Benjamin Bunch's New Website

Guitarist Benjamin Bunch promotes his Etcetera CDs on this excellent website. The site includes an MP3 format file of the 2nd Prelude - one of Villa-Lobos' most popular pieces. We look forward to his upcoming disc An Homage to Heitor Villa-Lobos for soprano and guitar.

Note that though Bunch's discs aren't easy to find in North America, you can order them through the German and UK versions of Amazon.

Paul Creston and Villa-Lobos

The American composer Paul Creston lived from 1906 to 1985. The Paul Creston archives are available in the Special Collections Department of the Miller Nichols Library at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

The picture above is included in the online version of the Paul Creston Collection. It's another picture that demonstrates how much Villa-Lobos got around in the musical world. Some day soon I'll compile a list of all the famous composers, instrumentalists and conductors that were photographed alongside Villa-Lobos.

Villa-Lobos on Radio France's France Musique

France has many connections with Villa-Lobos, from the composer's first visit in the 1920's, to the time he spent in the 1950's, recording with French EMI. France Musique, the classical music radio network of Radio France, can be heard live on the Internet. Here are some upcoming Villa-Lobos performances, all from European recordings that aren't all that easy to come by here in North America:

October 13, 04:46: Bachianas Brasileiras 6 with Norton Morozowicz, flute, and Noël Devos, bassoon. This is from the CD ADDA 590 901. This is repeated at 22:46 on October 15 and October 17 at 10:46.

October 19, 15:48: Tenor Marcel Quillévéré sings the three Cançoes Indigenas (Indigenous Songs) that Villa-Lobos wrote in 1926. He is accompanied by Noël Lee, on piano, in this excerpt from the OPUS 111 CD (OPS 30-65). This is repeated at 03:48 on October 20, 21:48 on October 22 and 09:48 on October 24.

October 22, 11:52: The Fantasie for saxophone, three horns and strings, with Detlef Bensmann, alto saxophone, and the RIAS-Sinfonietta de Berlin, under the direction of David Shallon. From the KOCH CD 311025. Repeated at 17:52 on October 23.

October on Cultura FM

Here are radio programs of interest from Sao Paulo's Cutural FM - listen here on the Internet. Times are local Sao Paulo times, one hour ahead of EDT.

October 1, 2 pm: Prof. Gilberto Tinetti discusses Felicja Blumental's performances of Bachianas Brasileiras no. 3 and Piano Concerto no. 5. This program is repeated at 3 am the following day.

October 2, 11 am: The Rio Cello Ensemble and pianist Wagner Tiso perform Mandu-çarará, which I haven't seen on CD.

October 7, 10 am: From the Brazilian label Funarte, the 1st Sonata-Fantaisie, with Oscar Borgerth, violin, and Ilara Gomes Grosso, piano. This is repeated at 4 a.m. on the 14th. Immediately following at 11:00 on the 7th, the Orquestra Petrobrás Pró-Música and conductor Armando Prazeres perform the 1st Sinfonietta, and Nelson Freire plays the amazing masterwork for the piano: Rudepoema.

October 13, 6 am: From a Brasilian CD on the Brascan Brasil SA label, Antonio Menezes, cello and Ricardo Castro, piano, perform the Pequena Suite. This is repeated at 11:00 on October 14.

October 21 is a day full of great piano performances: at 11 am Marcelo Bratke performs the first Prole de Bebe suite, and at 8:05, Caio Pagano performs Carnaval das crianças and the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th collections from the Guia prático (none of which are easily available on CD). The latter program is repeated at 9 am on the 26th.

October 24, 11 am: a Brazilian ensemble plays the Fantasia concertante for piano, clarinet and bassoon, and the great classical/popular instrumentalist Paulo Moura performs the Fantasia for Saxophone and Orchestra, with the Orquestra de Câmara Brasileira, conducted by Bernardo Bessler.

Villa-Lobos Concerts & CDs Analyzed

I've been tracking performances of Villa-Lobos works at concerts and recitals from around the world since January 1997, in the Upcoming Villa-Lobos Concerts page of the Villa-Lobos Website. I've recently put together a list of the works played at those concerts. As well, I've looked at the 445 CDs containing works by Villa-Lobos that are currently available at Amazon.com. I'll be posting a spreadsheet with this information on the Website - it's here - and I'll keep it updated as I receive new information.

In the meantime, here are some interesting results. The most commonly performed works:

Bachianas Brasileiras #5 (48)
Harmonica Concerto (20)
Unspecified Pieces for Guitar (20)
Assobio a Jato (19)
Bachianas Brasileiras #2 (17)
Bachianas Brasileiras #1 (12)
Guitar Etudes (12)
Bachianas Brasileiras #6 (8)
Bachianas Brasileiras #9 (8)
Bachianas Brasileiras #4 (7)
Guitar Preludes (7)
Saxophone Fantasia (7)

No real surprises here. The Bachianas Brasileiras series looms large in terms of the popular view of Villa-Lobos. BB#5 is one of the standards of the orchestral repertoire, and in its version for soprano and guitar for that of chamber music. Robert Bonfiglio has nearly single-handedly brought a high level of popularity to the Harmonica Concerto. The works for guitar are probably under-reported by a factor of at least three, since many concert notices do not refer to particular works.

Many of these pieces show up at the top of the CD list as well:

Bachianas Brasileiras #5 (98)
Guitar Preludes (70)
Guitar Etudes (57)
Choros 1 (33)
Suite Popular Bresilienne (32)
Bachianas Brasileiras #2 (22)
Guitar Concerto (22)
Bachianas Brasileiras #4 (20)
Choros #5 (16)
Bachianas Brasileiras #1 (14)
Song Recitals (14)
Ciclo Brasiliera (13)
Prole de Bebe #1 (13)

The guitar music is well represented on CD, with every one of the works Villa-Lobos wrote for the instrument (with the exception of the Introduction to Choros, which has unaccountably received only a single recording) in the top ten most popular works. The best works for piano are well represented as well. It's nice to see a work from the Choros series - Choros #5, subtitled Alma Brasileira - getting as many recordings as some of the Bachianas Brasileiras series.

At the other end, there are a few great works that received no performances (as reported on my page - my collection of this information is very hit and miss). These include most of the Symphonies; four of the Piano Concertos; Choros 8, 9 and 12; and the String Trio. Luckily, the list of works with no recordings in the Amazon.com list (nearly all of which are available throughout the world) is really quite short:

Cello Sonata 1
Choros 4
Choros 6
Daughter of the Clouds
Duas Lendas Amerindias
Fantasia de Movementos Mixtos
Nonetto
Sinfonietta #1
Symphony 2
Symphony 3
Symphony 7
Symphony 9
Vidapura
Yerma

From this short list, we'll soon be able to remove the 3rd and 9th Symphonies, coming soon from cpo. Symphonies 2 and 7 will presumably follow, from the same source, within a year. After that, we badly need recordings of the 6th Choros, the Fantasia de Movementos Mixtos and the Nonetto. As for the other hole in the Choros series, number 4, that's available in the indispensable CD Os Choros de Câmara from the Brazilian company Kuarup. I ordered this CD, and others, from Kuarup's website. Kuarup's CDs are very inexpensive, and the discs arrived amazingly quickly.

I think that, overall, the works of Villa-Lobos are fairly well represented both discographically, and on the concert stages of the world. The complete cycles of string quartets recently performed at the Kuhno Festival in Finland and by the Cuartetto Latinoamericano brought many hidden gems to the surface. Naxos is especially to be commended for their well-played, well-recorded budget CDs. I'm sure, though, that there are many works that I've left out in my list that need performances and recordings. Why not tell me what you think?

More New CDs

Another cpo new release contains a well-chosen concert of VL's chamber music for strings. The Deutsches Streichtrio performs three duos: the Deux Choros Bis (1929) for violin and cello, a version of the 1921 Choros #2 for violin and cello, and the 1946 Duo for violin and viola. Best of all they've included one of VL's masterworks, the String Trio written in 1945. A disc with this repertoire is pretty much self-recommending, and Bert's thumb's up clinches the deal for me.

It's a good time for new Villa-Lobos from Europe. Bert also likes the new Lorelt disc with the BBC Singers and the Ensemble Lontano, under the direction of Odaline de la Martinez. This disc also includes the Deux Choros Bis, with the addition of some other chamber works: Choros 7 (1924) and the early modernist masterpieces the Quatour Symbolique and the Sexteto Mistico. Best of all, there's the original version of Bachianas Brasileiras #9, for an "orchestra of voices." This is apparently a re-issue of a disc recorded in the early 1990's.

It's like the people at cpo and Lorelt were listening to my wish-lists. Now, if they'd turn to the Nonetto and the operas Yerma (1955) and Daughter of the Clouds (1957)....

New Symphonies CD

"A new Symphony by Heitor Villa-Lobos is a world event."

- from a review in the Christian Science Monitor of the premiere of the 11th Symphony (quoted in Vasco Mariz's Heitor Villa-Lobos: Life & Work of the Brazilian Composer (1970).

Though it hasn't shown up at Amazon.com (or the other Amazon sites around the world), the new cpo CD of Symphonies 3 & 9 conducted by Carl St. Clair can be purchased from the European site JPC. Thanks to Bert Berenschot in the Netherlands for this update. Check here for all the information, including sound samples. I haven't ordered from JPC myself, but the CD is certainly a good buy at US$11.96 (13.99 Euros). As Mariz says, "The Ninth Symphony seems to have been composed in 1951 but has never been performed, and I have no data on it." So this release is certainly of world-wide interest to music lovers.

The early 3rd Symphony makes up the bulk of the rest of the disc, which has a nice filler in the "Ouverture de l'Homme Tel." I've often seen this work in lists of Max Eschig publications, and wondered what it sounded like. The short Real Audio excerpt on the JPC site includes only a fanfare, but you can tell from the clips that the orchestral playing from St. Clair's Stuttgart forces remains of the highest quality. I'm certainly looking forward to this one!

September VL Listening on Cultura FM

Here are some radio programs you might want to watch out for on Sao Paulo's Cutural FM - listen here on the Internet. Times are local Sao Paulo times, one hour ahead of EDT.

Sept. 7, 1 p.m.: Marlos Nobre's Homenagem a Villa-Lobos is played by guitarist Joaquim Freire. This is from a Leman Classics CD.

Sept. 17, 11 a.m.: The 3rd Piano Trio is played by the Brazilian players Yara Bernette, piano, Ayrton Pinto, violin and Antonio del Claro, cello. On the same program, pianist Arnaldo Estrela plays the Poema singelo. I presume these are both from Brazilian CDs.

Sept. 18, 11 a.m.: The great bassoonist Noel Devos (who was born in France, but who has lived in Brazil since 1952) performs the Ciranda das sete notas for bassoon and strings with the Orquestra de Câmara Brasileira under the direction of Bernardo Bessler.

Sept. 23, 11 a.m.: Pianist Nahim Marun and violinist Claudio Cruz perform the Sonata Fantasia n° 2.

New World Symphony Music of the Americas Festival

The New World Symphony, based in Miami Florida, bills itself as "America's Orchestral Academy." The NWS "trains the most gifted graduates of distinguished music programs for leadership positions in orchestras and ensembles around the world."

The New World Symphony is best known to Villa-Lobos lovers, of course, through their very successful 1997 CD Alma Brasileira, with NWS Artistic Director Michael Tilson Thomas. My review of that CD is here. I still enjoy this CD very much - especially Choros no. 10, which does credit to the capabilities of the orchestra and its conductor, to the producers and engineers at BMG for its amazing sound, and of course to Villa-Lobos - it's an amazing work!

In mid-September, the New World Symphony is presenting a free four-concert festival of North and Latin American works entitled "Music of the Americas." Two Villa-Lobos works will be included. The modernist Quintet em Forme de Choros, written in Paris in 1928, will be performed on September 13, in a Woodwind, Brass and Wind Ensembles Concert conducted by David Amado.

The following night, September 14, conductor Gisele Ben-Dor, best known in the VL world for her very well-reviewed recording of VL's Symphony no. 10 "Amerindia", will conduct the Bachianas Brasileiras no. 9.

Besides these two VL works, the four concerts include masterworks by Revueltas and Ginastera, and a really nice mix of works by such composers as VL's close friend Edgard Varèse, Samuel Barber, Michael Tilson Thomas and Joan Tower. Sounds like a really interesting festival, and the price is certainly right!

The Villa-Lobos Letters in Paperback

Martin Anderson at Toccata Press has let me know that Lisa Peppercorn's book The Villa-Lobos Letters is now available in paperback.

Complete information is available at the Toccata Press site. You can order the hardcover and paperback Letters from Amazon.co.uk, though only the hardcover version is listed at Amazon.com.

This really is an interesting book, containing valuable insights into Villa-Lobos's life at important times of his life. Peppercorn was for many years the main source of information about Villa-Lobos in English. Now that we have new sources of biographical information we can take Peppercorn's biases into account - notably her championship of VL's first wife Lucília over his eventual life-partner Arminda. Still, Peppercorn's intimate knowledge of VL's life - especially in the 1930's - and her access to source documents makes this volume an absolute must for those of us interested in this extraordinary, and very human, composer.

August Villa-Lobos Listening on Cultura FM

Here are some interesting radio programs on Sao Paulo's Cutural FM - listen here on the Internet. Times are local Sao Paulo times, one hour ahead of EDT.

August 15: Cristina Ortiz plays the important piano part in Bachianas Brasileiras #3, with Vladimir Ashkenazy conducting the New Philharmonia Orchestra. Bonus solo pieces: A lenda do caboclo and Alma Brasileira (Choros #5).

August 19, 4 a.m.: The music for violin and piano isn't well known - the Sonata Fantasia no. 2 is an impressive work. This performance is by Claudio Cruz, violin, and Nahim Marun, piano, from a Brazilian CD that's not easily available in North America or Europe.

At 11:00 a.m. the same day, the program is "Ciranda - Academia brasileira da música," which includes some very interesting Brazilian music. Camargo Guarnieri's 3rd Symphony is played by the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, conducted by Johh Neschling. Next is a piece by the Villa-Lobos scholar turned composer Richard Tacuchian entitled Impulsos. Finally, Cristina Ortiz plays Impressões seresteiras from Villa-Lobos's Brazilian Cycle.

August 22, 11:00 a.m.: Pianist Martha Marchena performs the short but interesting Três Marias, and Cristina Ortiz plays A prole do bebê (I presume that's the first suite).

New Villa-Lobos Email List

I'm testing a new feature on The Villa-Lobos Magazine - an email newsletter that will send Villa-Lobos Magazine postings to your email inbox. The service comes via Topica.com - to sign up just add your email address to the form below:

Subscribe!

Enter your email to join Villa-Lobos News today!   Hosted by Topica

Or, send a blank email message to: villa-lobos-subscribe@topica.com

New CDs from Brana Records

I've just received three new CDs from Mark Walmsley, Executive Producer at Brana Records. Most exciting is Villa-Lobos Live!, which includes two major works for piano and orchestra played by the legendary pianist Felicja Blumental.



Though I've only had the chance for a quick listen, it's clear that this is an important issue, on musical as well as historical grounds. The 5th Piano Concerto was dedicated to Felicja Blumental (1908-1991), who was born in Poland but who lived in Brazil from 1942. This splendid pianist played the work at its premiere in London in 1955 with the composer at the podium. An version of of the work with Blumental and Villa-Lobos playing with the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française has long been available as part of the 6-CD set Villa-Lobos par lui-meme. I'm anxious to hear these two works side by side.

The other major work is the excellent but underplayed Bachianas Brasileiras no. 3, written in 1938. This work matches Blumental with the Filarmonica Triestina. There's a trade-off here: this is a less accomplished orchestra, and certainly the work is less authoritatively interpreted by conductor Luigi Toffolo. However, I would argue this is a much greater work than the later, more flashy 5th Piano Concerto. More on this CD soon...

The other two CDs are interesting as well, and sound great. Felicja Blumental also plays piano in the CD Brazilian Forms. The big work here is Hekel Tavares Concerto in Brazilian Forms for Piano and Orchestra, a piece that sounds on first hearing surprisingly unlike Villa-Lobos. With conductor Anatole Fistoulari and the London Symphony Orchestra providing excellent support, the work is given the best possible presentation. Also on this CD are two works by Albeniz with Blumental accompanied by Italian orchestras.

On another CD soprano Annette Celine (Felicja Blumental's daughter) sings Cantigas - Brazilian Songs: music by Waldemar Henrique and Villa-Lobos, along with a sampling of the best South American composers of art songs. The three Villa-Lobos songs are all well-known, and among the composer's best: Cançâo Do Poeta Século XVIII, Nesta Rua, and Vióla Quebrada (one of my favourites, from the Chansons typiques bresiliennes, published in Paris in 1929). This is a marvellous recital - Celine's still strong voice combines with a completely solid grasp of the phrasing and rhythms of this music. Young pianist Christopher Gould provides excellent support, which is so important, since nearly every song has a piano accompaniment of some importance, and in some cases of distinction.

All three of these new CDs are warmly recommended.

The Brazilian Cycle in Concert

Pianist Seth Montfort plays the marvellous Brazilian Cycle at a concert coming up next weekend in San Francisco. The Ciclo brasileiro, according to Prof. Eero Tarasti, "represents the best in 'national romanticism' that he composed in the 1930s." Each of the pieces - Plantio do caboclo, Impressoes seresteiras, Festa no sertao and Danca do Indio Branco - is "extraordinarily well written for the piano, requiring a virtuoso technique." Representing scenes of Brazilian life, the cycle contains a wide variety of moods and technique. The final Dance of the White Indian is, according to a source I recently read, but can't put my finger on, a self-portrait of the composer.

Here's the information from Mark Pope:

The Englander House Victorian Mansion Concerts - Cathedral Hill Concerts benefiting the San Francisco Concerto Orchestra's International Competitions.
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA, Cathedral Hill/Opera Plaza at 807 Franklin St. (between Turk & Eddy)

The San Francisco Concerto Orchestra
Bach, Villa Lobos and Brazilian Bossa Novas
Saturday, August 10th, 2:00 PM (doors open at 1:30 PM)
$20 advance reservations ($25 at the door)

Seth Montfort will perform Villa-Lobos' Brazilian Cycle for solo piano. The San Francisco Concerto Orchestra performs Bossa Novas by Jobim and Bonfa, including The Girl from Ipanema and many other famous Brazilian songs, all beautifully arranged for orchestra by Mauro Correa and James Shallenberger, one of the founding members of the Kronos Quartet. The Orchestra will also perform Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2.

Gregory Barber, conductor, with soloists Victor Romasevich, violin, David Johnson, flute, Rob Chavez, clarinet, Roger Wiesmeyer, oboe, & Mauro Correa, guitar & vocals.

Call (415) 362 - 6080, write, or email englanderh@aol.com for more details. For reservations, send phone number or email address and check payable to San Francisco Concerto Orchestra, c/o Mark Pope, 807 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA.

Correspondência Musicológica Euro-Brasileira

I've recently come across an important scholarly resource on the web: the Correspondência Musicológica Euro-Brasileira. A project of the Institut für Studien der Musikkultur des portugiesischen Sprachraumes, this website is in Portuguese and German.





An example of the kind of research included on the site is this English abstract of a 2001 article by Ricardo Tacuchian, Academia Brasileira de Música, Universidade do Rio de Janeiro, entitled "Um Requiem para Villa-Lobos":

"An hermeneutic approach of the Second Suite for Chamber Orchestra by Villa-Lobos points it out not only as a swan-song but also as a requiem for the composer himself. This last work by Villa-Lobos is a synthesis of his artistic trajectory, with candidly European, caboclo and African ambiances. Despite its great simplicity the piece holds elements that characterize the musician’s style. Besides symbolizing the composer’s multiple aesthetic aims the piece imparts his ultimate self-biography and his current painful soul."

That short description makes one wish for an English translation (which I'll try to have done, and posted on the HVL Website). It also, of course, points to the fact that the Second Suite is presently without a current recording on CD. Prof. Tacuchian's article comes from the Brasil 2000 Colóquio/Kolloquium entitled "J.S.BACH-H.VILLA-LOBOS Interpretações e Perspectivas do Barroco / Deutungen und Perspektiven des Barock."

The ISMPS website itself, by the way, includes a useful bibliography of monographs and periodical articles in many languages, with a focus on German and Portuguese.

Upcoming Concerts

I've posted a number of new events on the Upcoming Villa-Lobos Concerts page, from the summer 2002 festival season, and some newly-announced 2002-03 symphony orchestra concert seasons.

A concert that Southern Californians should consider attending is the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra concert of January 18, 2003. Conductor Enrique Arturo Diemecke and violinist Marijn Simons will perform the rare Fantasia de Movimentos Mixtos. This work, which I've never heard, and never seen on any concert programme or discography, is a violin concerto in three movements. I'm not sure why they're "mixed", but movements are entitled "Alma Convulsa", "Serenidade", and "Contentamento". Dedicated to violinist Paulina d'Ambrozio, the work was written in 1922 in Rio. The second movement was premiered in September 1922 by d'Ambrozio at the Teatro Municipal, with the composer at the podium. The premiere of the entire work was in April 1941, with Oscar Borgerth playing the violin and Albert Wolff conducting the Orquestra do Teatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro.

Maestro Diemecke and the up-and-coming Dutch violinist Simons have performed the work before, with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico in March of 2001. Here's a review that seemed pretty positive judging by Google's English translation.

Listen to Villa-Lobos on Cultura FM

There are some interesting works you can hear on Cultura FM on the Internet in July. As usual, I'm listing works that are hard to find in North American and European record stores.

July 4: Right up there with the String Trio are two great modernist works from the 20's: the Nonetto and the Quarteto Simbólico. Both can be heard in a live concert from 1991, at 10 p.m. Sao Paulo time (that's 7 in the evening, prime time, in MDT Red Deer).

July 9: The complete string quartets have been recorded by the Quarteto Bessler-Reis on the Kuarup label. I purchased this set direct from Kuarup (and was very pleased with the price and the speed of delivery). You can sample the set by listening at 5 p.m. on the 5th to the Quartet #5.

July 31: One work that is quite rare is the Introdução ao Choros for guitar and orchestra. This is unexpected considering the huge number of CDs containing the Guitar Concerto and the solo works for guitar. Finnish guitarist Timo Korhonen has the piece included in his excellent Complete Works for Guitar series on the Ondine label. The piece is a kind of precis of the entire Choros series, with quotations from many of the works in this great 12-part saga. Here's what Bert Berenschot says about the piece:

"It is more an orchestral piece with some parts for guitar then that it is a guitar concerto. It's a 13 min. piece with themes from different Choros. It ends with an slow orchestral quote of the first bars of Choros 1 for guitar, so it can be connected with Choros 1 when all the Choros are performed in one concert. I cannot imagine it will ever happen........., well ok, maybe in 2059 or 2087..."

You can now relatively easily piece together all of the Choros from CDs with the exception of #6, so you can program just such a marathon in your own home. I think I'll do that myself...

New Symphonies Recording on its Way

Here is some interesting news from the very knowledgeable and well-connected Dutch Villa-Lobos fan Bert Berenschot:

"Some news from a spokesman of CPO: they will release the 3th and 9th symphony in september. In august they will release a cd with (a.o.) the amazing String Trio."

This is good news - the excellent Carl St. Clair Stuttgart Integral Symphonies series on cpo records is winding down. This release should be as interesting as any in the series: neither of these works is at all well-known. I've heard neither, and haven't heard of any recordings. It's also great to have a new version of the String Trio on CD.

Thanks, Bert, for this update.

Villa-Lobos on Cultura FM - June 2002

Here are some Villa-Lobos works you can listen to on Internet radio during the month of June on Cultura FM from Sao Paulo:

June 5: the second Cello Concerto, from the Dorian CD with Andrés Díaz and the Orquestra Sinfônica Simon Bolívar da Venezuela, conducted by Arturo Diemecke. This is repeated on June 12.

June 8: guitarist Joaquim Freire playing five Etudes.

June 10: the Pequena Suite and the quirky Choros #3 "Pica-Pao".

June 18: this one's interesting, since the CD isn't easily available in North America: the great tone poem Uirapuru played by the Orquestra Sinfônica Nacional da Universidade Federal Fluminense, conducted by Ligia Amadio. Later that same day, the Choros #7 with a chamber group conducted by Mário Tavares. Both programs are repeated June 25.

June 22: Choros #1 played by guitarist Carlos Farinas, with a prelude by Fabio Zanon.

June 25: Julian Bream's slick version of the Guitar Concerto, with the LSO under Andre Previn. This program includes some etudes performed by Fabio Zanon.

June 26: Here's a date to mark in your calendar. Choros #6 is by report a masterpiece, but it's unrepresented in the CD catalogue in North America or Europe. At 11:00 Sao Paulo time, on the program "Ciranda: Academia brasileira da música", you can hear the piece performed by the Sinfônica Brasileira, with conductor Isaac Karabatchevsky. Also on the program is Gnattali's Sinfonia Popular no. 1, with the OSB conducted by Cláudio Santoro. I'm not sure if these works are from Brazilian CDs or if they were recorded in concert.

The Boeuf Chronicles

Speaking of Darius Milhaud and the music of Brazil, there's a really interesting series about just that on Daniella Thompson's Brazilian Music weblog. The "Boeuf Chronicles" tell the fascinating story of a sophisticated musical genius connecting with a vibrant popular music culture of early 20th century Brazil. Daniella's musical examples are really interesting. I'm looking forward to dusting off my old Milhaud MP3's and following along with this cutting-edge musical research.