Vom Parnass Nach Amazonien

Marsalis Brasilianos isn't the only major Villa-Lobos concert tour coming this fall. The German-Ecuadorian Pianist Boris Cepeda will be performing Villa's great Rudepoema in four German cities in October 2008:

October 2: Munich
October 12: Hamburg
October 17: Bremen
October 20: Berlin

UPDATE (August 7/08)
You can add a date to the tour, October 21 in London. This is a real coincidence, since I've just posted about concerts in special places. Boris will be playing Rudepoema at Leighton House in Kensington. See this post at Tumbling Villa-Lobos.

Cepeda's website is really informative. Besides Rudepoema (of course), I'm interested in the Ecuadorian music he plays. His CD of post-romantic music includes music by Reger, Szymanowski, and Liszt, along with pieces by Jose Ignacio Canelos (1898-1957) and Gerardo Guevara. You can buy the CD at Amazon.com:



In the meantime, you can hear Canelos' Intermezzo Inca at Cepeda's Myspace.com page.

You can experience Cepeda's playing at YouTube.com - there are lots of video clips there. Let's hope he adds some Rudepoema clips, or even includes it on a future CD.

Marsalis Brasilianos Update

The Marsalis Brasilianos tour information is now up on Branford Marsalis's website. There are many more concerts in the series than I had come across, one-by-one on the web. These are hard-working musicians!

The tour begins on October 2nd, 2008, in Eugene OR, at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts, and winds up November 9th, 2008, at the Stephens Center for the Performing Arts in Birmingham AL. In between there are another 25 concerts, from one end of the country to the other.

Read more about the series at my original Marsalis Brasilianos post.

Musique en Brionnais 2008

When I'm travelling, I love to combine a concert with a visit to a special place. For example, I really enjoyed a performance of the Brahms Requiem at St. Paul's Cathedral the last time I was in London. Here's a suggestion for travelers in France in early August: a concert at L'église de Bois-Sainte-Marie, a beautiful Romanesque church in Burgundy. This is part of the festival Musique en Brionnais 2008.

A chamber music concert on August 2nd will include the "Duo pour violoncelle et piano" of Villa-Lobos with pianist Juliana Steinbach and cellist Guillaume Martigné. I'm not sure exactly which piece that might be. The standard reference work Villa-Lobos Sua Obra (1972) lists a number of miscellaneous works for cello & piano, besides the "pequena sonata" from 1913 and the two sonatas from 1915.

Here's a photo of the church's interior by Jean-Pierre Gobillot (This photo is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, 2007.)

Villa-Lobos on Cultura FM: August 2008

Here are Villa-Lobos performances upcoming on Cultura FM from Sao Paulo. Listen here on the Internet. Times are local Sao Paulo times, one hour ahead of EST.

August 1, 2008
06:00 A ESCRITA DE CÂMARA - Solistas e pequenas formações: Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Concerto para violão e pequena orquestra. Orquestra de Câmara Brasileira. Dir. Bernado Bessler. Turíbio Santos (violão). Bachianas Brasileira n° 9. Orquestra de cordas. Fantasia para saxofone e orquestra. Orquestra de câmara Brasileira. Paulo Moura (saxofone). Ciranda das sete notas. Orquestra de câmara Brasileira. Noel Devos (fagote)

August 2, 2008
10:00 CIRANDA - Academia Brasileira de Música: VILLA-LOBOS - Momoprecoce - Fantasia para piano e orquestra. Cristina Ortiz (piano). Orquestra Nova Filarmonia. Dir.: Vladimir Ashkenazy. / A prole do bebê no. 1. Cristina Ortiz (piano).

13:00 DELICATESSEN com Kika Leói: Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - "Ária (cantilena)" da Bachianas Brasileiras No.5. Frank Morelli (fagote). Benjamin Verdery (violão). / Frédéric CHOPIN - Sonata para piano No.3 em si bemol Op.58. Yundi Li (piano). / Jean-Phillipe RAMEAU - "Laudate Dominum" do Grande Moteto In Convertendo. Suzanne Gari (soprano). La Chapelle Royale. Reg.: Philippe Herreweghe.

August 4, 2008
13:00 DELICATESSEN com Kika Leoi: Arthur HONEGGER - Poema Sinfônico "Pastorale d'été". Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Reg.: Hermann Scherchen. / Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Suíte popular brasileira. Sérgio Assad e Odair Assad (violão). / Ignaz MOSCHELES - Bonbonnière musicale. Ivan Klánský (piano).

August 6, 2008
15:00 TARDE CULTURA - Música e Notícia com Fabio Malavoglia: Entre outras obras, as Bachianas Brasileiras n° 5 de Heitor VILLA-LOBOS, a Suíte "Mamãe Gansa" de Maurice RAVEL e o Quinteto para clarineta e cordas op. 34 de Carl Maria von WEBER.

August 9, 2008
10:00 CIRANDA - Academia Brasileira de Música: CAMARGO GUARNIERI - Choro para clarinete e orquestra. Sérgio Burgani (clarinete). Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo. Dir.: John Neschling. / Dança brasileira/ Dança negra. Yo-Yo MA (violoncelo). Kathhryn Stott (piano). (aquele disco) VILLA-LOBOS - Fantasia Concertante para piano, clarinete e violoncelo. Pablo Zinger (piano). Paquito D Rivera (clarinete). Gustavo Costa (violoncelo). / PIXINGUINHA - Carinhoso. Yo-Yo MA (violoncelo). Paquito D'RIvera (clarinete). Romero Lumambo (violão) Cyro Baptista (percussão)

August 11, 2008
13:00 DELICATESSEN com Kika Leoi: Jean-Philippe RAMEAU - Cena 5 do balé "Anacreón". Agnès Mellon e Jill Feldman (soprano). René Schirrer (baritono). Les Arts Florissants. Reg.: William Christie. / Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Sinfonietta No.1. Orquestra Sinfônica da Rádio Stuttgart. Reg.: Carl St.Clair. / Antonio VIVALDI - Converto para viola d'amore, alaúde, cordas e baixo contínuo em ré menor R.540. Norbert Blum (viola d'amore). John Williams e Benjamin Verdery (violão). Orquestra de Câmara Franz Liszt. Reg.; János Rolla.

August 13, 2008
07:00 DESPERTE COM OS CLÁSSICOS: Pjotr Iyich TCHAIKOVSKY - Dumka (Cena Rústica Russa), op. 59. Lang Lang (piano)./ Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Bachianas Brasileiras n° 2. Orquestra Filarmônica Real Britânica. Reg.: Enrique Bátiz. / Jean SIBELIUS - O Cisne de Tuonela. Orquestra de Filadélfia. Reg.: Eugen Ormandy. / Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART - ária "Prigionier che fa ritorno, do oratório "Betulia Liberata", K. 118. Nathalie Stutzmann (contralto). Moscou Virtuosi. Dir.: Vladimir Spivakov. / Hekel TAVARES - Modinha, primeiro movimento do concerto para piano em formas brasileiras. Arnaldo Cohen (piano). Orquestra Sinfônica Petrobrás Pró-Música. Reg.: Roberto Tibiriçá.

August 15, 2008
13:00 DELICATESSEN com Kika Leoi. Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Prelúdios No. 1 a No.5. Sérgio Assad e Odair Assad (violão). / Gioachino ROSSINI - "Prélude Italien" e "Échantillon de blague mélodique sur les noires de la main droite". Marco Sollini (piano). / Giovanni Battista VITALI - Ciaccona em sol menor. Cléa Galhano (flauta). Vivian Montgomery (cravo).

August 18, 2008
12:00 CONCERTOS DO MEIO-DIA com o Maestro Walter Lourenção: Cristina Ortiz é a solista do concerto para piano n° 2 de Heitor VILLA-LOBOS.

August 21, 2008
22:00 SALA DE CONCERTO: Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Introdução ao Choros e Choro n° 1. Turíbio Santos (violão). Orquestra Sinfônica Rio. Reg.: Sílvio Barbato. / Leo BROUWER - Concerto para violão n° 5 - Helsinki. Timo Korhonen (violão). Orquestra Filarmônica Tampere. Reg.: Tuomas Ollila. / Astor PIAZZOLLA - Concerto duplo para bandoneon e violão. Orquestra Sinfônica de Montreal. Reg.: Charles Dutoit.

August 23, 2008
10:00 CIRANDA - Academia Brasileira de Música: Alexandre LEVY - Tango / Romance sem palavras. Clara Sverner (piano) / Luciano GALLET - Hieroglyfo/ Henrique OSWALD - Berceuse opus 14 n° 1. Belkiss Carneiro de Mendonça (piano) VILLA-LOBOS - Ibericabe. Sonia Rubinsky (piano). / Osvaldo LACERDA - Quarteto n° 1. Quarteto Camargo Guarnieri.

13:00 DELICATESSEN com Kika Leói: Johann Sebastian BACH - Concerto para quatro cravos e orquestra BWV 1065. Quaternaglia. / Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Quarteto para cordas No.15. Cuarteto Latinoamericano. / Antonín DVORÁK - Tema e variações Op.36. Radoslav Kvapil (piano).

August 30, 2008
10:00 CIRANDA - Academia Brasileira de Música: CAMARGO GUARNIERI - Concerto para piano n° 1. Max Barros (piano). Orquestra Filarmônica de Varsóvia. Dir.: Thomas Conlin. /Hilda REIS - Valsa Fantasia. Tâmara Ujakova (piano) / Ronaldo MIRANDA - Estrela brilhante. Harlei Elbert (piano). / Alexandre BRASOLIM - Contradança / Carambola. Fernando Dissenha (trompete). Carlos Assis (piano). / VILLA-LOBOS - Suíte floral, op. 97. Anna Stella Schic (piano).

12:00 CONCERTOS DO MEIO DIA com o maestro Walter Lourenção: Fantasia para violoncelo e Orquestra de Heitor VILLA-LOBOS com Janos Starker e a Orquestra Sinfônica da Paraíba. Reg.: Eleazar de Carvalho.

Rio International Cello Encounter

The website of the Rio International Cello Encounter is now up. Villa's first instrument was the cello, and he featured the instrument in many of his greatest works - especially the first and fifth Bachianas Brasileiras. There are many Villa-Lobos works featured in the nearly 50 concerts during the event.

Joanna Brzezinska-Maurer plays Villa-Lobos

Pianist Joanna Brzezinska-Maurer's 2007 CD of Villa-Lobos piano music has been well-reviewed, and it's a disc I've enjoyed myself. It's nice to see that she's planning the release of a new CD this fall:

28-31 octobre, Lausanne Château Fallot
Enregistrement: CD -Villa-Lobos no.2
IV Bachianas Brasileiras, As Tres Marias, Trois Danses Africaines, Ciclo Brasileiro, Rudepoema

This well-filled disc hits some of the real high points of Villa's extraordinarily well-recorded piano music. I'm looking forward to it.

If you're going to be in Geneva earlier in October, you can hear all of this music live.

Carnaval and the Bossa Nova

I missed this NPR feature, from Performance Today, from 2005, on the Carnaval and the popular music of Brazil. Besides the Villa-Lobos piece played by pianist Luiz de Moura Castro and selections from the Obrigado Brasil project, you can listen to a quick rundown of important genres of Brazilian popular music: samba, choro, bossa nova, the music of Bahia, and capoeira.

Make sure you follow the link to the Performance Today page for Obrigado Brazil: Yo-Yo Ma's all-star Brazilian project. The Villa-Lobos piece is A Lenda do Caboclo, with Sergio & Odair Assad and Ma, but Villa's finger-prints are all over much of this music.

You can buy the original CD of Obrigado Brazil from Amazon.com:

Atterberg Symphonies

Kurt Atterberg was born in the same year (1887) as Villa-Lobos (he died 15 years after VL, in 1974.) The two composers share a knack for orchestration, and they could both write a beautiful tune. One other thing they share: the German record company cpo has recorded complete cycles of the Symphonies of each composer.

The nine symphonies of Atterberg are now available in a box set at an amazingly low price. Though he wrote lovely chamber music, and some very beautiful concertos, the symphonies represent the most important music of this composer. You can't say that about VL's symphonies, as interesting as some of them (#2, #6, #10) might be.



I'm hoping that cpo does a similar bundling job for the Carl St. Clair Stuttgart recordings of the Villa-Lobos symphonies. The broader exposure to this largely unknown music will help us unravel where they fit in Villa's musical output.

Nonetto CD released

I've been complaining for a long time about the lack of an easy-to-buy CD of the great chamber work from 1924, the Nonetto, subtitled "Impressao rapida de todo o Brasil". There's a interesting recent Brazilian CD "Villa-Lobos em Paris", conducted by Gil Jardem, but I haven't been able to get a copy here in the Red Deer bat-cave.

So I was excited to see that the famous Roger Wagner Chorale disc from the 1950s has finally been re-released on CD:



Villa-Lobos: Nonetto, for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Saxophone, Bassoon, Harp, Celesta, Battery, and Mixed Chorus; Quatuor, for Flute, Harp, Celesta, Alto Saxophone, and Women's Voices by The Roger Wagner Chorale and the Concert Arts Players, Roger Wagner, Villa-Lobos

Here's the blurb from the Amazon site:

"Precocious and full of wonderment, the Nonetto and Quatuor, written by Villa-Lobos in 1924 and 1921 respectively, are surely two of the unsung minor masterpieces of the early 20th Century. In its fusion of pagan rhythms and chanting with the brittle harmonies of the avant garde, Nonetto brings to mind Stravinsky's Les Noces and Prokofiev's Scythian Suite. Yet the piece is also characterised by a freewheeling playfulness more suggestive of jazz and folk music than the concert hall.This edition restores to print two historic performances of the Nonetto and Quatuor from 1941 and 1957 combining them with a set of exquisite Villa-Lobos guitar works performed by the great masters Andrés Segovia, Julian Bream and Laurindo Almeida."

This is great, but it under-states the importance of the Nonetto. I'd characterize the Nonetto as an unsung major masterpiece of the early 20th Century. The jury is still out on the Quatuor, but this disc will provide some welcome exposure.

So pre-order this disc - I highly recommend it.

I'll give the last word to Villa-Lobos, who gave was a big fan:

"Roger Wagner deserves all my admiration for his dedicated work...a notable achievement in technique and sound as well as perfect interpretation."

Rio Cello Encounter 2008

The Fourteenth Rio International Cello Encounter begins on August 9, 2008. This year the festival, which David Chew began in 1995, will include 58 concerts and recitals, with cellists, ensembles and orchestras from around the world. One that jumps out for me is I Musici de Montreal, an awesome group with an award-winning Latin American CD. The preliminary information for the I Musici concert is here.



Until the festival's website is up and running, there's some useful information at the excellent Rio website Carioca Forever.

The Healing Art of Music in London & Basingstoke

It's nice to see BB#5 included in two of the concerts that Boston's Longwood Symphony Orchestra performed in the UK this summer, as part of their Healing Art of Music series.

The Longwood Symphony Orchestra brings its unique blend of music and medicine from Boston for its first international "Healing Art of Music" tour, focusing on the care and treatment of patients with cancer. The concerts will raise funds for the new support centre at Barts for patients with cancer and for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

I've long been a fan of music therapy - using the power of music to enhance healing and wellness. There are lots of references in the Wikipedia article if you'd like to learn more. Also check out the Longwood SO's Healing Art of Music blog.

Marsalis Brasilianos

I'm going to re-post this, since there have been a couple of concerts added to the list. Thanks for the input, all - please feel free to comment on any of these posts! [In the past few days I've added the UConn and Newport News concerts. Talk about a punishing schedule!]

There's an exciting series of Villa-Lobos concerts coming in the fall of 2008 to concert halls across the U.S. According to the tour publicity,

Marsalis Brasilianos is a celebration of the music of Heitor Villa-Lobos, featuring Branford Marsalis and members of the Philarmonia Brasilera (Gil Jardim, Conductor). This fascinating new project commemorates the 50th Anniversary of the revered Brazilian composers death.

Bringing together Grammy Award-winning saxophonist Branford Marsalis with a Brazilian orchestra known for it's remarkable work with Villa-Lobos' music, the program is uniquely suited to Marsalis' mastery of both jazz and classical music, allowing the language of Villa-Lovos' compositions to truly shine.

Featured in the tour are three Villa-Lobos works: the Fantasia for Solo Saxophone, the (2nd) Suite for Strings, and Bachianas Brasileiras #5 (which I assume will feature Marsalis on soprano saxophone as the soloist). The project also includes two works by Darius Mihaud: La Creation du Monde, and Scaramouche.

Marsalis's official website doesn't feature this project yet, but I've been coming across information about individual concerts on the web. UPDATE: go here for the latest info on the tour.

Here's what I've found so far: an updated list:

October 2 - Eugene OR
October 3 - Seattle WA
October 5 - Stanford CA
October 6 - Modesto CA
October 8 - San Bernardino CA
October 9 - San Luis Obispo CA
October 10 - Los Angeles CA
October 11 - Orange County CA
October 13 - Santa Fe NM
October 14 - Albuquerque NM
October 16 - Lufkin TX
October 18 - Fayetteville AR
October 19 - Overland Park KS
October 20 - Conway AR
October 22 - Milwaukee WI
October 23 - Detroit MI
October 24 - Wheaton IL
October 25 - Minneapolis MN
October 26 - Winona MN
October 28 - Storrs CT
October 30 - Ithaca NY
November 1 - Bronx NY
November 2 - Stony Brook NY
November 5 - Newport News VA
November 6 - Durham NC
November 7 - Rockville MD
November 9 - Birmingham AL

By the way, the actual 50th anniversary of the death of Villa-Lobos is November 17, 2009.

Marsalis's arrangement of BB#5 for soprano saxophone is now a classic. One of the most successful of many, many similar projects, it's included in his album Romances for Saxophone. You can buy the CD:

Villa-Lobos on Cultura FM: July 2008

Here are Villa-Lobos performances upcoming on Cultura FM from Sao Paulo. Listen here on the Internet. Times are local Sao Paulo times, one hour ahead of EST.

July 2, 2008:
22:00 OSESP - Gravações Realizadas na Sala São Paulo:
VILLA-LOBOS - Alvorada na Floresta Tropical. / TCHAIKOVSKY - Concerto n° 1 para piano em si bemol menor, Op. 23. Olga Kern (piano). / BEETHOVEN - Sinfonia n° 3 em mi bemol maior, Op. 55 - Heróica. Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo. Reg.: John Neschling.


July 7, 2008:
15:00 TARDE CULTURA - Música e Notícia com Fabio Malavoglia:
Entre outras obras, destaque para o Quinteto para sopros, op. 91 n° 3, de Antoine REICHA, a Sinfonia n° 11, de VILLA-LOBOS e o Quinteto para cordas em fá maior, de BRUCKNER.


July 8, 2008:
13:00 DELICATESSEN com Kika Leoi:
Frédéric CHOPIN - Scherzo nº 4 em mi maior Op. 54. Nikolai Demidenko (piano). / Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Estudo nº 9. Joaquim Freire (violão). / Jean SIBELIUS - Serenata nº 2 em sol menor Op. 69b. Ida Haendel (violino). Orquestra Sinfônica de Bournemouth. Reg.: Paavo Berglund. / Clara SCHUMANN - "Romance: andante non troppo con grazia" do Concerto para piano e orquestra em lá menor Op. 7. Enrica Ciccarelli (piano). Orquestra Filarmônica de Montpellier Languedoc - Roussillon. Reg.: Friedemann Layer.


July 12, 2008:
10:00 CIRANDA - Academia Brasileira de Música:
Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Uirapuru. Orquestra Sinfônica da Paraíba. Dir.: Eleazar de Cravalho./ Lorenzo FERNANDEZ - Prelúdios do crepúsculo. Miguel Proença (piano).

13:00 DELICATESSEN com Kika Leói:
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART - Sonata para piano KV. 333. Clara Sverner (piano). / Antonio VIVALDI - Concerto em ré maior RV. 121. I Musici. / Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - "Lento" do Quinteto instrumental para harpa trio de cordas e flauta. Grupo Instrumental de Paris.


July 13, 2008:
10:00 ENCONTRO COM O MAESTRO com João Mauricio Galindo:
O maestro Roberto Duarte e Villa-Lobos.


July 14, 2008:
21:00 ENCONTRO COM O MAESTRO com João Maurício Galindo: Reapresentação de Domingo: O maestro Roberto Duarte e Villa-Lobos


July 16, 2008:
12:00 CONCERTOS DO MEIO-DIA com o Maestro Walter Lourenção.
CHOPIN - As Folhas estão Caindo, das canções op. 74. Elisabeth Söderström (soprano). Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano). / MOLTER - Concerto n° 2 para trompete e cordas. Wynton Marsalis (trompete). Orquestra de Câmara Inglesa. Dir.: Raymond Leppard./ BERLIOZ - Abertura "O Carnaval Romano", op. 9. Orquestra Nacional Escocesa. Reg.: Sir Alexander Gibson. / MOZART - Concerto para violino n° 3 em sol maior, k. 216.FranK Peter Zimmermann (violino). Orquestra de Câmara de Wurttenburg. Dir.: Jörg Faerber. / Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Sinfonia "Ameríndia". Nmon Ford-Livene, Carlo Scibelli, Carla wood, sociedade Coral de Santa Bárbara, Coro de Câmara UCSB, o Donald Brinegar Singers e a Orquestra Sinfônica de Santa Bárbara. Regência de Gisèle- Bem-Dor.


July 23, 2008:
13:00 DELICATESSEN com Kika Leoi.
Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Cinco prelúdios para violão. Narciso Yepes (violão). / Carl Maria Von WEBER - Introdução, Tema e Variações Op. Póstumo. Jon Manasse (clarinete). Samuel Sanders (piano). Quarteto de Cordas Manhattan. / John FIELD - Noturno No.4 em lá maior. Noel Lee (piano). / Jean SIBELIUS - "Allegretto" da Sinfonia No.2 em ré maior Op.43. Orquestra Philharmonia. Reg.: Vladimir Ashkenazy.

New Villa-Lobos Re-Issue

I was pleased to see Naxos beginning to look to historic recordings of Villa-Lobos music in their Classical Archives. The disc above, Joseph Battista's 1953 recording of the Cirandas for MGM, showed up today in the great Naxos Music Library. I'm looking forward to listening to this carefully in the near future.

I've seen the LP on eBay in the past, but never expected it to show up on CD. I know that Naxos has been praised for their restoration work, and I look forward to a relatively positive sonic experience when I get the CD. The pieces I've heard so far sound fine with my (library's) "Near CD" bitrate on NML.

Joseph Battista is an American pianist and scholar who was born in Philadelphia in 1918, and who died in 1968. There's a page on the Latin American Music Center's website about Battista and the Cirandas disc, and more about his life at this Joseph Battista Memorial Fund page.

It's nice to have this CD issued in time for the 40th Anniversary of Battista's untimely death.

A postscript: if you're not a Naxos Music Library subscriber, get on down to www.naxosmusiclibrary.com. Or ask your public library if they have a subscription for their library members to use. Every Villa-Lobos lover should have access to this great resource. Just in the past two weeks there have been four or five new VL CDs added.

Another postscript: the disc has shown up on the Naxos download site Classics Online. $3.99 will buy you the entire disc in 320 bits per second MP3 files - a real bargain!

Bachianas Brasileiras in Concert

I recently commented on how popular Bachianas Brasileiras #6 has become in live performance, based on my database of Villa-Lobos Concerts. How does it stack up against the other 8 in the series?

Here are the numbers:

• Bachianas Brasileiras #1 (23)
• Bachianas Brasileiras #2 (19)
• Bachianas Brasileiras #3 (12)
• Bachianas Brasileiras #4 (28)
• Bachianas Brasileiras #5 (67)
• Bachianas Brasileiras #6 (16)
• Bachianas Brasileiras #7 (6)
• Bachianas Brasileiras #8 (4)
• Bachianas Brasileiras #9 (24)

It's not a surprise that BB#5 is by far the most popular, and the above list probably under-estimates how often this piece is performed around the world. I don't always pick up every performance, especially in arrangements for voice and guitar (the composer's own, by the way), or for many other combinations of instruments.

BB#4 is in second place, partly because it's programmed as a solo piano work as well as an increasingly popular orchestral piece. Next is BB#9, which has recently become fashionable in its choral version as well as the version for strings. Cellists love BB#1, and there's a spill-over effect, since if you have 8 cellists performing BB#5, you might want to keep them busy in the same concert. BB#2 has the famous "Little Train" movement, so it's next, at 19 performances.

BB#6 follows that work; bassoonists love it. BB#3 used to be the rarest in performance, but it's been taken up by Sonia Rubinsky and others, and so it actually has become the most commonly performed VL work for piano and orchestra. #7 and #8 round out the list. I'm surprised by the relative rarity of #7, which I think is one of Villa's best orchestral works. Not so much with #8, though if you listen closely to a really good performance, it has the merits of many less-often-performed musical works in famous series (much like Beethoven's 8th Symphony).

There it is; Villa's signature series, from the more-or-less comprehensive list of world-wide concerts from 1999-2009.

---

And speaking of the Bachianas Brasileiras series, I missed this programme when it was on BBC Radio 3 a year ago, but here are the recommendations for these works from the CD Review programme of June 30, 2007:

Building a Library Recommendations

VILLA-LOBOS Bachianas Brasileiras



Reviewer: Catherine Bott

Nos. 1, 2, 5 & 9:
Victoria de los Angeles (soprano), French Radio National Orchestra, Heitor Villa-Lobos (conductor)
(recorded 1956-8)
EMI CLASSICS 5669122 (CD, mid-price)

Nos. 1 & 5:
Juliane Banse (soprano), The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic
(recorded 2000; from CD entitled 'South American Getaway')
EMI CLASSICS 5569812 (CD)

Nos. 2, 3 & 4
Jean Louis Steuerman (piano), Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, Roberto Minczuk (conductor)
(recorded 2002)
BIS CD-1250 (CD)

Nos. 7, 8 & 9
Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra and Choir, Roberto Minczuk (conductor)
(recorded 2003)
BIS CD-1400 (CD)

Complete - Nos. 1-9:
Rosana Lamosa (soprano), Jose Feghali (piano), Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Kenneth Schermerhorn, Andrew Mogrelia (conductors)
(recorded 2004-5)
NAXOS 8557460/2 (3-CD, budget)

Todas as Ondas do Rádio

This 2000 CD "Todas as Ondas do Rádio", performed by the Coro de Câmara Villa-Lobos, is fascinating. Learn more, including purchase information, at the MUBI website.

The concept is really interesting: a chamber choir performs on a Brazilian radio station in the 1940s. You can listen to some clips on the MUBI site. The Our Sponsors jingle and This Reporter are both reminiscent of Villa's music-for-the-masses works of the period. Villa's in charge in this cool picture:


Even though I can't understand what's being said, this is still really cool stuff. It reminds me a lot of listening to Latin American radio on shortwave when I was a kid.

You can still hear interesting Brazilian music, and radionovelas, on shortwave today. Rádio Nacional da Amazônia is fairly easy to hear in North America, evenings on 11,780 kHz. You can listen online, but it's more atmospheric, and more fun, on shortwave.

Villa-Lobos on Cultura FM: June 2008

Here are Villa-Lobos performances upcoming on Cultura FM from Sao Paulo. Listen here on the Internet. Times are local Sao Paulo times, one hour ahead of EST.

The highlight of the month is on June 28 (my birthday), when the featured work on the excellent Ciranda programme is Gil Jardim's new recording of the Nonetto.

June 10, 2008:
06:00 A ESCRITA DE CÂMARA - Solistas e pequenas formações:
Luigi NONO - Fragmentos. Silencio. A Diotima para quarteto de cordas. Quarteto La Salle. Walter Levin (violino). Henry Meyer (violino). Peter Kamnitzer(viola). Lee Fiser(viloncelo). / Heitor VILLA-LOBOS. Choros N°10. Orquestra Sinfonia da Venezuela. Dir. Simon Bolívar.

June 16, 2008:
13:00 DELICATESSEN com Kika Leoi:
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART - "Allegro" do Concerto para violino n° 3 em sol maior, K 216. Frank Peter Zimmermann (violino). Orquestra Filarmônica de Berlim. Reg.: Wolfgang Sawallisch. / Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - "Tímido - poco andante" da Suíte para cordas. I Musici. Reg.: Yuli Turovsky. / Frédéric CHOPIN - Noturno em si bemol menor Op. 9 n° 1. Yundi Li (piano). / Edvard GRIEG - Abertura No Outono Op. 11. Orquestra Sinfônica Iceland. Reg.: Petri Sakari.


20:00 AS MIL e UMA INTERPRETAÇÕES com Turíbio Santos:
Edvard GRIEG. Suite Holberg. Heitor VILLA-LOBOS. Bachianas número 3. Orquestra de Câmara Banespa. Claudio Cruz (Spala)

June 21, 2008:
10:00 CIRANDA - Academia Brasileira de Música:
CARLOS GOMES - Condor. Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira. Dir.: Yeruham Scharovsky. Francisco BRAGA - Trio. Trio Brasileiro./ VILLA-LOBOS - Bachianas Brasileiras no. 4. Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo.OSESP. Dir.: John Neschling.


June 28, 2008:
10:00 CIRANDA - Academia Brasileira de Música:
Camargo GUARNIERI - Suite Vila Rica. Orquestra Sinfónica do Estado de São Paulo. OSESP. Dir.: John Neschling. / VILLA-LOBOS - Noneto. Toninho Carrasqueira (flauta). Luís CArlos Justi (oboé). Sérgio Burgani (clarinete). Aloysio Fagerlande (fagote). Dílson Florêncio (saxofone). Maria Elisa Risardo (celesta). Paulo Braga (piano). Elizabeth Del Grande (tímpanos). Ricardo Bologna e Eduardo Gianesella (percussão). Coro Misto. Dir.: Gil Jardim. André / MEHMARI - Sete Miniaturas. Quinteto de Sopros Villa-Lobos.

The second volume in the BIS Choros series (CD-1450) has been released, and it looks like a winner. It includes three big orchestral works that aren't as well known as they should be. John Neschling conducts the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra in Choros #6, #8, and #9, each of which is 20 minutes or longer.

Rounding out the disc is Fabio Zanon performing Choros #1 (by far the most-performed in the Choros series - there are scores of versions of this seminal work for guitar on CD, and hundreds of performances in concert and on YouTube.) The last little piece on this well-filled disc is the charmingly complex whatever-it-is, Choros #4 for three horns and trombone.

You'll have to wait for the disc to ship from Amazon and to show up on the Naxos Music Library. But there's no waiting at eClassical.com, where you can download the disc right now for US$7.95.

June 8, 2008 update: you now can pre-order this CD on Amazon.com:

Experiencing Villa-Lobos Conference Report

The important International Villa-Lobos Conference in Richmond VA held in March 2008 was a great success. Lee Boyd has sent a detailed report from Richmond, which I've posted on the Villa-Lobos Website. Thanks, Lee!

Wines from Brazil

I've been putting together information on the Marsalis Brasilianos project. I'll be posting about this exciting project soon.

In the meantime, I came across this note about the concert in Birmingham AL:

Free Prelude Musical Discussion @ 6 p.m. Enjoy a tasting of Brazilian wines prior to the show.

A very long time ago, before my life as a librarian, I used to work in the wine business. Since then, I've lost touch a bit with the new world of wines from the Southern Hemisphere. I love New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, Hunter Valley Semillon, Argentina Cabernet Sauvignon, but I've never tasted wine from Brazil.

So I immediately spent some time at the excellent website Wines from Brazil. I'm learning about where they make wine in Brazil, who makes it, and where in the world it's exported to. Now I'm off to find out where in Alberta I can buy some bottles.



Here's a picture of a vineyard from the Serra Gaucha in Rio Grande do Sul in Southern Brazil, where 90% of Brazilian wine is made. The most important wine district is called “Vale dos Vinhedos”.

Calgary Concert on CBC Radio 2

A March 2008 Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra concert featuring Bach and Villa-Lobos will be played on CBC Radio 2 on Sunday, April 4th, on Bill Richardson's "Sunday Afternoon in Concert", beginning at 1 p.m. EDT.

I was really sorry to miss this concert, just down Highway 2 from my home in Red Deer. Conductor Roberto Minczuk [above, in a CBC picture from the concert] put together an excellent program, which included BB#5 (with soprano Donna Brown) and BB#7, along with a Bach cantata and a Brandenburg Concerto. Listen online to CBC Radio 2 here.

NEW: This concert is now available online on the fabulous Radio 2 website. I'm very impressed by this playing.

Baylor Concert and Lecture

Amarilis de Rebua is professor of voice at the Federal University of Paraíba, and an amazing singer to boot.

She shows off the latter in a concert at Roxy Grove Hall, on the campus of Baylor University, on April 30th. And as professor, she'll be giving a lecture the following day:

On Thursday, May 1, Rebua will discuss the works of 20th-Century composer Heitor Villa-Lobos as a part of the Global Issues Lecture Series from 4-5 p.m. in Recital Hall II of Waco Hall.

"Heitor Villa-Lobos is one of Brazil's most important classical composers of the early 20th century and a leader of the country's Modernist movement," said Dr. Lizabeth Souza-Fuertes, director of Latin American Studies. The concert and lecture will provide students with a rare opportunity to learn about Latin American classical music at Baylor, she said.

I haven't been able to track down any of Rebua's CDs online. This one looks especially interesting:

Heitor Villa-Lobos – Atualmente está gravando as obras completas para canto, tendo sido já gravadas 2 CDs num total de 45 Canções.

Villa-Lobos on Cultura FM: May 2008

Here are Villa-Lobos performances upcoming on Cultura FM from Sao Paulo. Listen here on the Internet. Times are local Sao Paulo times, one hour ahead of EST.

May 1:
12:00 CONCERTOS DO MEIO-DIA com o Maestro Walter Lourenção:
Chôros n° 9 de Heitor VILLA-LOBOS com o maestro Kenneth Schermerhorn e a Orquestra Filarmônica de Hong Kong.

May 24:
10:00 CIRANDA - Academia Brasileira de Música:
VILLA LOBOS - Uirapurú. Orquestra Sinfônica da Paraíba. Dir.: Eleazar de Carvalho. / Edino KRIEGER - Prelúdio e Fuga. Beatriz Balzi (piano). / Claudio SANTORO - Vocalise. Bruno Wyzuj (baixo). Maria Lúcia Pinho (piano). / Marlos NOBRE - Convergências. Musica Nova Philarmonia. Dir.: Marlos Nobre. / Ernst MAHLE - Concerto para trombone e orquestra. (transcrição para piano). Wagner Politschuk (trombone). Káthia Bonna (piano).

12:00 CONCERTOS DO MEIO DIA com o maestro Walter Lourenção:
O pianista Paulo Emiliano Pía de Andrade é o solista das Bachianas Brasileiras n° 3 de Heitor VILLA-LOBOS.

May 28:
06:00 A ESCRITA DE CÂMARA - Solistas e pequenas formações.
Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Trio para cordas. /MOZART Camargo GUARNIERI - Trio para cordas. /Amaral VIERA - Quinteto para piano e cordas op.297
Ensemble Capricio.Chouhei Min (violino).Korey Konkol(viola).Mina Fisher(cello).Artistas convidos:Max Barros(piano).Willam Schrickel(contra baixo). [repeated May 29, 06:00]

May 30:
06:00 A ESCRITA DE CÂMARA - Solistas e pequenas formações:
Silvestre REVUETAS - Quarteto n° 4-Quarteto n° 2. /Alberto GINASTERA. Quarteto n° 1 op./Heitor VILLA LOBOS - Quarteto n°17. Quarteto Latino- Americano.

Quarteto de Brasilia

It was nice to come across the website of the Quarteto de Brasilia, a group established in 1986. The site isn't especially up-to-date, so there's no information about upcoming concerts, but the discography section shows the significant recording history of the group over the years. As a small bonus, there are short MP3 clips from each disc, including the 1st and 17th quartets of Villa-Lobos.

Sonora Brasil: Heitor Villa-Lobos

Here's a project that demonstrates the importance of Villa-Lobos to the musical life of Brazil today. It's called Sonora Brasil: Heitor Villa-Lobos, and it's a project of the Orquestra do Estado de Mato Grosso. The project will bring concerts built on the music of Villa-Lobos to 78 cities in 22 states.

Music will include Bachianas Brasileiras #4 and 9, Choros #5, Danças Características Africanas, Ciranda das Sete Notas, and Cirandas.

The tour begins in Rio de Janeiro on April 30th, and finishes in Jequié, Bahia, on August 1st.

Thanks to João Bosquo's blog for the heads-up on this.

Jules Dassin Dead at 96

Director Jules Dassin died yesterday at the age of 96.

Dassin, who is better known today as a Hollywood director (and Hollywood Blacklist victim) than a Broadway director, directed the Villa-Lobos Broadway Musical Magdalena in 1948.



My favourite films of Dassin are Rififi, Topkapi, and The Naked City.

The World of Villa-Lobos, in Kalamazoo

It's nice to see that conductor Raymond Harvey has included Villa-Lobos as one of three featured composers (along with Debussy and Rachmaninoff) in the "World of..." concerts in the coming season's Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra programme.


The World of…Villa-Lobos
Sunday, April 5 (2009) – 3pm Light Fine Arts Center (Kalamazoo College Campus, corner Academy & Thompson)
Raymond Harvey, Conductor
Raymond Harvey guides you through the life, times, and music of Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. Villa-Lobos combined the color, rhythms, and flavor of Brazil with classical structures to create an evocative and beautiful sound.

Conference Season

Villa-Lobos scholars are heading to the Southern U.S. in the week after Easter.

Richmond VA:
Virginia Commonwealth University will host an International Villa-Lobos Conference from March 27 to March 29. This is a big deal, both for its scholarly papers and the performances by such great performers as the Cuarteto Latinoamericano, saxophonist Albert Regni, and pianist Sonia Rubinsky. Watch for Villa-Lobos Magazine posts with the Experiencing Villa-Lobos tag for more information. The website of the Conference is here.

Chapel Hill NC:
Meanwhile, down Interstate 85 to the south-east from Richmond, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill presents Festival on the Hill 2008 - Transcending Borders: Latin American and Latina/o Music in North Carolina and the United States, March 27-30, 2008. This conference has a broader theme, but there are two important Villa-Lobos works on the program: Bachianas Brasileiras #5, and the Quintette en forme de Choros.

Y'all have a good time!

Villa-Lobos on Cultura FM: April 2008

Here are Villa-Lobos performances upcoming on Cultura FM from Sao Paulo. Listen here on the Internet. Times are local Sao Paulo times, one hour ahead of EST.


April 12:
10:00 CIRANDA - Academia Brasileira de Música:
André MEHMARI - Variações Villa-Lobos. Opus Brasil Ensemble. /Edino KRIEGER - Choro Manhos./ Choro Seresteiro. Alexandre Dossin (piano). / VILLA-LOBOS - Bachianas Brasileiras no. 7. Orquestra Filarmônica Süwestfalen. Dir.: Ricardo Rocha.

April 19:
10:00 CIRANDA - Academia Brasileira de Música:
Raimundo PENAFORTE - Sweet New Yor. Fernando Dissenha (trompete). Carlos Assis (piano). / Octavio MAUL - Tríptico. Balada. Miriam Ramos (piano). / VILLA-LOBOS - Francette e Piá. Lydia Kennedy e Frans vab Gurp (violões)

April 28:
20:00 AS MIL e UMA INTERPRETAÇÕES com Turíbio Santos:
Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Choros n° 6. Orquestra Sinfônica da Petrobrás. Reg. Roberto Tibiriça.

O Descobrimento do Brasil

Here's something I've wanted to see for a very long time - it's from Humberto Mauro's 1937 film
"O Descrobrimento do Brasil":



There's a second part out there on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJmJ0UKQSFA&feature=related.

Unfortunately, though, no DVD or VHS available, or not that I could track down on the web. This is superb music, a very interesting subject, and an interesting film overall.

Villa-Lobos on Bartok Radio

I received this comment on my last post:

Bartok Radio (Hungary) Mar 8th 22:36

Villa-Lobos concert with Emmanuel Krivine conducting Orchestre National de Lyon

Bachianas Brasileiras No 2
Guitar Concerto (Roberto Aussel)
Amazonas

broadcast on the web.

Bartok Radio is a really interesting station that has a variety of web streams. Click here for the current playlist.

Here are the streams:
80 kpbs Windows Media
MP3 Stream
RealAudio Stream

Check out this concert on Saturday - Budapest is on Central European Time, so 22:36 is 21:36 Universal Time, 4:36 p.m. EST, and 2:36 in the afternoon here in Red Deer.

Zeppelins!

Gotta love the Internet - there are market niches out there you never would have thought of. A Portuguese-language blog on Zeppelins? Naturally!

A while ago on Tumbling Villa-Lobos I posted a small story on Villa-Lobos's Zeppelin trip across the Atlantic in 1936, coming home from the Congress for Musical Education in Prague. Now here's a story on the same topic: Dirigível no Brasil, from Projeto Blimp View One. Here's a picture from this interesting post, of the famous Hindenburg over Rio:

Dia da Música Clássica celebrations in Rio

There's lots happening in Rio de Janeiro this week, in celebration of the Dia da Música Clássica. Classical Music Day is celebrated on Villa-Lobos's birthday, March 5th. There's a complete list at the Portal VivaMúsica, or check out all the concerts on the Villa-Lobos Website.




By the way, Happy Birthday, Villa! He's 121 years old on Wednesday.

Missa São Sebastião in Toronto

Though their concert is called "Graçias a la Vida - The Gift of Spanish Song," the Victoria Scholars, a Toronto-based choral group, are fully aware of Villa-Lobos's Brazilian nationality. They'll be performing the Missa São Sebastião, an amazing but rarely-heard choral work by Villa-Lobos, on Sunday March 2, 2008 at 7:30pm, at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Toronto.

If you don't know this work, listen to excerpts from each of the six movements from the awesome Hyperion disc of Villa-Lobos choral works on the Amazon.com music sampler player featuring the Corydon Singers.

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.

Villa-Lobos on Cultura FM: March 2008

Here are Villa-Lobos performances upcoming on Cultura FM from Sao Paulo. Listen here on the Internet. Times are local Sao Paulo times, one hour ahead of EST.

Though the station that most consistently plays Villa-Lobos inexplicably misses out on Villa's March 5th birthday, there are some gems this month. There's a live concert from Sao Paulo on the 22nd (repeated on the 26th). And, on the 29th, an interesting bunch of works: Odisséia de uma raça (Odyssey of a Race, the 1945 work dedicated to the state of Israel), plus other rarely heard orchestral pieces: the 2nd Sinfonietta, the first Suite, and Elegia.

March 8:
10:00 CIRANDA - Academia Brasileira de Música: LORENZO FERNANDEZ - Batuque. Orquestra Petrobrás Pró Música. Dir.: Ernani Aguiar. /Cláudio SANTORO - Sonata no. 4. Elisa Fukuda (violino). Giuliano Montini (piano). / AMARAL VIEIRA - Toccata. Max Barros (piano). / Osvaldo LACERDA - Cançoneta. Duo Quanta. VILLA-LOBOS - Quinteto instrumental. Grupo Instrumental de Paris./ Prelúdio de Bachianas 4 / Modinha / Melodia Sentimental. Carlos Barbosa Lima (violão)

12:00 CONCERTOS DO MEIO DIA com o maestro Walter Lourenção: Roberto Duarte rege a Sinfonia n° 6, "Sobre a Linha das Montanhas do Brasil", de VILLA-LOBOS.

March 14:
22:00 SALA DE CONCERTO: ANTÔNIO MENEZES: Johann Sebastian BACH - Suíte n° 6 em ré maior, BWV 1012. Antônio Meneses (violoncelo). / Franz SCHUBERT - Sonata em lá menor para violoncelo e piano, D. 821 - Arpeggione. Antônio Meneses (violoncelo). Gilberto Tinetti (piano). / Robert SCHUMANN - Fantasiestücke, Op. 73 para violoncelo e piano). Antônio Meneses (violoncelo). Gérad Wyss (piano). / Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Fantasia para violoncelo e orquestra. Antônio Meneses (violoncelo). Orquestra Sinfônica da Galícia. Reg.: Víctor Pablo Pérez.

March 15:
23:00 NOTURNO: Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Trio n° 3. Artistrio.

March 19:
07:00 DESPERTE COM OS CLÁSSICOS: VILLA-LOBOS - Canção de Amor, de "A Floresta do Amazonas". Bidu Sayão (soprano). Symphony of the Air. Dir.: Heitor Villa-Lobos/ SPOHR - Duo Concertante, op. 67 n° 2. Itzhak Perlman e Pinchas Zuckerman (violinos)/ VIVALDI - Concerto op. 8, n° 1 RV 269 " A Primavera " , de "As Quatro Estações". Itzhak Perlman (Violino). Orquestra Filarmônica de Israel. Reg.: Zubin Mehta/ DELIUS - On Hearing the first cuckoo in the spring. Orquestra de Câmara Inglesa. Reg.: Daniel Baremboim/ BEETHOVEN - 7 variações sobre "Bei Männern, welche Liebe Fühlen". Ronald Turini (piano). Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi (violoncelo).

March 22:
16:30 OSESP AO VIVO - Gravações exclusivas realizadas na Sala São Paulo: VILLA-LOBOS - Alvorada na Floresta Tropical. / TCHAIKOVSKY - Concerto n° 1 para piano em si bemol menor, Op. 23. Solista: Olga Kern. / BEETHOVEN - Sinfonia n° 3 em mi bemol maior, Op. 55 - Heróica. Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo. John Neschling, regente.

The above concert is repeated on March 26, at 22:00.

March 29:
10:00 CIRANDA - Academia Brasileira de Música: VILLA-LOBOS - Odisséia de uma raça. Suíte no. 1 para orquestra de câmara. Orquestra Sinfônica do teatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro. Dir.: Silvio Barbato. Elegie / Sinfonieta no. 2. Orquestra Sinfônica do teatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro. Dir.: Silvio Barbato. / Saudades das Selvas Brasileiras. Anna Stella Schic (piano).

Villa-Lobos on the Marimba

This excellent New York Sun review of a recent New York City concert introduced me to the marimba virtuoso Makoto Nakura. The Villa-Lobos Etudes and Preludes for guitar sound like excellent candidates for transcription to this fascinating instrument. Unfortunately, they're not included in any of Nakura's CDs so far. Let's hope that's coming soon, though!



In the meantime, if you're close to upstate New York on March 2nd, check out this free concert at Binghamton University, part of the fascinating series South of the Border: Explorations, organized by the Binghamton Philharmonic's composer-in-residence Carlos Sánchez-Gutiérrez.

Dia da Música Clássica

The Dia da Música Clássica - Classical Music Day in both the city and the state of Rio de Janeiro - is celebrated (naturally) on March 5th, Villa-Lobos's birthday. This year, the Museu Villa-Lobos will present "Villa-Lobos e Eu" - conversations with people who met Villa-Lobos. They are, in this case, bassoonist Noel Devos, conductor Nelson Nilo Hack, and flutist Odette Ernst Dias.


The Sala Bidú Sayão at the Museu Villa-Lobos in Rio de Janeiro

If you're lucky enough to be in Rio de Janeiro that day, the event starts at 2 p.m. at the Museu, and it's free.

By the way, I don't know of any other place in the world with a Classical Music Day. In a nice coincidence, considering Villa's leadership in Music Education, March is "Music in our Schools" Month in the U.S. (the logo of which is pictured below).



On the fifth of March, and for the next couple of weeks, Rio celebrates the Dia da Música Clássica. You can see what's on by searching for "Dia da Música Clássica" at the Villa-Lobos Website.

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.

Villa-Lobos in the WSJ

There's an excellent story in this morning's Wall St. Journal, "Villa-Lobos, Composer Without Borders," by Barrymore Scherer, author of the fine book A History of American Music. It's written on the occasion of The Villa-Lobos Event: Encounters With Brazil, in New York, which takes place this evening, February 9. Besides the great picture,

by Ismael Rodan, there are perceptive quotes from pianist Marcelo Bratke, who helped to organize the event:

"Villa-Lobos's eclectic freedom and openness to stylistic experimentation are at the root of his greatness as a composer."

Searching for Heitor

BBC Music Magazine, one of my favourite periodicals, has revamped its Review database. Of the 20,000 records included (every review in every issue since the magazine began in 1992), there are 40 by Villa-Lobos. That's only 2/10s of one percent - not a lot. Still, these are usually pretty perceptive reviews, though some are quite terse. They include catalogue information, and you might find some discs in this list that you haven't heard yet.

Here's an example of a good one: Christopher Wood's review of Marc-André Hamelin's disc, which recognizes the true nature of A prole do bebê: "dense-textured, hugely complicated scores." So often one sees these two suites referred to as mere "works for children." That they are, but they're also two of the most important works in the 20th century piano repertoire. Buy the Hamelin disc from Amazon.

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.

************

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)

**********

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)

**********

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)

**********

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)

**********

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.

Paris Symposium: Le piano brésilien

Thanks to the blog of the Association Bresilienne de Concerts, here is the website of an interesting symposium (colloque) in Paris, which takes place at the end of this month and the beginning of February, organized by the Université de Paris-Sorbonne, the Observatoire Musical Français, the Université Fédérale du Paraná, and PPGMúsica. It's called "Le piano brésilien: Composition, interprétation, pédagogie."

Two concerts will be presented as part of the Symposium, on January 31 and February 1. Works by Villa-Lobos to be performed include Sonata-Fantasia #1 for violin & piano, A Tres Marias, Choros #5, and O trenzinho do Caipira.

Here are the papers to be presented:

• Danielle Pistone - Université de Paris-Sorbonne, Paris4
  Le piano brésilien : situation et perspectives
  
• Zélia Chueke - Universidade Federal do Paraná
  La musique brésilienne pour piano : une pluralité culturelle
• Luiz Paulo Sampaio - Université de Rio de Janeiro
  Le rôle du piano dans la vie musicale et culturelle de Rio de Janeiro de la fin du XIX siècle à nos jours
• Paula da Matta Université de Rio de Janeiro -
  Le romantisme et le piano brésilien contemporain
• Isaac Chueke Conservatoire Superior de Musique et Beaux Arts du Paraná-
  Le Trio de Francisco Braga : (trio)mphe de la musique de chambre romantique brésilienne
• Fredi Gerling - Université Federale du Rio Grande do Sul
  Performance analysis and Analysis for performance: a study of Francisco Mignone's valsa de esquina nº2
• Maria Helena Elias - OMF (Paris-Sorbonne)
  La création pianistique contemporaine au Brésil
• Cristina Caparelli Gerling - Université Federale du Rio Grande do Sul
  Tradition and innovation in recently composed Brazilian Piano Pieces
  
  

Villa-Lobos on Cultura FM: February 2008

Here are Villa-Lobos performances upcoming on Cultura FM from Sao Paulo. Listen here on the Internet. Times are local Sao Paulo times, one hour ahead of EST.

This month's highlight is the Feb. 18th Bachianas Brasileiras marathon (#1-#5, plus #9).

Feb. 1
06:00 A ESCRITA DE CÂMARA - Solistas e pequenas formações: Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Concerto para violão e pequena orquestra. Orquestra de Câmara Brasileira. Direção Bernado Bessler. Turíbio Santos (violão). Bachianas Brasileira N° 9 Orquestra de cordas. Fantasia para saxofone e orquestra. Orquestra de câmara Brasileira. Paulo Moura saxofone. Ciranda das sete notas. Orquestra de câmara Brasileira.Noel Devos (fagote)

Feb. 2
12:00 CONCERTOS DO MEIO DIA com o maestro Walter Lourenção Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Bachianas Brasileiras n° 4. Orquestra Sinfônica do Novo Mundo. Reg.: Michael Tilson Thomas./ Richard STRAUSS - Assim Falou Zarathustra, op. 30. Orquestra Sinfônica da Rádio Bávara. Reg.: Lorin Maazel

Feb. 3
22:00 KALEIDOSCÓPIO com Almeida Prado: VILLA-LOBOS - Momoprecoce. Orquestra Filarmônica de Jena. Reg.: David Montgomery./ Quarteto n°5. Quarteto de cordas Bessler-Reis.

Feb. 4
20:00 O BRASIL DE VILLA-LOBOS com Turíbio Santos: Suite Popular Brasileira , Choros N° 5, Paulo Pedrassoli (Violão)./ Amazonas, Orquestra Sinfônica da Rádio da Eslovaquia. Reg. Roberto Duarte

Feb. 6
13:00 DELICATESSEN com Kika Leoi. Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - "Impressões seresteiras" do ciclo básico. Miguel Proença (piano). / Pablo de SARASATE - Malagueña Op.21 No.1. Itzhak Perlman (violino). Samuel Sanders (piano) / Johannes BRAHMS - "Poco allegretto com variazoni - Doppio movimento" do Quarteto para cordas No.3 em si bemol maior Op.67. Quarteto Italiano. / Frédéric CHOPIN - Valsa No.1 "Grande valsa brilhante" em mi bemol maior Op.18. Maria João Pires (piano).

Feb. 10
19:00 NOVO MUNDO - A Música das Américas: Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Quinteto em forma de choros. Quinteto Villa-Lobos./ Manuel PONCE - Concerto para violino. Henryk Szeryng (solista) Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Dir.: Enrique Batiz./ Aaron COPLAND - Quiet City. Orquestra Filarmônica de Nova York. Dir.: Leonard Bernstein

Feb. 11
11:00 TEMA E VARIAÇÕES com o Maestro Julio Medaglia. Concertos para piano de villa-Lobos.

20:00 O BRASIL DE VILLA-LOBOS com Turíbio Santos: Erosão, Alvorada na Floresta Tropical, Gênesis . Orquestra Sinfonica da Rádio Tcheca. Reg. Roberto Duarte

Feb. 14 - Happy Valentine's Day!
13:00 DELICATESSEN com Kika Leoi. Johann Nepomuck HUMMEL - Primeiro movimento do Concerto para piano em lá maior, S4/W24. Howard Shelley (piano). London Mozart Players. Reg.: Howard Shelley. / Jean-Baptiste LULLY - Chantons tous de l'Amour. Les Arts Florissants. Reg.: Willian Christie. / Antonio VIVALDI - Concerto para flauta transversal em ré maior RV 427. Barthold Kuijken (flauta). Academia Montis Regalis. Reg.: Barthold Kuijken. / Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Plantio do Caboclo. João Carlos Assis Brasil (piano).

Feb. 18
20:00 O BRASIL DE VILLA-LOBOS com Turíbio Santos: Sinfonia n° 4 e Sinfonia n° 6. Orquestra Sinfônica de Stuttgard. Reg. Carl St. Clair

22:00 SALA DE CONCERTO: Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Bachianas Brasileiras n° 1. The Yale Cellos. / Bachianas Brasileiras n° 2. Orquestra Sinfônica de São Paulo. Reg.: Roberto Minczuk. / Bachianas Brasileiras n° 3. Jean Louis Steuerman (piano). Orquestra Sinfônica de São Paulo. Reg.: Roberto Minczuk. / Bachianas Brasileiras n° 4. Orquestra Sinfônica de São Paulo. Reg.: Roberto Minczuk. / Bachianas Brasileiras n° 5. Victoria de Los Angeles (soprano). Orquestra Nacional da Radiodifusão Francesa. Reg.: Heitor Villa-Lobos. / Bachianas Brasileiras n° 9. Orquestra Nacional da Radiodifusão Francesa. Reg.: Heitor Villa-Lobos.

Feb. 25
20:00 O BRASIL DE VILLA-LOBOS com Turíbio Santos: Choros n° 6. Orquestra Rias. Reg. Heitor Villa-Lobos/Bachianas Brasileiras n° 4. Orquestra Nacional Da Rádio Francesa.Reg. Heitor Villa-Lobos

Feb. 27
13:00 DELICATESSEN com Kika Leoi. Joseph HAYDN - Quarteto em ré maior Op.103, Hob. III .83. Quarteto Festetics. / Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - "Ballada" de Homenagem a Chopin. João Carlos Assis Brasil (piano). / Johann Sebastian BACH - Sonata para viola da gamba e cravo No.1 em sol maior, BWV 1027. Perez Dworecki (viola). Paulo Gori (piano). / Antonin DVORÁK - "Allegro con brio" Sinfonia em sol maior Op.88. Orquestra Sinfônica da Galícia. Reg.: Victor Pablo Pérez.

Symphony #10 from cpo

Carl St. Clair's excellent series of Villa-Lobos Symphonies on the cpo label comes to a big finish with the recent release of Symphony #10. Here's information on the new release, with some sound clips, from the German JPC online music store.

Though most of the works in the cpo series were either completely unknown, or had only a single rival on CD, there are two recent versions of Symphony #10 easily available. One is a Harmonia Mundi release from 2003, with Carmen Cruz Simo conducting the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra. The other is from Koch International, released in 2000, with Gisele Ben-Dor conducting the Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra.

I'm looking forward to listening to more than just clips from the new cpo release. The culmination of the Symphonies series is a really amazing accomplishment by St. Clair, his Stuttgart players, and cpo. It will take some time before we can properly judge Villa-Lobos as a symphonist, placing his symphonic cycles among his other great cycles: the Bachianas, the Choros, the String Quartets, the orchestral tone poems, and the concertos. This couldn't have happened without these discs.

Congratulations, Carl!

[thanks to Borris Mayer for the heads-up on this]

Villa-Lobos String Quartets

While I post this, I'm listening to the Quarteto Amazônia play Villa-Lobos's 8th and 9th String Quartets, on Radio UOL:

http://musica.busca.uol.com.br/radio/index.php?check=artista&busca=VILLA-LOBOS&param1=homebusca

This is from a double CD Kuarup disc that finishes off the 17-work series of complete quartets begun by the Bessler-Reis Quartet (who play #1-6, and 12-17).

I have the discs at home, and feel good about having access to these great works. It's convenient to listen online as well - the Radio UOL service is great. It is low-fi, though, so you might want to buy the MP3s from Amazon.com. And of course, you can look for the Cuarteto Latinoamericano or Danubius Quartet (on Marco Polo), on CD or MP3s. Your best bet for value, though, comes from Brilliant Classics - they've repackaged the Cuarteto Latinoamericano discs from Dorian at a very nice price. This set, by the way, shows up in a lot of eBay vendor sites. There are a few other options for these works. One is #6 played by The Hollywood String Quartet, in a historic performance now on CD.

Another way to listen to VL's string quartets is at a live concert. Next Sunday, if you're in Southern California, you can hear #4 played by the Cuarteto Latinoamericano.

I don't think we can call the Villa-Lobos quartets unknown any more; not with this many CDs, MP3s, online streams, and live performances out there.

But coming back to the Kuarup set, you can read the notes online at the Kuarup site, or in Google-English-ish translation. They include an essay by Antonio Hernandez entitled "Confronto de colossos". The other colossos that Villa confronts in his String Quartet series is Bela Bartok. Are the cycles of quartets by Bartok and Villa-Lobos the greatest two of the 20th century? I would guess lots of music lovers would agree with Bartok, but they might think of Shostakovitch or ten or twelve other composers before they'd come up with Villa-Lobos.

The tendency in much of the literature about string quartets is to remind people that Villa-Lobos wrote in this genre at all, since everyone tends to write and talk about the folkloric side of his music: the Bachianas and Choros series, and the guitar music. Another common thread is to talk about Villa the innovator, as in this excerpt from Robin Stowell's 2003 Cambridge Companion to the String Quartet (p. 161):

Remarkably, Villa-Lobos wrote, as early as 1916, a complete movement with left-hand pizzicatos and double harmonics, effects only rarly tapped before in the medium. His subsequent exploitation of harmonic effects in his Third Quartet is remarkable, as are, on paper at least (because they rarely sound!), the ponticello harmonics required by Berio in his Sincronie.

We'll see if the Villa-Lobos quartets can climb the ladder of composer reputations in the coming years, at least part-way as high as the Villa-Lobos devotees might think they deserve.

The story of Magdalena

The Writers' Guild of America strike is currently making plenty of news, as did the Broadway Stagehands' strike which ended last November. Something like this had an impact on the life of Villa-Lobos in 1948, in connection with his show Magdalena:

"Magdalena ran into a musicians' strike and became a cause célèbre when the producers claimed the piece was immune from union rules because it was not a musical but an opera. After deliberating, the union announced that, since it was playing in a legitimate theater, it was not an opera but a musical, and closed it, along with all the other musicals. And you thought it didn't matter."

[from a 2002 New York Times article by William Wright]

I'm putting together the page for Magdalena on The Villa-Lobos Website. It's well-timed, with the 60th Anniversary of the show coming up, and with so many resources out there to lassoo and bring together. It's the kind of stuff I like doing. So come on over and see the new page, but it's a work in progress, so watch out for the scaffolding.