Broadcasts from Danish & Canadian Radio

Set your alarm for these broadcasts on BBC Radio 3's Euroclassic Notturno:

26 January 2009
05:00AM
Villa-Lobos, Heitor (1887-1959)
Kyrie and Gloria from 'Missa São Sebastião'
Danish National Girls Choir, Michael Bojesen (conductor) [recorded on 28th March 2004 at the Holmen Church, Copenhagen]
DKDR

30 January 2009
05:26AM
Villa-Lobos, Heitor (1887-1959)
Bachiana brasileira no.5 vers. for soprano & cellos [1. Aria (Cantilena); 2. Dansa (Martelo)]
Isabel Bayrakdarian (soprano), Bryan Epperson, Maurizio Baccante, Roman Borys, Simon Fryer, David Hetherington, Roberta Jansen, Paul Widner, Thomas Wiebe, Winona Zelenka (cellos) [recorded at the Glenn Gould Studio CBC centre, Toronto in September 2001]
CACBC

Or better yet, you'll be able to listen on the BBC iPlayer for 7 days after the broadcasts.

South America Week

Just in time for this year's (very early) Carnival, it's South America Week on BBC Radio 3, Feb. 3-10. There are quite a few works by Villa-Lobos scheduled, including a few that are rarely programmed. Amazonas, a large work for orchestra, was written in 1916 and first performed in Paris in 1929.

Performance on 3
7 February 2008
BBC Symphony Orchestra

Thursday 7 February 2008 19:00-20:45 (Radio 3)

Petroc Trelawny introduces highlights from the BBC Symphony Orchestra's recent South American Week, featuring orchestral music from Brazil and Argentina, including Astor Piazzolla's tango-influenced Bandoneon Concerto.
Duration: 1 hour 45 minutes
Playlist:

Per Arne Glorvigen (bandoneon)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Enrique Diemecke (conductor)

Ginastera: Panambi Suite, Op 1a
Piazzolla: Bandoneon Concerto (Aconcagua)
Villa-Lobos: Amazonas

Plus tangos played by Tango for 3, bossa nova sung by Monica Vasconcelos and samba drumming.

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On Feb. 4th, two great choral works of Villa-Lobos are featured on Afternoon on 3. Bendita sabedoria is one of VL's last works, written in 1958. The rarely performed choral version of Bachianas Brasileiras #9 (1945) is one of my all-time favourite Villa-Lobos works. It must be wickedly hard to sing this amazing music.

Feb. 4, 2.00pm South American Week

A week of music celebrating all things South American as performed by the BBC Orchestras, BBC Singers and friends. Music by South American composers features alongside recordings made on tour in Argentina, Mexico and Brazil.

Villa-Lobos: Bendita sabedoria
BBC Singers
Celso Antunes (conductor)

Ginastera: Variaciones concertantes for chamber orchestra
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Susanna Malkki (conductor)

Ginastera: Panambi, Op 1
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Enrique Diemecke (conductor)

Villa-Lobos: Bachianas brasileiras No 9
BBC Singers
Odaline de la Martinez (conductor)

Lindberg: Chorale (based on Bach: Es ist genug)
Bruckner: Symphony No 9 in D minor
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Jukka-Pekka Saraste (conductor)

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Later that week on Afternoon on 3, more choral works are featured, along with works by Brazilian composers Mignone, Krieger, Guarnieri, and Santoro.

Feb. 6, 2.00pm

South American Week

Continuing Radio 3's celebration of all things South American as performed by the BBC Orchestras, Singers and friends.

Mignone: Festas das igrejas
Krieger: Passacaglia for the New Millennium
BBC Symphony Orchestra
John Neschling (conductor)

Villa-Lobos: Ave Maria; Pater noster
BBC Singers
Celso Antunes (conductor)

Ginastera: Concerto for piano and orchestra No 1, Op 28
Rolf Hind (piano)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Leonard Slatkin (conductor)

Piazzolla: Suite del angel transc. for string quartet by Eckart Runge
Artemis String Quartet

Guarnieri: Ave Maria
Santoro: Ave Maria
Escobar: Ave Maria
BBC Singers
Celso Antunes (conductor)

Ginastera: Lamentations of Jeremiah
BBC Singers
Stephen Cleobury (conductor)

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And on Afternoon on 3, on Feb. 7, after a bunch of rarities, the big VL gun: BB#5.

Feb.7, 2.00pm South American Week

Continuing Radio 3's celebration of all things South American as performed by the BBC Orchestras, BBC Singers and friends.

Revueltas: El Renacuajo paseador (ballet suite)
Guarnieri: Abertura concertante
Piazzolla: Las Cuatro estaciones portenas
Ulster Orchestra
Celso Antunes (conductor)
...
Palau: Concierto levantino for guitar and orchestra
Fabio Zanon (guitar)
Ulster Orchestra
Max Bragado-Darman (conductor)

Chavez: Symphony No 5
Moncayo: Huapango
Ulster Orchestra
Enrique Barrios (conductor)

Villa-Lobos: Bachiana brasileira No 5
Catherine Bott (soprano)
Ulster Orchestra
Josep Caballe-Domenech (conductor)

Marquez: Danzon for orchestra No 2
Ulster Orchestra
Enrique Barrios (conductor)

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Finally, on Feb. 8th, also on Afternoon on 3 (what a great show!), there are more choral works, and an amazing finale, the Quatuor for Flute, Harp, Celesta, Alto Saxophone, and Women's Voices. This is one of Villa's great modernist works.

2.00pm South American Week

Continuing Radio 3's celebration of all things South American as performed by the BBC Orchestras, BBC Singers and friends.

Chopin: Fantaisie-impromptu in C sharp minor for piano, Op 66
Ginastera: Danza del gaucho matrero (Furiosamente ritmico...)
Ingrid Fliter (piano)

Ginastera: Ollantay
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Gisele Ben-Dor (conductor)

Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain for piano and orchestra
Martin Roscoe (piano)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
David Charles Abell (conductor)

Villa-Lobos: 2 Lendas Amerindias em Nheengatu; Canide Ioune
Cardoso: Os Atabaques da Pombagira
BBC Singers
Celso Antunes (conductor)

Ginastera: Harp Concerto
Catrin Finch (harp)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Josep Cabelle-Domenech (conductor)

Ginastera: Popul vuh
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Gisele Ben-Dor (conductor)

Villa-Lobos: Quatuor
BBC Singers
Lontano
Odaline de la Martinez (conductor)

Bizet: Carmen Suite Nos 1 and 2
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
David Charles Abell (conductor)

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The great thing about Radio 3 is that you can listen to programmes online for seven days after they've been broadcast live. Go to the Listen Again page.

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 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."