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.