New Choros CD on BIS

I'm enjoying listening to the new BIS Choros CD , with pianist Cristina Ortiz, and John Neschling conducting the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra. This is the first disc in a projected BIS series of the complete Choros. Some people think that the series of 13 Choros (or 14 or 15 or 16) is Villa-Lobos's greatest group of works. I'm inclined to think so, myself.

This is my second post on this CD this month; today I wanted to take the opportunity to talk about the Naxos Music Library. People in Red Deer can access this excellent resource through Red Deer Public Library's subscription; check to see if your local public or academic library subscribes on your behalf. If not, you can always get a personal subscription; they're very affordable.

NML gives you access to more than Naxos and Marco Polo (as large as those two labels loom for Villa-Lobos lovers!) There are many, many independent labels on NML, like BIS (recently named the Label of the Year by Midem). It's great to be able to listen to this music even before the discs are available to buy. The new BIS disc hasn't showed up yet on the main BIS site, and isn't up on Amazon.com yet, though you can buy it at Presto Classical in the UK.

And Choros #11 is certainly worth listening to!

Speaking of pianist Cristina Ortiz, who also shines in this CD in the solo Choros #5 ("Alma Brasileira"), I've been checking out the Concert Diary on her website. She's certainly a busy pianist, and a great advocate of the music of Villa-Lobos.

She takes Bachianas Brasileiras #3 on a long, long road trip this spring, with stops in Ljiepaja Liepaja, Latvia for the 16th International Piano Stars Festival, in Riga, Talinn, Vilnius, Bergen and Palma, Spain.

New Choros Series

Here's an exciting new series coming on CD, from BIS: it will include all of the Choros series, and will feature musicians from Brazil.



The first disc, due to be released March 3rd, includes a great selection from this amazing series: #5 for piano (with Cristina Ortiz), #7 for winds, violin & cello, and #11 for piano (Ortiz) and orchestra (the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, conducted by John Neschling). The CD # is BIS CD440. This CD hasn't showed up on Amazon.com yet (I'll add a link here when it does), but you can pre-order it at Presto Classical in the UK.

The recently completed BIS Bachianas Brasileiras series also features Brazilian artists: #1+#4+#5+#6, #7+#8+#9, and #2+#3+#4. The São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP) plays the orchestral works in this series as well, though the conductor in this series is Roberto Minczuk.

This is an encouraging trend in the world of classical music CDs: complete series (and often with a choice of more than one series) of Villa-Lobos's greatest works (Choros, BB, the piano music, the string quartets) and the not-so-great but still interesting (Symphonies), with excellent performers on enterprising labels (Naxos, BIS, cpo).

Explore on Amazon.com: Villa-Lobos Choros

Thanks to Affonso Risi in São Paulo for the heads-up on this.

Cristina Ortiz and Choros #11

I added a new CD profile to a new section of the HVL Website. It's a favourite disc of mine: the Ondine recording of Choros #11. This piece is one of those big, sprawling orchestral works Villa was turning out in the mid- to late-20s, like the Choros 8, 9 and 10, (though #11 has a large piano part - it's pretty much a piano concerto). None of these works is well-known; all are very rarely performed or recorded.

I came across this entry in Cristina Ortiz's journal on her website. She played Choros #11 in Brazil in November 2005, and was planning to record it with BIS in the following February. Here's what she had to say about the work:

"When asked to learn Villa-Lobos’ Choros # 11, the only information I had was its length, all of 65 minutes! But the moment I read two or three of the most beautiful themes he ever wrote, my decision was made and I never flinched: the pleasure I would get from playing them, carried me all the way! "

These were the concerts in São Paulo:

17, 18, 19 November 2005, São Paulo, BrazilSala São PauloOrquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São PauloJohn Neschling, conductorCristina Ortiz, piano
VILLA-LOBOS "Chôros" no 11, for Piano and Orchestra

In any case, the BIS recording never seems to have happened. I will have to send off a query, and see if it's "in the can", waiting to be released. That would be cool.

In the meantime, there's a newly-released VL Chamber Music CD from Cristina Ortiz, which I will glom onto and write about real soon.