky (piano). / Suíte para cordas. I Musici de Montreal. Dir.: Yuli Turovsky./ Jaime ZENAMON - Fantasias. Matias de Oliveira Pinto (violoncelo). Jaime Zenamon (violão) Radamés GNATTALI - Brasiliana no. 8. Sérgio&Odair Assad/ Egberto GISMONTI - Palhaço.Charlie Haden (contrabaixo). Jan Garbarek (saxofone) Egberto Gismonti (piano).

December 3:
20:00 O BRASIL DE VILLA-LOBOS com Turíbio Santos: Trio n° 2, para piano e cello Monique Duphil, (piano), Lenuta Cinlei, (violino), Florian Ebersberg( cello) -Trio Villa-Lobos, Caracas./ Choros n° 7 Chamber Music Palm Beach./ Três Marias ( Alnitah, Alnilan, Nintika) Guiomar Novaes, (piano).

December 10:
20:00 O BRASIL DE VILLA-LOBOS com Turíbio Santos: O Mundo das Crianças: A Prole do Bebe n° 2 - Francette e Piá Piano.

December 13:
15:00 TARDE CULTURA - Música e Notícia - Fabio Malavoglia: Entre outras obras, o Tema com Variações da Sonata op. 25 para bandolim e violão de Mauro GIUGLIANI, o Concerto da Camera em dó sustenido menor,op. 10 n° 2 de ALKAN e "Uirapurú", balé para orquestra de VILLA-LOBOS.

December 15:
10:00 CIRANDA - Academia Brasileira de Música: Mário TAVARES - Quinteto para instrumentos de sopro. Quinteto Villa Lobos. / VILLA LOBOS - Assobio a jato. William Bennet (flauta). Charles Tunnel (violoncelo). Glauco VELÁSQUEZ - Devaneio "sobre as ondas". Roberto Szidon (piano). / Radamés GNATTALI - Sonatina coreográfica. Aída e Radamés Gnattali/ VILLA-LOBOS - New York Skyline. Orquestra Sinfônica da Rádio de Suttgart. Dir.: Carl St Clair.

December 17:
20:00 O BRASIL DE VILLA-LOBOS - com Turíbio Santos: Duo para oboé e fagote Petra Fluhr, oboé Ulrich Freund (fagote). /Bachianas Brasileiras n° 6 para flauta e fagote, Joachim Schmitz (flauta). Ulrich Freund, (fagote)./ Trio para oboé clarineta e fagote. Petra Fluhr (oboé). Johannes Moog. (clarineta). Ulrich Freund (fagote)/ Sonata Fantasia n° 1 para violino e piano. Ngagul Tumangelor (violino). Bojidar Noev (piano).

December 18:
13:00 DELICATESSEN - Kika Leoi: VIVALDI - Concerto em si bemol, Op.4 No.1. Arte dei Suonatori. / VILLA-LOBOS - Impressões Seresteiras. João Carlos Assis Brasil (piano). / Michael TIPPETT - Little Music. Guildhall String Ensemble. / GRIEG - "Sostenuto - Allegro Vivace" do Quarteto para cordas em fá maior. Quarteto de cordas de Oslo.

14:00 PIANÍSSIMO - O piano, seu repertório, seus intérpretes: STRAUSS: BURLESCA / VILLA-LOBOS: CONCERTO N°1 - NELSON FREIRE (ao vivo). Apresentação: Pianista e Professor Gilberto Tinetti. (repeated December 19, 01:00)

December 22:
15:00 MÚSICA DE CÂMARA: Richard WAGNER - Abertura de Tristão e Isolda. Ensemble Peter Buck./ Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Ciranda das sete notas e aria das bachianas n° 5. Franck Morelli (fagote). Benjamin Verdery (violão)./ Charles IVES - Quarteto de Cordas n° 1. Emerson String Quartet. / Isaac ALBENIZ - Sonata n° 3. Albert Guinorat (piano)./ Carl Phillip Emanuel BACH - Concerto para Oboé, cordas e baixo continuo em si bemol maior. Burkhard Glaetzner (oboé). Nues Bachisches Collegium Musicum Leipzig.

16:30 OSESP AO VIVO - Gravações exclusivas realizadas na Sala São Paulo: John Neschiling, regente / Dezsö Ránki, piano. Silvestre Revueltas - Sensemayá. / Béla Bartók - Concerto n° 2 para piano. / Heitor Villa-Lobos - Bachianas brasileiras n° 4. / Ottorino Respighi - Pini di Roma. (Repeated December 23, 12:30)

December 24:
20:00 O BRASIL DE VILLA-LOBOS com Turíbio Santos: Quarteto (1928) - Joachim Schmitz (flauta). Petra Fluhr (oboé). Johannes Moog (clarineta). Uhrich Freund (fagote). Sonata Fantasia n° 2 para violino e piano - Ngagul Tumangelov (violino). Bojidor Noev (piano). Trio n° 2, para piano e cello. Monique Duphil (piano). Florian Ebersberg (cello). Trio Villa-Lobos, Caracas . Choros n° 7 - Chamber Music Palm Beach

December 25 (Merry Christmas!):
06:00 A ESCRITA DE CÂMARA - Solistas e pequenas formações. Heitor VILLA-LOBOS -Trio para cordas./ Mozart Camargo GUARNIERI - trio para cordas. / Amaral VIERA - Quinteto para piano e cordas op.297. Ensemble Capriccio. Chouhei Min (violino). Korey Konkol(viola). Mina Fisher(cello). Artistas convidados:Max Barros (piano). William Schrickel(contra -baixo).

December 26:
07:00 DESPERTE COM OS CLÁSSICOS: KREISLER - Tamborim Chines. Jin Li (violino). Geoffrey Parsons (piano)./ COPLAND - Corral Nocturne, de Rodeo. Orquestra Sinfônica de St. Louis. Reg.: Leonard Slatkin./ RAVEL - Pavana para uma infanta morta. Orquestra Nova Philharmonia. Reg.: Lorin Maazel./ VILLA-LOBOS - Bachianas Brasileiras n° 5. Netania Davrath (soprano). Carl Stern (violoncelo). Orquestra Filarmônica de Nova Iorque. Reg.: Leonard Bernstein.

December 27:
06:00 A ESCRITA DE CÂMARA - Solistas e pequenas formações : Silvestre REVUETAS - Quarteto n°4. Quarteto n°2. / Alberto GINASTERA Quarteto n°1 op. 20. / Heitor VILLA -LOBOS -Quarteto N 17. Quarteto Latino Americano.

December 28:
13:00 DELICATESSEN com Kika Leoi: MOZART - "Allegro" do Divertimento III K.439b. The New World Basset Horn Trio. / VILLA-LOBOS - "Cirandas" das Bachianas brasileiras No.5. Lydia Kennedy, Frans Van Gurp (violões). / STRAVINSKY - Petrouchka, Burlesque em quatro cenas. Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Reg.: Ricardo Chailly. / Georg WAGENSEIL - "Adágio" do Concerto para trombone e orquestra em mi bemol maior. Branimir Slokar (trombone). Orquestra de Câmara de Lausanne. Reg.: Jean-Marie Auberson.

December 29:
10:00 CIRANDA - Academia Brasileira de Música: Cesar CAMARGO MARIANO - Cristal. Yo-Yo MA (violoncelo). César Camargo Mariano (piano)/ VILLA-LOBOS - A lenda do caboclo. .Sérgio ASSAD - Menino Yo-Yo MA (violoncelo). Duo Assad. / Tom JOBIM - Lenda. Orquestra. Dir.: Roberto Minczuk. / Luís COSME - Mãe d´água canta/ Oração à Teiniaguá. / Brincando de pegar. Marcelo Guerchfeld (violino), Maly Weissemblum (piano). Waldyr AZEVEDO - Pedacinhos do céu. Nikolaj Znaider (violino), Emmanuel Pahud (flauta), Alex Klein (oboé), Larry Combs (clarinete), Robert Bassinger (contrabaixo), Cyro Baptista (percussão) , Daniel Barenboim (piano) .

12:00 CONCERTOS DO MEIO DIA com o maestro Walter Lourenção: As Bachianas Brasileiras n° 7 de VILLA-LOBOS por Betin Günes e a Orquestra Sinfônica de Izmir

December 30:
07:00 DESPERTE COM OS CLÁSSICOS: BEETHOVEN - Andante Cantabile con moto, da sinfonia n°2 em ré maior, op. 36. Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo. Reg.: John Neschling./ BACH - Ária e Variações de 1 a 5, das Variações Goldberg, BWV 988. Andras Schiff (piano). / ALBÉNIZ -El Corpus en Sevilla, de "Iberia". Orquerstra Sinfônica de Cincinatti. Reg.: Jesús López-Cobos. / VILLA-LOBOS - Sexteto Místico. Antonio Carrasqueira (flauta). Luís Carlos Justi (oboé). Dilson Florêncio (saxofone). Cristina Braga (harpa). Maria Teresa Madeira (celesta). Turíbio Santos

December 31:
20:00 O BRASIL DE VILLA-LOBOS com Turíbio Santos: Bachianas Brasileiras n° 4 - Pro Arte Guitar Trio./ Modinhas e Canções Vol. 1 e Vol.2 - Ane Maria Bondi (soprano). François Petit (piano).

Holiday shopping at the Villa-Lobos Store

Time to think about ordering Villa-Lobos gifts online, to place under the tree. Go to the Villa-Lobos Store for ideas.

Elsie Houston on the web

I'm surprised I haven't come across this site before: The Annotated Ends Her Life: Elsie Houston. The Brazilian-born singer was a famous interpreter of Villa's songs.

"I was listening in my car to a CD of recorded opera singers from the 1930s and 40s titled, A Record of Singing. A few tracks in, amid conventional soprano interpretations of notable opera pieces, a stunningly weird song--pounding rhythmic piano and a swooping, shrieking voice. "What the hell?" I thought. I noted the track number. Five minutes later the back window of my Subaru wagon shattered.

"When I got home I looked up the track in the CD booklet. It was a Villa Lobos song (14 Serestas No. 8: Cancão do Carreiro) recorded by Elsie Houston and Pablo Miguel (piano) in 1941."

This is a fascinating story, very well told. Above: one of Carl Van Vechten's famous photos of the singer.

Houston is featured in the 1940 Time article on Villa-Lobos Choros in Manhattan. And more in this blog post; it will take me a while to decipher the Portuguese. The surrealist connection is fascinating.

Translating The Villa-Lobos Magazine

Now that I have Google Analytics turned on for the site, I'll be able to learn a lot about visitors to the Villa-Lobos Magazine. But it's clear already that Villa-Lobos is a global brand. Visitors to the Magazine last weekend come from 15 countries. In first place is Brazil, then the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, the U.K., and Italy. Other countries include the Netherlands, Nigeria, Spain, Belgium, Romania, Russia, Cyprus, and Japan.

I've long wanted my VL sites to be available in other languages - especially Portuguese. The state of real-time machine translation on the web has evolved over the years, and I'm pleased to be able to offer the Magazine in Portuguese, French, Italian, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and German. Click on your favourite language in the Translate the Villa-Lobos Magazine section on the top-right section of the site.

I'm anxious to hear feedback about the translations, since my own other language skills are terrible. I can follow a hockey game on the radio in French, but that's mainly player's names and "...et le but!!!!" Let me know how this works. Go Habs!

Rádio UOL

Here is something really, really cool. Rádio UOL from Brazil gives you access to some fine recordings of Villa-Lobos. When you click on the link above, you'll get a list of VL albums. Click on the little page to the left of each album, to get a list of tracks:

Then click on the track you want to hear, or OUVIR TODAS AS MÚSICAS, at the bottom, to hear the whole album. The album above, by the way, is As Cirandas De Villa-Lobos, by pianist
Homero De Magalhães.

I also have enjoyed listening to the Three Cello Concertos, with the Orquestra Sinfõnica de Galícia, cellist Antônio Meneses, and conductor Víctor Pablo Pérez. These are beautiful pieces, not very well known.

There's lots more to explore - not the least of which would be the popular music of Brazil. Thanks to UOL!

Assobio a Jato on the Web

You can hear one of VL's great chamber works, from a September 2007 concert by Flutissimi at McGill University that's available on the CBC Radio 2 Concerts on Demand website.

Assobio a Jato is in three movements:

• Allegro non Troppo
• Adagio
• Vivo

Timothy Hutchins plays flute, and the cellist is Brian Manker. The above links should play in a separate Windows Media Player window.

I love the Concerts on Demand archive page on the CBC site. It's starting to fill up with some really interesting concerts - especially after the Banff Internationl String Quartet Competition earlier this year. Also, check out the Angela Hewitt and Marc-André Hamelin concerts.

VL on Cultura FM - November 2007

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.

Nov. 10, 2007
10:00 CIRANDA - Academia Brasileira de Música: VILLA LOBOS - Uirapurú. Orquestra Sinfônica da Paraíba. Dir.: Eleazar de Carvalho./ Egberto GISMONTI - Memória e Fado. / Água e Vinho. Marcos Vinícius (violão)/ Ricardo TACUCHIAN - Transparências. Richard Albagli (vibrafone). Max Lifchitz (piano)/ Claudio SANTORO - Estudo n° 1/ Duas Invenções a Duas Vozes / Três Prelúdios. Gilda Oswaldo Cruz (piano)

Nov. 11, 2007
19:00 NOVO MUNDO - A Música das AméricasHeitor VILLA-LOBOS - Choros n° 4. Quinteto Villa-lobos./ Aaron COPLAND - Suite Billy The Kid. Orquestra Sinfonica da radio Tcheca de Brastilava sob direção de Stepehn Gunzenhauser. / Francisco MIGNONE - Maracatu do Chico Rei. Orquestra Sinfoncia do estado de São Paulo sob direção de John Neschiling.

Nov. 12, 2007
20:00 O BRASIL DE VILLA-LOBOS com Turíbio SantosSymphony n° 2 Ascenção Radio Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart e Dança do Índio Branco: Jose Ed. Martins (piano).

Nov. 15, 2007
22:00 SALA DE CONCERTO.VILLA-LOBOS - Descobrimento do Brasil (Quatro suites). Orquestra Nacional da Radiodifusão Francesa. Reg.: Heitor Villa-Lobos. / GUERRA PEIXE - Museu da Inconfidência. Orquestra Sinfônica Jovem de Milwaukee. Reg.: Manuel Prestamo.

Nov. 19, 2007
20:00 O BRASIL DE VILLA-LOBOS com Turíbio Santos.Sonata n° 2 ,Cello e piano ,Wolfgang Haufer (cello). Steven Swedish (piano). Suíte para voz e violino - A Menina e a Canção. Quero ser Alegre. Sertaneja. Jennifer Foster (soprano). Benny Kim (violino). 5 Prelúdios. Jodacil Damasceno

Nov. 24, 2007
10:00 CIRANDA - Academia Brasileira de Música.VILLA-LOBOS - Concerto para violão. Sharon Isbin (violão). Fialrmônica de Nova York. Dir.: José Serebrier./ Egberto GISMONTI - A fala da paixão. Sujeito a guincho. / Francisco MIGNONE - Valsas choro 1 a 6 Francisco Mignone (piano) / CAMARGO GUARNIERI - Suite mirim. Beatriz Balzi (piano).

Nov. 25, 2007
19:00 NOVO MUNDO - A Música das Américas.Alberto GINASTERA - Suite Panambi. Filarmonia Hungarica sob direção de Zoltan Rozsnyai./ Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Sinfonia n° 6: sobre as linhas das montanhas do Brasil./ Guilhermo RIFFO - Suite Ritual de la Tierra. Orquestra Sinfonia nacional Juvenil do Chile. Dir.: Guilhermo Riffo.

Nov. 26, 2007
20:00 O BRASIL DE VILLA-LOBOS com Turíbio Santos.O Guia pratico por Clara Sverner- 11 cadernos.

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.

Dean in Monterey

I'm off to present at the Internet Librarian 2007 Conference in Monterey, CA. I may not get a chance to post about VL much in the next week, but maybe I can listen to some music on the plane.

The Villa-Lobos Store

After many years as an Amazon Associate at the HVL Website, I've finally taken the time to put together a proper Villa-Lobos Store. Of course, Amazon provides amazing tools now. This looks like it took a lot more time to build than it actually did. Does 40 minutes sound right?

Andy Summers at the Villa-Lobos Museum

Police guitarist Andy Summers visited the Villa-Lobos Museum in Rio de Janeiro in February 2003.

"Like many guitarists I have lived with this music through most of my playing life. Lived with these seminal works by Villa Lobos that sit in your head like a monolithic presence. Like a place you know and love, it is music that you invariably return to once again to take in its exotic aroma."

Here is his really interesting interview with the VL Museum Director Turibio Santos.

I've been listening to Summers' One Train Later on his OTL MySpace page. This is really cool! I love his story about Roxanne starting out as a Bossa Nova. Buy the book - you'll find out the significance of "The Farting Zombies".

October 16, 2007 concert in Nicosia, Cyprus

The Brazilian-born pianist Arnaldo Cohen will be playing Brazilian music in Cyprus, I learn from this story in the Cyprus Mail.

His recital in Cyprus will comprise works by Alberto Nepomuceno, Alexandre Levy, Gnattali, Braga, Villa-Lobos, Nazareth, Dutra, Oswald, Guarnieri, Claudio Santoro, Francisco Mignone and Liszt.Arnaldo Cohen Recital. October 16, 2007. PASYDY Auditorium, Nicosia. 8:30pm. Tel.22-663871

New Sonia Rubinsky Recordings on the way

Pianist Sonia Rubinsky, recording session in Paris.
Photo courtesy of Nikolaos Samaltanos

It's fun checking out all of the VL activity on the web that I've missed out in the past couple of years. It's great to see that volumes 7 and 8 of Sonia Rubinsky's Naxos cycle of the complete Villa-Lobos piano music are slated for release soon. More information here.

Meanwhile, volume six is still only recently in release, and I've been enjoying listening to it on the Naxos Music Library. Here's the excellent liner notes, by James Melo.

Cristina Ortiz and Choros #11

I added a new CD profile to a new section of the HVL Website. It's a favourite disc of mine: the Ondine recording of Choros #11. This piece is one of those big, sprawling orchestral works Villa was turning out in the mid- to late-20s, like the Choros 8, 9 and 10, (though #11 has a large piano part - it's pretty much a piano concerto). None of these works is well-known; all are very rarely performed or recorded.

I came across this entry in Cristina Ortiz's journal on her website. She played Choros #11 in Brazil in November 2005, and was planning to record it with BIS in the following February. Here's what she had to say about the work:

"When asked to learn Villa-Lobos’ Choros # 11, the only information I had was its length, all of 65 minutes! But the moment I read two or three of the most beautiful themes he ever wrote, my decision was made and I never flinched: the pleasure I would get from playing them, carried me all the way! "

These were the concerts in São Paulo:

17, 18, 19 November 2005, São Paulo, BrazilSala São PauloOrquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São PauloJohn Neschling, conductorCristina Ortiz, piano
VILLA-LOBOS "Chôros" no 11, for Piano and Orchestra

In any case, the BIS recording never seems to have happened. I will have to send off a query, and see if it's "in the can", waiting to be released. That would be cool.

In the meantime, there's a newly-released VL Chamber Music CD from Cristina Ortiz, which I will glom onto and write about real soon.

The Villa-Lobos Web Machine Grinds On

We're finally starting to move over the original content from the Heitor Villa-Lobos Website - first up in 1995 (!) at www.rdpl.red-deer.ab.ca/villa - and then at www.rdpl.org/villa.

The site has a new domain: http://www.villalobos.ca/ - check it out.

Meanwhile, I'm thinking about how to migrate the many blog postings here at the Villa-Lobos Magazine. This blog goes way back, too. The first post was six years ago, in October 2001.

Because I can't focus, there's a third site: Tumbling Villa-Lobos, at villa-lobos.tumblr.com, which I set up because I liked the look of tumblr.com (and I still do). Check it out!

The new site is going up

Go to the new domain for the Heitor Villa-Lobos Website - that's www.villalobos.ca.

It's up and running on Drupal (thanks, Cory!), and I'll be moving over all of the original content Real Soon Now (some of it goes back to the early 90's!).

Then it's time for new content!

The Magazine

Hi all:

This is my first post to the VL Magazine in quite a while. In 2004 I ran out of time to do my Villa-Lobos work, always a free-time project from the beginning of this magazine in October 2001, and before that, the Villa-Lobos Website, which began in 1995.

Will I be able to resurrect either project? I'm not sure yet, but I want everyone to know the Villa-Lobos Website files (still a valuable resource, I think) have been moved to a new domain: http://www.villalobos.ca. I will be putting together proper referral pages from the old site - www.rdpl.org/villa - real soon.

Meanwhile, my great IT Librarian Cory Stier has constructed an awesome new Drupal-based Open Source website for my library, so I'm hoping I can move the VL Magazine posts that are still relevant to the new site.

New posts? We'll see.

Cheers from Red Deer...

Dean

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.

New VL CD release

New this month from Meridian Records in the UK:


O Violoncello do Villa
Complete works for violin, cello and piano
Vol 3

This disc features Villa's Piano Trios 2 and 3, played by Trio Villa-Lobos. The group is made up of Richard Milone, violin; Miriam Braga, piano; and Tânia Lisboa, cello. Braga and Lisboa have formerly teamed up on the Meridian release CDE 84357 O Violoncello do Villa Vol. 1, and were joined by violinist Yang Zhang in CDE 84391 O Violoncello do Villa Vol. 2.

While the piano trios are early works (the second was written in 1915 and the third in 1918), I've always enjoyed listening to them. Don't expect chamber music at the level of VL's string quartet cycle, or the chamber choros written in the 1920s. And don't expect the vitality of the great orchestral works written before the end of the teens (Amazonas or Uirapuru, both written in 1917, for example). In the piano trios Villa was relaxing and enjoying himself, perhaps since he only had the three instruments to keep track of. This is very mellow music.

Meridian is serving Villa-Lobos well. Besides the above three discs there is an excellent piano disc, DUOCD 89017, with Clélia Iruzun, containing three major works: Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4, Prole Do Bebe No. 1, and Choros No. 5. As well, there's another recent new release, CDE 84454, Tangos & Choros: Flute Music from Argentina and Brazil, that features Bachianas Brasileiras #6, and #5 in an arrangement for flute and guitar.

Washington DC Screening of Villa-Lobos: Uma Vida de Paixao

The Brazilian-American Cultural Institute in Washington DC will be screening the 2000 film Villa-Lobos: Uma Vida de Paixao by Director Zelito Viana, on Tuesday, February 24, 2004 at 7 p.m. at BACI, 4719 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W.

It's nice to hear the music of Villa-Lobos (the aria from Bachianas Brasileiras no. 5) when you visit the Institute's home page. Thanks to Wayne Landsman for the tip on this. I haven't yet heard about North American or European distribution of VHS of DVD for this film, but I'm hoping the English subtitles for the Washington screening indicates that something is coming soon.

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.

Symphony no. 10 on Harmonia Mundi

I'm back after a long break. Hope you're all still out there...

The BBC's Classical Review website is featuring the new CD from Harmonia Mundi of Symphony no. 10 'Amerindia', with the Orquesta Sinfonica De Tenerife conducted by Victor Pablo Perez.


The new Harmonia Mundi Cd of Symphony 10

After only a couple of VL symphony recordings until just before the turn of the millennium, we can now choose between labels, orchestras and conductors for more than a few of the eleven symphonies. The BBC review by Andrew MacGregor notes that there are three recordings of no. 10, one of which has not been released. This would be a key disc in the soon-to-be-completed Carl St. Clair Stuttgart project of the complete symphonies. Recently Bert Berenschot let me know about the latest release in that series: Symphony no. 7 and Sinfonietta no. 1.

CPO's new CD of Symphony 7

The first recording of no. 10 was of course the Koch International Classics recording by Gisele Ben-Dor and the Santa Barbara Symphony. This disc has been a favourite of mine since it was released in 2000.

Koch's Symphony no. 10 with Gisele Ben-Dor

The BBC page has short RealAudio clips from the first and fifth movements of the Tenerife CD that give you an idea of the kind of music to expect, if not the sound quality. I'm looking forward to listening to the new disc more closely.

Here, by the way, is Bert Berenshot's posting to rec.music.classical.recordings on the new cpo disc:

"Finally CPO released another cd in the Villa-Lobos cycle of 12 symphonies, conducted by Carl St. Clair. This time we get Symphony no.7 combined with the Sinfonietta no.1 (1916). The complexity of Symphony no. 7 dates almost audible from 1945, the same year Villa-Lobos wrote his most complex Piano Concerto (no. 1) and his most complex String Quartet (no. 9). All pieces contain more dissonant and even atonal sections he didn't write any more after 1930. Surely he did write them in the period 1917-1930 in pieces like Amazonas, Choros no. 8 and 11, the Trio and some others, but in a different way, more influenced by the 'primitivism' of those days. Symphony no. 7 is with 36 minutes longer than most of his symphonies and is a impressive piece starting with those orchestral glissandi we already know from the opening of Uirapuru and Symphony no. 11 and somewhere at the end of Genesis.

"It is combined with the early Sinfonietta no. 1 of 1916 which is much lighter and more transparant, composed for a Mozart-size orchestra and written in memoriam Mozart. It runs 23 minutes and is nice but still less typical Villa-Lobos.
So, now we still have to wait for the CPO release of no. 2 (a long piece of one hour, only recorded in the '40's by the Jansen Symphony of Los Angeles) and the choral 10th (Amerindia), already two times recorded by others the last years.

"See http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/hnum/1561100/rk/classic/rsk/notepad for information and sound samples. Until February 15th they sell it cheaper. I suppose it takes some weeks before it will be available elsewhere.

"Bert B."

Thanks for this, Bert - as usual you're on the leading edge of the Villa-Lobos recording world.

Villa-Lobos on Letterman

Try to catch The Late Show with David Letterman on Tuesday night, October 7th. Dave's guest is the great soprano Renee Fleming. Word is that we'll hear her sing Bachianas Brasileiras no. 5. This from industry insider Lee Boyd, who emails me this additional information, which she heard on WQXR:

"Renee Fleming will be doing probably just the Aria, with the cellists organized by Edward Aron, who is an award-winning cellist from our very own town of New Castle, only he is from the Chappaqua side of the tracks. Aron also does some programming with the station, so he told them about his performance, which incidentally includes VL and Renee."

So make sure you catch tonight's program (and you'll also get to see Uma Thurman doing her Kill Bill promotion).

Upcoming Villa-Lobos Concerts

Since 1997 I've been keeping track of Villa-Lobos concerts around the world, that I've heard about from performers or presenters, or that I've come across on the web. You can find the Upcoming Villa-Lobos Concerts page at http://www.rdpl.org/villa/concerts.html. I've recently reorganized them by month in a convenient calendar format. Here, for example, is the page for September 2003, which includes concerts from Rio de Janeiro, Brooklyn, Teresopolis, Belo Horizonte, Sao Paulo, London and Delaware & Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Besides letting people know about concerts they may wish to attend, these pages now play another role: to document Villa-Lobos concerts from around the world over the past six years. I've analyzed the concerts by work, and will be keeping this information up-to-date in a spreadsheet linked to at the page above. It's also available in this cool new format from Macromedia called FlashPaper - here's the link: http://www.rdpl.org/villa/concerts/ConcertsSpreadsheet.htm.

Please let me know about any Villa-Lobos performances coming up in your neck of the woods.

ASV Choros Series

One of the major works by Villa-Lobos that isn't available on CD is the sixth Choros, a fun orchestral work that really swings. Thanks to a brand new CD on the ASV label, we'll all have a chance to hear it. Other under-recorded pieces included on this disc are the Introduction aux Choros for guitar and orchestra and the Choros no. 7 for chamber ensemble.

What's even more exciting about this release is that it's billed as the first in a new series of the Villa-Lobos Choros. It's great to see ASV paying some attention to the orchestral music of Villa-Lobos (their excellent series of piano music with Alma Petchersky continues with a well-chosen recital in the series' third volume). The orchestra featured is the Orquesta Filharmonica de Gran Canaria, under the direction of Adrian Leaper. I see by the Upcoming Concerts and Archived Concerts pages of the Heitor Villa-Lobos Website that Leaper conducted the following Villa-Lobos works in the Canary Islands: Choros 10 in March of 2003, Uirapuru in September of 2002, and Bachianas Brasileiras no. 2 in February 2001. That may indicate that other orchestral Villa-Lobos may be on its way. I'm anxious to hear this new release (to be shipped by Amazon.com later this week), and the upcoming releases from ASV.

Can't wait to hear Choros 6? Listen in to Cultura FM from Sao Paulo this Monday, August 25, at 11:00 a.m., Sao Paulo time (9 a.m. EDT), and you can hear it played by the Orquestra Petrobras Pro-Musica, conducted by Roberto Tibirica - listen here on the Internet.

Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira Website

The website of Rio de Janeiro's OSB, or the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, as it's also known, is very fine. There's useful information on upcoming programs - for example, this October 18, 2003 concert:

18 October
Norton Morozowicz, conductor
Miguel Proença, piano

Villa-Lobos, Preludio da Bachianas Brasileiras no. 4; Saudades das Selvas Brasileiras, no. 1 & 2; Seis Cirandas (Theresinha de Jesus – A Condessa – Senhora Dona Sancha – O Cravo Brigou com a Rosa – Passa, Passa Gaviao); Valsa da Dor; Hommage à Chopin
Prokofiev, Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra, in D-flat Major, op. 10
Bartok, Concerto No. 3 for Piano and Orchestra

There's also plenty of historical information, including this picture from 1958:




Villa-Lobos' last concert with the BSO and Sônia Maria Strutt acknowledging the ovation to the execution of the Maestro's "Momo Precoce", on August 24, 1958

All in all a fine site. I even have one of the computer wallpapers decorating my Windows desktop.

Villa-Lobos on Cultura FM - June 2003

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.

On Sunday, June 8 at 12:00 noon - on the program Acervo Cultura, the first program in the series "Os Choros de Villa-Lobos." Following at 1:00 p.m. is a program of music by the great Brazilian pianist Nelson Freiere. Recently I've been enjoying listening to Freiere's performance of Rudepoema.

The next day, June 9 at 4:00 a.m., you can hear the Quarteto Amazônia perform the 7th String Quartet. Later, at 10:00 a.m., you can hear the same ensemble in Quartet 11. Better yet, buy the whole set of quartets from Kuarup.

June 12 at 11:00 is the second program in the series "Os Choros de Villa-Lobos."

On June 16 at 11:00, pianist Nahim Marun and violinist Claudio Cruz perform Sonata Fantasia n° 2.

June 18 at 11:00 is the third program in the "Os Choros de Villa-Lobos" series.

On June 23 at 11:00 you can hear an important work by Camargo Guarnieri, the greatest composer of the generation following Villa-Lobos: his 3rd Symphony, performed by the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, conducted by Johh Neschling.

June 25 at 11:00 is the fourth "Os Choros de Villa-Lobos" program.

Red Deer - a Cultural Capital of Canada

This post isn't directly related to the life and works of Heitor Villa-Lobos, though after eight years of publishing the Heitor Villa-Lobos Website at Red Deer Public Library, there is a strong link between the great Brazilian composer and the city of Red Deer (pop. 70,000), which is halfway between the larger Alberta cities of Edmonton and Calgary.

Last week, Minister of Canadian Heritage Sheila Copps unveiled the names of the five Cultural Capitals of Canada for 2003, at a news conference in Vancouver. The five cities chosen are: Caraquet (New Brunswick), Red Deer (Alberta), Rivière-du-Loup (Quebec), Thunder Bay (Ontario) and Vancouver (British Columbia). There's more on this announcement at the Canadian Heritage site, and at the City of Red Deer site.

The key to Red Deer's success in the world of culture lies in the city's Community Culture Masterplan, and the long-standing grass-roots partnerships that underlie it. This intensely collaborative environment makes it so much easier for people and organizations to make important, lasting, sustainable cultural statements within a community and around the world. As someone who has the privilege of working in such an environment, I'm proud to celebrate this important national recognition of a great community.

Max Eschig Website

Most of Villa-Lobos's major works were published by Editions Max Eschig in Paris. Eschig finally has a website up [http://www.durand-salabert-eschig.com/english/homepage.html], and a very good one, with complete catalogues, lists of agents for sales and rental around the world, and some historical background.

Max Eschig is the most important person from the music publishing industry in the life of Villa-Lobos. It was Eschig more than anyone who helped make Villa's name in the wider world.

Max Eschig (1872-1927)

Tracking usage at the Heitor Villa-Lobos Website

While I haven't had time yet to properly set this up, I have been tracking some usage at the Villa-Lobos Website (http://www.rdpl.org), using Sitemeter. Here are a couple of interesting graphs provided by this useful service; first is the Visitor Time Zone graph:

You'll see that people from around the world are visiting the site, with the largest numbers coming from the Central European, Brazilian and Eastern and Western North American Time Zones. The Organization Tracking graph adds detail:

Here you'll see Brazil, France, Belgium, the UK, Austria, Japan and Italy at the top of the country list (I expect most US and Canadian visitors come from the .net, .com and .edu domains).

These results show the widespread interest in Villa-Lobos - his appeal is international!

Andre Kostelanetz plays music of Villa-Lobos

In 1974 Columbia (CBS) records released an LP of music performed by the great master of light music, Andre Kostelanetz. All of the pieces were by Villa-Lobos, some in arrangements by Kostelanetz. The LP (M 32821, CBS 61564) shows up in many lists of favourite "easy-listening" classics on the Internet. The highlight for me is the Suite from Magdalena (Villa-Lobos's operetta/Broadway musical of 1948). For more information on the original work, see Ricardo Prado's excellent essay, in Lee Boyd's excellent translation.

Kostelanetz's version of the work points up the full-blown kitschy charm of Villa's music - this is definitely the master letting his hair down! Not profound music, but definitely fun. As Prado says, Villa-Lobos "re-fashioned" many of his favourite melodies - some famous and some lifted from obscure works of his past.

The Kostelanetz LP hasn't been reissued on CD (though I think it would sell well, judging by the recent mini-boom in Villa-Lobos recordings), so you'll need to search it out in libraries (the University of Alberta has a copy) or used-disc stores and websites. The only CD of the complete musical, which Prado praises highly, is hard to come by - I had an order in at amazon.com forever, and it was finally cancelled.



The Teatro Amazonas, a great opera house in the tropical rain-forest.

Your best bet for hearing this music: go to the VII FESTIVAL AMAZONAS DE ÓPERA at the great tropical opera house in Manaus. Magdalena will be performed on the 26th and 29th of April and the 1st of May, with Ligia Amadio conducting the Amazonas Filarmônica, the Coral do Amazonas, the Corpo de Dança do Amazonas and a Coral Infantil. A last minute trip to Brazil would be nice...

Thanks to Bert Berenschot for providing this amazingly entertaining music.

Villa-Lobos on Cultura FM - April 2003

It's a tradition at The Villa-Lobos Magazine for me to list interesting Villa-Lobos pieces coming up on Sao Paulo's Cultural FM. For the month of April I'm highlighting only one program - there are many other performances of works by Villa-Lobos, but most are easily available on CD. So here's the April listing - listen here on the Internet. Times are local Sao Paulo times, one hour ahead of EST.

On April 28 at 11:00 a.m., the rarely heard Ciranda das sete notas for bassoon and strings is performed by the great bassoonist Noel Devos, with the Orquestra de Câmara Brasileira conducted by Bernardo Bessler. The same program includes works by Brazilian composers of a new generation: Blauth (b. 1931), Nobre (b. 1939) and Lacerda (b.1927).

Speaking of Brenno Blauth, you can listen to a movement from his Concertino para oboe y cuerdas performed by Argentina's Camerata Bariloche, with oboist Andres Spiller. There are many other pieces by Latin American composers on the same page - check out this excellent site.

Villa-Lobos on Cultura FM - March

Here are radio programs of interest from Sao Paulo's Cutural FM for March - listen here on the Internet. Times are local Sao Paulo times, one hour ahead of EST.

At 11:00 on March 18, the Quatuor, 'Impressões da vida mundana' is performed by the Lontano Ensemble and the BBC Singers, under the direction of Odaline de la Martinez. This is from the 2002 Lorelt CD, which seems to be only available at the UK Amazon site.

At 11:00 on March 27, Eleazar de Carvalho conducts the Orquestra Sinfônica da Paraíba in Uirapurú.

At 15:00 on March 31st you can hear parts of a concert of music by Villa-Lobos and Hekel Tavares at the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, with the Orquestra Sinfônica Petrobras Pró Música conducted by Roberto Tibiriça. The pianist is Arnaldo Cohen (piano).

Villa-Lobos in the Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a multilingual project to create a complete and accurate open content encyclopedia.

I've recently added a fairly comprehensive article on Villa-Lobos. I will be keeping an eye on the article, and hope to see readers of The Villa-Lobos Magazine and the Heitor Villa-Lobos Website make their own contributions to the main article or any related topics.

I hope that the Villa-Lobos community will be able to provide information on Villa-Lobos and Brazilian classical music to Wikipedia in other languges, especially Portuguese.

José Vieira Brandão

October, 2002 saw the death of an important figure in the life of Villa-Lobos and in the musical life of Brazil. Thanks to Martin Anderson for giving me permission to re-print his obituary of José Vieira Brandão. The article appeared first in The Independent on October 18, 2002. The picture is from the Museu Villa-Lobos (Brandão in on the far left).

José Vieira Brandão
Brazilian composer and pianist
18 October 2002

José Vieira Brandão, composer, pianist, conductor and teacher: born Cambuquira, Brazil 26 September 1911; married Eunice Costa Pereira (four sons, one daughter); died Rio de Janeiro 27 July 2002.
It's a tough life being a composer in a country where a single towering figure epitomises its music both at home and abroad. Even now, Finnish composers still feel Sibelius looming over them (indeed, the late Einar Englund called his 1996 autobiography I skuggan av Sibelius – "In the Shadow of Sibelius"). For Brazilian musicians it is Heitor Villa-Lobos who hogs the limelight. But for José Vieira Brandão Villa-Lobos' pre-eminence presented an opportunity rather than a threat, and he became one of his closest musical companions.

Brandão's musical ability was evident in childhood, and at eight he moved south from Minas Gerais to Rio de Janeiro to continue his musical education, first studying piano privately and then at the Instituto Nacional de Música, graduating with a gold medal in 1929; three years later he was awarded the diploma of the Conservatório Nacional de Canto Orfeônico, and choral conducting was to become the other mainstay of his life as a practising musician.

His ability as a pianist was impressive enough for the French pianist Marguerite Long, on a visit to Brazil, to ask him to come to France to study with her, and he accepted. But it was not to be, as he later explained in an interview:

At that time I had met Villa-Lobos, when he started to introduce his ideas in musical education into the public schools in Brazil. My trip to France was already scheduled but I decided to stay here and work in his project.

His collaboration with Villa-Lobos was an almost permanent feature of his early life. As a youth he spent his afternoons at Villa-Lobos' house, playing his mentor's music on the piano, and was to give the premieres of many of his piano compositions; later, in 1942, he was the piano soloist in the first performances of the Chôros No 11 in Rio and the Bachianas Brasileiras No 3 in New York, both conducted by the composer.

He became Villa-Lobos' assistant in 1932, helping him in his ambitious reform programme for music education in Brazilian schools, later pushing the project forward himself. In 1934 he founded the Madrigal Vox do Conservatório Brasileiro de Música and led the group until 1943; in parallel he held positions as an assistant professor of music and then professor of arts, becoming a professor at the Conservatório de Canto Orfeônico in 1943, and remaining there until 1967. He was president of the Conservatório Brasileiro de Música from 1940 until his last years, and one of the founders of the Academia Brasileira de Música in 1945.

Vieira Brandão began to compose at the age of 15, but his composition didn't really pick up speed until after 1940; by the time of his death his catalogue contained some 100 works, written in a national-Romantic style. His choral music, the technique sharpened by years of practical experience, buzzes with Brazilian rhythms and forms an important contribution to the Brazilian choral tradition. Nor did he neglect his own instrument, the piano, and the musicologist and Vieira Brandão scholar Maria Teresa Madeira singles out the 4 Études, the two Serestas (1942) and the Fantasia Concertante for piano and orchestra (1937-59).

Martin Anderson



Thanks, Martin, for that beautiful tribute. It's our opportunity to learn more about this key figure in the Villa-Lobos world.

As I write this, I'm listening to the Brazilian String Quartet play Brandão's Miniatura. This lovely piece is the only work I've heard from what looks to be a significant body of music. It's on an excellent disc I received late last year, on the Albany label from New York. Entitled "Brazilian String Quartet", it includes music by Villa-Lobos and two other composers of the generations after Villa: Radames Gnattali and Cesar Guerra Peixe, performed by one of the premiere chamber ensembles of Brazil. I'm afraid it won't be easy for most of us to hear more of the music of Brandão, though. Amazon.com lists only the piece for String Quartet.

There is an opportunity to hear one of Brandão's chamber works coming up - I happened to mention it yesterday in a post to The Villa-Lobos Magazine. At 11:00 São Paulo time (10 a.m. EST) on February 5th, you can hear his Divertimento for flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet and bassoon on Cultura FM. Listen here on the Internet.

I'll be on the lookout for more of this music, from online vendors in Brazil and around the world. I'll report my findings here.

January on Cultura FM

Happy New Year!

Here are radio programs of interest from Sao Paulo's Cutural FM for January - listen here on the Internet. Times are local Sao Paulo times, one hour ahead of EST.

At 11:00 on January 7, Janos Starker performs the Fantasia for cello & orchestra. Eleazar de Carvalho conducts the Orquestra Sinfônica da Paraíba. This is from the excellent Brazilian Festival '88: A Brazilian Extravaganza CD on the Delos label, still available from Amazon.com.

The following day, again on the Cirandas program at 11:00, you can hear three relatively unfamiliar works from the great Choros series: the epic number 12, along with two witty chamber pieces: number 7 and 4.

At 12:00 on January 12th, the program Acervo Cultura presents "As notas são": "Da música brasileira. Série de 13 programas dedicados à composição erudita do Brasil. Em destaque: A CRIAÇÃO E A CRÍTICA (VILLA-LOBOS E FRANCISCO MIGNONE OS CRIADORES, CARLOS MAUL, E DOIS ANÔNIMOS OS CRÍTICOS). Idealização e apres.: Sérgio Vasconcellos Correa. Apoio de produção: João Antonio Batista. Produção: José Roberto Prazeres - 1990." I'll try listening to this, but I'm not sure if my extremely limited Portuguese will allow me to understand much.

At 11:00 on January 13, you can hear one of the best of Villa's Symphonies, his Sixth. This performance by Carl St. Clair and the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Stuttgart is also one of the best in the excellent cpo series of complete symphonies.

At 15:00 on January 27, the great String Trio is performed by the Ensemble Capriccio, from a 2001 Paulus CD. Also on the programme is a work by a composer I don't know, Amaral Vieira. His Quintet for piano and strings is op. 297, so there's a lot of Vieira out there to listen for in the future. The Villa-Lobos String Trio is repeated at 11:00 on January 30, along with a very interesting group of other works: New York Skyline for piano, the Dança do índio branco and Improviso em homenagem a Villa-Lobos by pianist João Carlos Assis.

Looking ahead to February, there's a short piece I'm looking forward to hearing. It's the Divertimento by the late José Vieira Brandão. Brandão, a close associate of Villa-Lobos and an excellent composer in his own right, performed many premieres of works by Villa-Lobos. He died in October of 2002. The Divertimento is performed by a chamber group of excellent Brazilian players: Andréa Ernest Dias (flute), Luiz Carlos Justi (oboe), José Botelho (clarinet), Philipp Doyle (trumpet) and Noel Devos (bassoon). Listen at 11:00 on February 5th.

On February 28 at 11:00, the rarely performed Introdução ao Choros for guitar and orchestra can be heard. This is from a highly recommended Ondine CD with the Finnish guitarist Timo Korhonen.

Good listening!

Villa-Lobos film in New York

This was quick: news from New York about an upcoming showing of Villa-Lobos: Uma Vida de Paixão, at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia, Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway. It's scheduled at 9 p.m., November 23, 2002 - check out the Symphony Space website for more information.

Villa-Lobos film in London

Distribution of the Zelito Vianna film Villa-Lobos: Uma Vida de Paixão has been slow outside of Brazil, where it was released in 2000, and a handful of Film Festivals since then (including Miami and Moscow). Londoners will have a chance to see the film on November 19th, at the Brazilian Embassy's Brazilian Contemporary Arts Cineclub, Room 101, Palingswick House, 241 King Street, London, W6 9LP.

I'm watching the web for any sign of the DVD being released in the rest of the world. I'd appreciate word from any readers of The Villa-Lobos Magazine about any video or DVD releases, or release in theatres outside of Brazil. Unfortunately, the official website from Mapafilm no longer seems to be available.

Those who have seen the film seem to rate it highly: the Internet Movie Database has 45 ratings, with an average of 8.4 out of 10.

[Picture: the movie poster from Mapa Filme - click here for a larger version - 128k]

The London Brazilian Embassy's website is excellent: there's lots of interest from the cultural side. Here's an upcoming concert I found out about from the site, which takes place on November 28, 2002 at Bolívar Hall, the Embassy of Venezuela, 54 Grafton Way, London W1T 5DJ. Nadia Myerscough, violin, and Clélia Iruzun, piano, will play the interesting early Villa-Lobos work, the Sonata-Fantasia No. 1, along with works by Albéniz, Ginastera, de Falla, Prokofiev, Bartok and Marlos Nobre. I've been listening to the works for piano and violin and piano trio recently, and find them absolutely charming. There's more information on the concert here, including this interesting tidbit: Ms. Iruzun will release a CD of Brazilian piano concertos on the Lorelt Label in early 2003.

November on Cultura FM

Here are radio programs of interest from Sao Paulo's Cutural FM - listen here on the Internet. Times are local Sao Paulo times, one hour ahead of EST.

The Quarteto Bessler-Reis has recorded the cycle of Villa-Lobos string quartets on the Kuarup label. You can hear the 12th and 13th at 10:00 on November 8. This is repeated on the 15th at 04:00. Quartets 14 and 17 are performed at 10:00 the 15th, and repeated at 04:00 on the 22nd. The same day at 10:00, the Bessler-Reis group play quartets 4 and 5 (repeated on the 29th at 04:00). On the 29th at 10:00, you can hear quartets 1 and 3.

Every weekday at 11:00, Cultura FM presents "Ciranda: Academia brasileira da música". On November 12, pianist João Carlos Assis Brasil performs New York Skyline and the Dança do índio branco, along with his own "Improviso em homenagem a Villa-Lobos." Later on the same program, the Ensemble Capriccio performs the amazing String Trio.

Benjamin Bunch's New Website

Guitarist Benjamin Bunch promotes his Etcetera CDs on this excellent website. The site includes an MP3 format file of the 2nd Prelude - one of Villa-Lobos' most popular pieces. We look forward to his upcoming disc An Homage to Heitor Villa-Lobos for soprano and guitar.

Note that though Bunch's discs aren't easy to find in North America, you can order them through the German and UK versions of Amazon.

Paul Creston and Villa-Lobos

The American composer Paul Creston lived from 1906 to 1985. The Paul Creston archives are available in the Special Collections Department of the Miller Nichols Library at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

The picture above is included in the online version of the Paul Creston Collection. It's another picture that demonstrates how much Villa-Lobos got around in the musical world. Some day soon I'll compile a list of all the famous composers, instrumentalists and conductors that were photographed alongside Villa-Lobos.

Villa-Lobos on Radio France's France Musique

France has many connections with Villa-Lobos, from the composer's first visit in the 1920's, to the time he spent in the 1950's, recording with French EMI. France Musique, the classical music radio network of Radio France, can be heard live on the Internet. Here are some upcoming Villa-Lobos performances, all from European recordings that aren't all that easy to come by here in North America:

October 13, 04:46: Bachianas Brasileiras 6 with Norton Morozowicz, flute, and Noël Devos, bassoon. This is from the CD ADDA 590 901. This is repeated at 22:46 on October 15 and October 17 at 10:46.

October 19, 15:48: Tenor Marcel Quillévéré sings the three Cançoes Indigenas (Indigenous Songs) that Villa-Lobos wrote in 1926. He is accompanied by Noël Lee, on piano, in this excerpt from the OPUS 111 CD (OPS 30-65). This is repeated at 03:48 on October 20, 21:48 on October 22 and 09:48 on October 24.

October 22, 11:52: The Fantasie for saxophone, three horns and strings, with Detlef Bensmann, alto saxophone, and the RIAS-Sinfonietta de Berlin, under the direction of David Shallon. From the KOCH CD 311025. Repeated at 17:52 on October 23.