Sonia Rubinsky Contest, v.4 winner & v.5 review

The contest is now over; thanks, everyone, for participating!

Congratulations to Harold Lewis of the UK, the fourth winner of a CD from Sonia Rubinsky's complete set of Villa-Lobos's Piano Music on Naxos. Four more discs will be awarded, one each week until the entire set has been sent out. It's easy to enter: send an email to villa-lobos@rdpl.org and tell me your favourite piano piece by Villa-Lobos. If you've already entered, your name stays in the pool.

The winner of Volume 5 will be drawn on Friday, June 25.

In 2006, the recording sessions for the fifth volume in the series moved from Toronto to the Township of King City, just north of Canada's biggest city.  Once again the technical side of things was in the more than capable hands of Norbert Kraft and Bonnie Silver.

For many this was the first chance to hear the entire cycle of Guia Pratico (though they'd have to wait for volume 8 of the series for Albums 10 and 11).  Anna Stella Schic had included the bulk of the Guia Pratico piano pieces in her complete Piano Music set of 7 LPs, released in the mid-70s in France.  Though this set was re-released on CD, it's never been easy to find.  Caio Pagano included Albums 1-6 in his 1999 album Music for Children.  Clara Sverner didn't release her complete series on the Brazilian Biscoito label until 2008; it's still available on Amazon.com.

Many of the songs in the Guia Pratico were gathered by Villa-Lobos from folk-songs and children's round songs.  I wonder if Brazilian children in the 1930s skipped rope while they sang them?  Like other Villa-Lobos works from the world of children (Prole do Bebe, especially), the Guia Pratico includes many pieces and passages that would tax the most accomplished pianist.  So in spite of Villa-Lobos's didactic agenda in the choral versions of these songs, many of these pieces are written about children rather than for them to learn to play the piano.  As well, many of these songs were re-cycled by Villa-Lobos in a variety of works later in his career.

Two very positive components of the Naxos series continued with volume 5.  James Melo again provided excellent liner notes - you can read them here.  Furthermore, the notes included the original Portuguese texts of the songs, along with English translations.  And the cover once again featured a very relevant painting - this time a stage set design from Lasar Segall's 1938 Rio de Janeiro ballet of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Sonia Rubinsky Contest, v.3 winner & v.4 review

The contest is now over; thanks, everyone, for participating!

Congratulations to Christian Sisson from Rio de Janeiro, the third winner of a CD from Sonia Rubinsky's complete set of Villa-Lobos's Piano Music on Naxos. Five more discs will be awarded, one each week until the entire set has been sent out. It's easy to enter: send an email to villa-lobos@rdpl.org and tell me your favourite piano piece by Villa-Lobos. If you've already entered, your name stays in the pool.

The Disc 4 winner will be drawn on Friday, June 18.



The fourth volume was once again recorded at Grace Church on the Hill in Toronto, in the fall of 2003.  I'll have to drop in to this church when I'm in Toronto later this summer.  Bonnie Silver and Norbert Kraft again were responsible for Production and Engineering.

For this disc, Rubinsky chose one of the central works from Villa's piano repertoire: Bachianas Brasileiras #4.  This work was put together from four pieces written over two decades: the fourth movement Dansa: Miudinho from 1930; the third movement Aria: Cantiga from 1935; and the first two movements Preludio and Coral: Canto do Sertao from 1941.  Since this work is so popular, it's easy to find other versions to compare with Rubinsky's reading.  I find Debora Halasz's version on BIS elegant but a bit tentative; the repeated percussive notes of the Araponga in the 2nd movement are hard to hear at first.  Valeria Zanini on Classico is more forthright, but there is less drama in that movement (which is one of my favourites).  Alma Petchersky on ASV stresses the monumental feel of the Coral - think of Stokowski's arrangements of Bach - at the expense of the forward movement of the piece.  It's instructive that Rubinsky's version of this movement is fairly close in tempos, and that dramatic feeling I mentioned, to the orchestral version of BB#4 in which Villa-Lobos himself conducted the French National Radio Orchestra.

Also on this disc are some smaller pieces from various times in Villa's career: Valsa Romantica from 1907 is one of his first published works.  Simples Coletanea, three pieces written in the late teens, is translated as "Simple Collection", though "Deceptively Simple Collection" might be closer to the mark.  This is the time when Villa-Lobos's own voice was really beginning to emerge under the twin influences of French modernism and Brazilian folklore.  Two pieces on this disc include a second pianist, who is Tatjana Rankovich.  Both Francette et Pia and the Carnaval das Criancas are about the world of children; the first is tender and touching, the second more lively.

Naxos Reviews

Though I've fallen a bit behind in my Naxos reviews, I've gotten to the pile before it can fall and do any real damage.  I really enjoyed Xavier Montsalvatge's Piano Music, v. 1, with Jordi Maso, a Naxos disc recorded in Spain in 2008.  Volume 2 is already out, and I look forward to hearing it.

Another Naxos disc includes music by the amazing Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas, who died much too young, and who was working on the ballet music for La Coronela when he did.  This is an amazing score, and it is presented beautifully by Gisele Ben-Dor conducting the Santa Barbara Symphony.  This is a World Premiere Recording, though it was released by Koch in 1998, and the Naxos version is a recent re-release.  I recommend this very highly!

Both Revueltas and Montsalvatge have much in common with Villa-Lobos.  Only 13 years younger than Villa, Revueltas unfortunately died in 1940, so his musical legacy isn't as long or as strong as the Brazilian's.  La Coronela shows the same dramatic impetus that we're beginning to discover in Villa-Lobos with the recent exposure of stage works like Yerma, Magdalena, and The Emperor Jones.  Both composers are masters of the large orchestral palette, and both are just as much at home in bombastic battle set-pieces as they are in more introspective and sparely written passages. 

Montsalvatge is from a younger generation, but there is much overlap in the influences of the the Catalan composer and the Brazilian: Debussy, Milhaud, Satie, Ravel, Messiaen.  Montsalvatge went farther afield into avante-garde music in the 1950s.  He experimented with 12-tone music, which Villa-Lobos carefully skirted during his career.  And Montsalvatge seems to have fallen naturally into a North American jazz idiom in the 40s and 50s, which Villa-Lobos mainly avoided, as much as he felt at home in various (especially Brazilian) popular music styles.  Some of Montsalvatge's piano music might share Latin American (and Caribbean) rhythms with pieces by Villa-Lobos, though it never sounds Villa-Lobosian.

Two more excellent discs from Naxos, and more to come!

Sonia Rubinsky Contest, v.2 winner & v.3 review

The contest is now over; thanks, everyone, for participating!

Congratulations to Bernie Folta from New Hampshire, the second winner of a CD from Sonia Rubinsky's complete set of Villa-Lobos's Piano Music on Naxos. Six more discs will be awarded, one each week until the entire set has been sent out. It's easy to enter: send an email to villa-lobos@rdpl.org and tell me your favourite piano piece by Villa-Lobos. If you've already entered, your name stays in the pool.

Disc 3: the winner has been drawn, and will be announced here Real Soon Now.

For the third disc, the team of Rubinsky, Silver & Kraft were once again recording at Grace Church in Toronto, this time in September of 2000. The project was on a roll. This time the standout work was Choros #05 "Alma Brasileira". Early works share the disc with more substantial pieces like the 1936 Ciclo Brasileira. A number of pieces from volume 3 were featured at the 1922 Semana de Arte Moderna in Sao Paulo, and caused quite a stir. The African dances and the second piece from Suite Floral might seem a bit tame today, though emotions ran high that week in Sao Paulo. Certainly Villa-Lobos had written more modernist works by 1922. By the way, Suite Floral was a favourite of Arthur Rubinstein, and he programmed the final piece, Alegia na Horta, in hundreds of concerts over the years.

One of the most interesting things about this disc, though, is the inclusion of arrangements for piano of two of Villa's greatest works: the 1st Choros for guitar, and the 2nd Choros, originally written for flute and clarinet. The transcription of the 1st Choros is by Odmar Amaral Gurgel, while Villa-Lobos himself came up with the piano version of the 2nd Choros. The great thing about Rubinsky's series is that while the major works are completely solid, she keeps coming up with nearly unknown pieces (including some world recording premieres later in the series) to keep Villa-Lobos super-fans interested.

The third disc had for its cover one of my favourite Brazilian paintings, Cafe (1935) by Candido Portinari. This was an excellent match in subject matter and time period with the Ciclo Brasileira.

New BIS disc of Floresta do Amazonas

Coming soon from BIS: Floresta do Amazonas, the great late (1958) work for soprano and orchestra adapted by Villa-Lobos from the music he provided for the MGM film Green Mansions.  John Neschling conducts the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra (OSESP) and Choir, and Anna Korondi sings the beautiful songs, which include such favourites as Melodia Sentimental and Cair da Tarde.

Neschling's 3-disc Choros series on BIS, with the same orchestra, won the Diapason d'Or de l'Année in 2009.  Amazon will be releasing the SACD disc on June 29th, 2010 (a day late for my birthday).  It's available now for pre-ordering.

Villa-Lobos and the Marx Brothers

Walter Burle Marx (1902-1990) was a Brazilian conductor/composer/pianist who was a close friend and a big advocate of Villa-Lobos.  He conducted important Villa-Lobos premieres in Brazil and America, including important concerts at the 1939 World's Fair in New York.  I recently came across his interesting guitar pieces on a recording by Stephen Aron, and look forward to listening to more Burle Marx.

Roberto Burle Marx (1909-1994) was a great Brazilian landscape architect who designed the gardens at the Museu Villa-Lobos.  Though this isn't mentioned in his (otherwise very informative) Wikipedia article, the two were brothers.

I discovered this when I came across the cool story "Esthetics: Brazil's Marx Brothers", in the July 21, 1967 issue of Time Magazine.  This was indeed an accomplished and interesting family, and distantly related to Karl Marx as well.

Magdalena on France Musique

This exciting information comes from an email from Renaud Machart, host of Matinée Opéra on Radio France's France Musique. The latest edition of this program features the music of Villa-Lobos, and includes the first broadcast of the recent Paris production of the opera/musical Magdalena. You can listen to this 3-hour program at your leisure, but only until Sunday, June 6th. Go to this page on the France Musique site, and click on (ré)écouter.

Besides this important production (which sounded great to me in my first quick listen), the program includes some additional Villa-Lobos works from CD which help to provide a context for this amazing stage work.  Thanks to Renaud and France Musique for making this available, even if only for a few days.

By the way, I enjoy listening to France Musique on my iPhone, thanks to their excellent app.  Check it out!