The second album in our Villa on Vinyl series begins with the Choros #1 for solo guitar, as our first one did. This 1978 LP from Brazil's Kuarup Discos label, which seems to come from a record store in Brazil, includes all of the Choros for chamber ensembles and single instruments.
There's such an interesting mix of instruments and instrumental colours here: Choros #1 for solo guitar; #2 for flute and clarinet (with a second version on the album for solo piano); #3 for clarinet, alto sax, bassoon, trombone, horn and male choir; #4 for three horns and trombone; #5 for solo piano; and #7 for flute, oboe, alto sax, clarinet, violin, cello and tam-tam. The album concludes with the two Choros Bis, two encore pieces for violin and cello.
These are wonderful performances. Over the years I've enjoyed many Villa-Lobos works played by musicians such as bassoonist Noel Devos, saxophonist Paulo Moura, clarinettist José Botelho, pianist Murillo Santos and guitarist Sérgio Assad. When I first came across this album on CD back in the early days of The Villa-Lobos Website (the mid-90s), I was hearing many of these works for the first time. It certainly helped in building an understanding of the strong modernist strain in Villa-Lobos's music.
The cover features a marvellous painting, "Serenata", by Candido Portinari, who was a friend of Villa's and another of the leading lights of Brazilian modernism. The painting is from 1959, the year of Villa's death.
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