Momoprecoce, from the 2012 Proms

Nelson Freire plays piano, and Marin Alsop conducts OSESP, in this video from an August 2012 Proms concert. Momoprecoce is a fun pastiche that Villa-Lobos put together from his Carnaval das crianças for solo piano.

RNZ Composer of the Week

 

A superb radio program from Radio New Zealand: Thomas Goss presents Villa-Lobos's music in the context of the birth of Brazilian modernism. Villa's masterpieces of the 1920s are illuminated by Mario de Andrade's amazing poetry.  This can be streamed on demand, but hurry up and listen; I'm not sure how long it will be available.

Four Bachianas Brasileiras from A Grande Música

This episode of A Grande Música from TV Brasil includes the following Villa-Lobos performances:

• Introduction: José Schiller 
• 3:20 Bachianas Brasileiras #6, with Marcelo Bonfim, flute and Elione Medeiros, bassoon
• 13:00 Bachianas Brasileiras #9, with Isaac Karabtchevsky conducting the Orquestra Petrobrás Sinfônica
• 21:45 Bachianas Brasileiras #5, with soprano Veruschka Mainhard, and Ricardo Rocha conducting an orchestra of cellos
• 33:45 Bachianas Brasileiras #2, with cellist Antonio Meneses and Cristina Ortiz

The Villa-Lobos Experience in New York

The Association of Classical Dominican Artists in New York City will present a musical event that brings together the Dominican and Brazilian communities of New York City: "The Villa Lobos Experience", to take place on Monday May 12 at 7 PM at the Aaron Davis Hall of The City College of New York, located at 135th Street and Covent Avenue. The event is free, but reservations are required.

For more information, please see http://www.dominicanclassical.org/.  To register for "The Villa-Lobos Experience" please proceed to our Eventbrite link: http://www.eventbrite.com/o/association-of-dominican-classical-artists-inc-1270786671 

Arguably the best classical composer from South America, Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) wrote works that not only incorporate his native and folk Afro music, but also style elements from classicism, impressionism and the baroque. "The Villa-Lobos Experience" is a collaboration of both Dominican, Brazlian and American visual artists and classical musicians living in New York City.

Rarely heard works will performed in the program, including

• O Canto Do Cysne Negro (poem-Dance-Mime) Extract from Symphonic Poem Naufragio de Klinikos arr. For cello and harp by Dewy Owens 
• Lent from Fantasia arr. for Saxophone, viola, cello and harp by Pedro Vizzarro 
• Bachianas Brasileiras No 5 
• Choros #2 for Flute and Clarinet 
• Assobio a Jato (The Jet Whistle) for Flute and Cello (12 Minutes) 
• Quartour Symbolic for Harp, Celesta, flute, et Saxophone alto in Eb with female voices 
• Sexteto Mistico for Flute, Oboe, Saxophone alto in Eb, Guitar, Celesta, and Harp 

Mission of the Association of Dominican Classical Artists: To foster appreciation for Dominican art and folkloric music in the United States; create performance space for our artist members; and, bring our music to communities with little or no access to live performances. We accomplish our mission by presenting concerts and educational programs.

General Information The Association of Dominican Classical Artists was founded in 1980 by artists and composers of Dominican descent living in New York City.

BB no4 for harmonica, cello & piano

José Staneck plays the harmonica ("gaita" in Portuguese) in this very effective arrangement of the Aria from Bachianas Brasileiras no. 4. Ricardo Santoro plays cello, with Flávio Augusto on piano.

Remy Van Kesteren Memento

The new CD Memento by harpist Remy Van Kesteren includes arrangements of the 5 Villa-Lobos Preludes for Guitar.

Eolienne Quartet plays Quintette en forme de Choros

Last month's Total Immersion: Villa-Lobos concerts by the BBC Symphony Orchestra included performances by musicians of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Here is the Eolienne Quintet performing an excellent version of the Quintette en forme de Choros.

New guitar concerto CD

 

Here's the second new Guitar Concerto CD of 2014: Pablo Sainz Villegas plays guitar & James Judd conducts the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. This concert performance is now available for streaming at The Naxos Music Library; I'm not sure when it will be available for sale.  Here is the information on the November 2013 concert, which includes music by Mendelssohn, Elgar & Dyens.

Rio Paris

 

The new Erato CD Rio Paris, with Natalie Dessay, Agnes Jaoui, Helena Noguerra & Liat Cohen, will be released early in May 2014. You can pre-order it here. Here's a video preview; I'm looking forward to this!

Quatour Symbolique

This modernist piece from 1921, also called the Quatour Symbolique or Quarteto Simbolico, is one of my favourite chamber works. The optional female choir is rarely included in performance.

Floresta do Amazonas suite from the Orquestra Sinfônica Nacional

This December 2013 concert from the Orquestra Sinfônica Nacional includes the Florestas do Amazonas suite of Villa-Lobos.

The Villa-Lobos Website moves to Indiana

Here's a nice present for Heitor Villa-Lobos's birthday: the new version of the Heitor Villa-Lobos Website is now officially up on the web, at http://www.villalobos.iu.edu. Thanks to Erick Carballo and everyone at the Latin American Music Centre at Indiana University for all their work in making the move from Red Deer to Bloomington.

Gil Jardim conducts the 1st Sinfonietta

The Sinfonietta #1, from 1916, is rarely performed, so it's nice to see this excellent video of Gil Jardim conducting the Orquestra de Câmara da USP. This is from the 4th Leo Brouwer Guitar Festival. Also on the video is Brouwer's Concierto Elegiaco, plus an Albeniz encore.

Jennie Tourel's Serestas on 78

 

My last post was about the Columbia Masterworks LP that included 6 Villa-Lobos songs, 5 from the Serestas cycle. Here is the original 78rpm album, an important part of my Villa-Lobos music library.

 

The five Serestas are Modinha (#5), Abril (#9), Na Paz do Outono (#6), Cancao do Carreiro (#8) and Desejo (#10). These are important compositions, written by Villa-Lobos in Paris in 1925-26.  The sixth song, Sino de Aldeia, is the sixth song from the Miniaturas cycle of 1916-17.

Here is the back cover. Unfortunately, there's no date on this album, but I believe this was recorded (and released on 78?) in 1945. The songs made it to LP in 1950.

Jennie Tourel sings Villa-Lobos

 

In 1950 Columbia released this Songs of Rachmaninoff LP by soprano Jennie Tourel, which included six songs accompanied by an orchestra conducted by the composer. Since this has never been released on CD, and the LP shows up on eBay only very rarely, it's nice that the Brazilian Concert Music blog has posted the songs.

Total Immersion: Villa-Lobos

Tom Service introduces Total Immersion: Villa-Lobos, presented in London in March 2014 by the BBC Symphony and Sakari Oramo. "Be prepared to be totally immersed in the sound world of Villa-Lobos."

Villa-Lobos conducts

I haven't seen this picture before. It's from the Viva Villa! exhibition at Shopping Villa-Lobos.

Clara Rodriguez at St. Martin-in-the-Fields

 

Later this month pianist Clara Rodriguez will be playing a couple of pieces by Villa-Lobos, Beethoven's Appassionata sonata, plus such interesting composers as Teresa Carreño, Luiza Elena Paesano, and Luis Zea, all in one of my favourite London venues: St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square. Wish I could be there!

Here she is playing Impressoes Seresteiras, from an earlier London concert:

A memoir by Lucilia Guimarães Villa-Lobos

Fred Sturm has translated portions of the memoir of Villa-Lobos's first wife Lucilia Guimarães Villa-Lobos, Villa-Lobos, Visto da plateia e na intimidade (Villa-Lobos seen on stage and intimately). The work was actually written by Lucilia's younger brother Luiz, in the early 1970s, and includes family stories and some stories told by Lucilia:

"In spite of the difficulties we experienced, Villa (so we called him) began to compose his first works, with energy, and, as he did not play the piano yet, it was I who gave the first partial performances."

Besides his excellent recordings and concerts featuring the music of Villa-Lobos and other Latin American composers, the Albuquerque-based pianist Sturm is contributing valuable source material in English for Villa-Lobos scholars. There are more interesting and useful documents here: http://fredsturm.net/villa_lobos/.

n spite of the difficulties we experienced, Villa (so we called him) began to compose his first works, with energy, and, as he did not play the piano yet, it was I who gave the first partial performances.” - See more at: http://fredsturm.net/lucilia/#sthash.zsA81fiY.dpuf

memoir Villa-Lobos, Visto da plateia e na intimidade (Villa-Lobos seen on stage and intimately). This work, written in the early 70s, goes back to the time Lucilia met the young composer in 1912

(Villa-Lobos seen on stage and intimately)

(Villa-Lobos seen on stage and intimately)

(Villa-Lobos seen on stage and intimatel

The 17th String Quartet, played by the Cuarteto Carlos Gomes

The 17th String Quartet, the final work in one of the most important 20th Century cycles, is one of Villa-Lobos's greatest late works. Written in 1957, it was premiered by the Budapest String Quartet in Washington DC in the year of the composer's death, 1959. This excellent version of the first movement is played by the Quarteto Carlos Gomes, which seems to be a new group. The first violinist is Claudio Cruz, famous as a violin soloist and conductor.