VL on Cultura FM - November 2007

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.

Nov. 10, 2007
10:00 CIRANDA - Academia Brasileira de Música: VILLA LOBOS - Uirapurú. Orquestra Sinfônica da Paraíba. Dir.: Eleazar de Carvalho./ Egberto GISMONTI - Memória e Fado. / Água e Vinho. Marcos Vinícius (violão)/ Ricardo TACUCHIAN - Transparências. Richard Albagli (vibrafone). Max Lifchitz (piano)/ Claudio SANTORO - Estudo n° 1/ Duas Invenções a Duas Vozes / Três Prelúdios. Gilda Oswaldo Cruz (piano)

Nov. 11, 2007
19:00 NOVO MUNDO - A Música das AméricasHeitor VILLA-LOBOS - Choros n° 4. Quinteto Villa-lobos./ Aaron COPLAND - Suite Billy The Kid. Orquestra Sinfonica da radio Tcheca de Brastilava sob direção de Stepehn Gunzenhauser. / Francisco MIGNONE - Maracatu do Chico Rei. Orquestra Sinfoncia do estado de São Paulo sob direção de John Neschiling.

Nov. 12, 2007
20:00 O BRASIL DE VILLA-LOBOS com Turíbio SantosSymphony n° 2 Ascenção Radio Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart e Dança do Índio Branco: Jose Ed. Martins (piano).

Nov. 15, 2007
22:00 SALA DE CONCERTO.VILLA-LOBOS - Descobrimento do Brasil (Quatro suites). Orquestra Nacional da Radiodifusão Francesa. Reg.: Heitor Villa-Lobos. / GUERRA PEIXE - Museu da Inconfidência. Orquestra Sinfônica Jovem de Milwaukee. Reg.: Manuel Prestamo.

Nov. 19, 2007
20:00 O BRASIL DE VILLA-LOBOS com Turíbio Santos.Sonata n° 2 ,Cello e piano ,Wolfgang Haufer (cello). Steven Swedish (piano). Suíte para voz e violino - A Menina e a Canção. Quero ser Alegre. Sertaneja. Jennifer Foster (soprano). Benny Kim (violino). 5 Prelúdios. Jodacil Damasceno

Nov. 24, 2007
10:00 CIRANDA - Academia Brasileira de Música.VILLA-LOBOS - Concerto para violão. Sharon Isbin (violão). Fialrmônica de Nova York. Dir.: José Serebrier./ Egberto GISMONTI - A fala da paixão. Sujeito a guincho. / Francisco MIGNONE - Valsas choro 1 a 6 Francisco Mignone (piano) / CAMARGO GUARNIERI - Suite mirim. Beatriz Balzi (piano).

Nov. 25, 2007
19:00 NOVO MUNDO - A Música das Américas.Alberto GINASTERA - Suite Panambi. Filarmonia Hungarica sob direção de Zoltan Rozsnyai./ Heitor VILLA-LOBOS - Sinfonia n° 6: sobre as linhas das montanhas do Brasil./ Guilhermo RIFFO - Suite Ritual de la Tierra. Orquestra Sinfonia nacional Juvenil do Chile. Dir.: Guilhermo Riffo.

Nov. 26, 2007
20:00 O BRASIL DE VILLA-LOBOS com Turíbio Santos.O Guia pratico por Clara Sverner- 11 cadernos.

Anna Stella Schic complete piano works

I recently blogged the news about the last two volumes of Sonia Rubinsky's 8-CD set of VL piano music. Here is another version finished: Anna Stella Schic's 7-CD set on Solstice Records.

Thanks to Borris Mayer for this. He also mentions that EMI is re-releasing the Batiz set of the Bachianas Brasileiras, complete. Here's the link at the UK Amazon site. While we wait for it in North America, why not download Barbara Hendricks' excellent BB#5 from Amazon MP3.

Dean in Monterey

I'm off to present at the Internet Librarian 2007 Conference in Monterey, CA. I may not get a chance to post about VL much in the next week, but maybe I can listen to some music on the plane.

The Villa-Lobos Store

After many years as an Amazon Associate at the HVL Website, I've finally taken the time to put together a proper Villa-Lobos Store. Of course, Amazon provides amazing tools now. This looks like it took a lot more time to build than it actually did. Does 40 minutes sound right?

Andy Summers at the Villa-Lobos Museum

Police guitarist Andy Summers visited the Villa-Lobos Museum in Rio de Janeiro in February 2003.

"Like many guitarists I have lived with this music through most of my playing life. Lived with these seminal works by Villa Lobos that sit in your head like a monolithic presence. Like a place you know and love, it is music that you invariably return to once again to take in its exotic aroma."

Here is his really interesting interview with the VL Museum Director Turibio Santos.

I've been listening to Summers' One Train Later on his OTL MySpace page. This is really cool! I love his story about Roxanne starting out as a Bossa Nova. Buy the book - you'll find out the significance of "The Farting Zombies".

October 16, 2007 concert in Nicosia, Cyprus

The Brazilian-born pianist Arnaldo Cohen will be playing Brazilian music in Cyprus, I learn from this story in the Cyprus Mail.

His recital in Cyprus will comprise works by Alberto Nepomuceno, Alexandre Levy, Gnattali, Braga, Villa-Lobos, Nazareth, Dutra, Oswald, Guarnieri, Claudio Santoro, Francisco Mignone and Liszt.Arnaldo Cohen Recital. October 16, 2007. PASYDY Auditorium, Nicosia. 8:30pm. Tel.22-663871

New Sonia Rubinsky Recordings on the way

Pianist Sonia Rubinsky, recording session in Paris.
Photo courtesy of Nikolaos Samaltanos

It's fun checking out all of the VL activity on the web that I've missed out in the past couple of years. It's great to see that volumes 7 and 8 of Sonia Rubinsky's Naxos cycle of the complete Villa-Lobos piano music are slated for release soon. More information here.

Meanwhile, volume six is still only recently in release, and I've been enjoying listening to it on the Naxos Music Library. Here's the excellent liner notes, by James Melo.

Cristina Ortiz and Choros #11

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

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

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

These were the concerts in São Paulo:

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

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

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

The Villa-Lobos Web Machine Grinds On

We're finally starting to move over the original content from the Heitor Villa-Lobos Website - first up in 1995 (!) at www.rdpl.red-deer.ab.ca/villa - and then at www.rdpl.org/villa.

The site has a new domain: http://www.villalobos.ca/ - check it out.

Meanwhile, I'm thinking about how to migrate the many blog postings here at the Villa-Lobos Magazine. This blog goes way back, too. The first post was six years ago, in October 2001.

Because I can't focus, there's a third site: Tumbling Villa-Lobos, at villa-lobos.tumblr.com, which I set up because I liked the look of tumblr.com (and I still do). Check it out!

The new site is going up

Go to the new domain for the Heitor Villa-Lobos Website - that's www.villalobos.ca.

It's up and running on Drupal (thanks, Cory!), and I'll be moving over all of the original content Real Soon Now (some of it goes back to the early 90's!).

Then it's time for new content!

The Magazine

Hi all:

This is my first post to the VL Magazine in quite a while. In 2004 I ran out of time to do my Villa-Lobos work, always a free-time project from the beginning of this magazine in October 2001, and before that, the Villa-Lobos Website, which began in 1995.

Will I be able to resurrect either project? I'm not sure yet, but I want everyone to know the Villa-Lobos Website files (still a valuable resource, I think) have been moved to a new domain: http://www.villalobos.ca. I will be putting together proper referral pages from the old site - www.rdpl.org/villa - real soon.

Meanwhile, my great IT Librarian Cory Stier has constructed an awesome new Drupal-based Open Source website for my library, so I'm hoping I can move the VL Magazine posts that are still relevant to the new site.

New posts? We'll see.

Cheers from Red Deer...

Dean

More Villa on the radio...

France Musiques is the name of the French National Radio's classical music network. Their website includes a number of pages of interest, beginning with an interesting biography that emphasizes Villa's French connection. For example, I didn't know that Albert Roussel helped Villa become a member, in 1923, of the Societe Internationale de Musique Contemporaine.

Speaking of contemporary music, on March 17th at 9:49 p.m. Paris time, you can hear tenor Marcel Quillevere, pianist Noel Lee and the Ensemble Erwartung, under the direction of Bernard Desgraupes, performing the following Miniaturas:
. Viola
. Cromo no2
. Cromo no3
. Sino da aldeia
. Japonesas
. Sonho
This is from a recently-released Opus 111 disc that I really must purchase soon.

On March 19th at 7:05 p.m., you can hear the Violoncelles de l'Orchestre du Gurzenich de Cologne perform Bachianas Brasileiras no. 1. This is apparently from a 1976 recording - I've never heard this particular version.

Meanwhile, on March 29th, the well-known Michael Tilson Thomas recording of Bachianas Brasileiras no. 4 is featured at 7:05 p.m. You can hear France Musiques here on the Internet.

Before I finish this last post of the evening, I must apologize for a couple of things. The first is the number of posts you might be receiving in your email from the topica.com subscription list. Each time I make a slight change in my posts, it's generating a new email posting. I'll have to be more careful about catching typos before I publish each posting to the blog.

Secondly, a number of people have asked about non-html posts, since some email clients can't handle anything but plain text. Unfortunately, I haven't come up with a way to fix this - the only thing to do right now is to delete the email posting and visit The Villa-Lobos Magazine on the web at http://villa-lobos.blogspot.com, where you can see everything properly formatted. By the way, if you'd like to receive emails of each new posting, put your email address in the box on the left-hand side of this website.

Villa on the BBC

The Brazilian Service of the BBC recently celebrated its 65th birthday, as I learned from the Google translation from this Portuguese-language page on BBCBrazil.com.

The quick history includes a picture (above) of Villa-Lobos being interviewed in 1949 by William Tate.

Elsewhere on the BBC website, I came across an excellent feature called "Brazil Inside Out", in which journalist Alex Bellos reports on his visit to five Brazilian regions. I really enjoyed the Brazilian-themed computer wallpapers and the page of Brazilian links (including one to the Heitor Villa-Lobos Website, though it has the older, more awkward URL of http://www.rdpl.red-deer.ab.ca/villa, rather than the newer, streamlined http://www.rdpl.org/villa).

While in Manaus, in the Amazonian rain-forest, Bellos attends a classical music concert in the great Teatro Amazonas, and interviews soprano Tais Bandeira, who has this to say about Bachianas Brasileiras no. 5:

"The music of this aria is typically Brazilian. But, at the same time, it manages to get to the heart of every person.
This song seems to come from the earth, a song of nostalgia."

Villa-Lobos on Cultura FM - March 2004

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.

Paul Moura plays the soprano saxophone in the Fantasia for saxophone on Thursday, March 18, at 11:00 a.m.

A week later, on March 25th at the same time, Enrique Arturo Diemecke conducts the Royal Philharmonic in the second Bachianas Brasileiras. The same program includes some interesting works by the next generation of Brazilian composers: Guerra Peixe, Guarnieri and Gilberto Mendes.

New VL CD release

New this month from Meridian Records in the UK:


O Violoncello do Villa
Complete works for violin, cello and piano
Vol 3

This disc features Villa's Piano Trios 2 and 3, played by Trio Villa-Lobos. The group is made up of Richard Milone, violin; Miriam Braga, piano; and Tânia Lisboa, cello. Braga and Lisboa have formerly teamed up on the Meridian release CDE 84357 O Violoncello do Villa Vol. 1, and were joined by violinist Yang Zhang in CDE 84391 O Violoncello do Villa Vol. 2.

While the piano trios are early works (the second was written in 1915 and the third in 1918), I've always enjoyed listening to them. Don't expect chamber music at the level of VL's string quartet cycle, or the chamber choros written in the 1920s. And don't expect the vitality of the great orchestral works written before the end of the teens (Amazonas or Uirapuru, both written in 1917, for example). In the piano trios Villa was relaxing and enjoying himself, perhaps since he only had the three instruments to keep track of. This is very mellow music.

Meridian is serving Villa-Lobos well. Besides the above three discs there is an excellent piano disc, DUOCD 89017, with Clélia Iruzun, containing three major works: Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4, Prole Do Bebe No. 1, and Choros No. 5. As well, there's another recent new release, CDE 84454, Tangos & Choros: Flute Music from Argentina and Brazil, that features Bachianas Brasileiras #6, and #5 in an arrangement for flute and guitar.

Washington DC Screening of Villa-Lobos: Uma Vida de Paixao

The Brazilian-American Cultural Institute in Washington DC will be screening the 2000 film Villa-Lobos: Uma Vida de Paixao by Director Zelito Viana, on Tuesday, February 24, 2004 at 7 p.m. at BACI, 4719 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W.

It's nice to hear the music of Villa-Lobos (the aria from Bachianas Brasileiras no. 5) when you visit the Institute's home page. Thanks to Wayne Landsman for the tip on this. I haven't yet heard about North American or European distribution of VHS of DVD for this film, but I'm hoping the English subtitles for the Washington screening indicates that something is coming soon.

Nashville Symphony Bachianas Brasileiras

In the spring the Nashville Symphony will begin their recording sessions of the nine Bachianas Brasileiras. This query recently arrived from Wilson Ochoa, music librarian of the Nashville Symphony:

"We are performing and recording all 9 of the "Bachianas Brasileiras" in March, and I have been busy proofreading the parts to make sure we record these with no errors.

"I have some questions about the printed music conductor scores, and was wondering if you can shed some light on some problems I have encountered.

"In "Bachianas Brasileiras No. 2":

"In the third movement "Dansa": The Violin 2 is marked pizzicato at the beginning. Could this be a mistake? It is unplayable that way (too fast to be able to play it pizzicato), and should be arco to match the violas? (It is arco at rehearsal 15 when the same music returns.) The recordings I have play it arco.

"In the same movement, in the seventh measure, the Violin I is in octaves on the first beat of the measure, should they be in octaves on beat 2? Currently I have the upper part playing E, E, D (above the staff), and the lower part playing C, C, B (in the staff--and this would seem to clash with Violin 2, although Villa Lobos does do this sometimes).

"In the same movement, in the fifth measure after rehearsal 2, should Violin I be pizzicato (as at the beginning of the movement?) Also, the fifth measure of rehearsal 17, should that be pizzicato as well? In the same piece, last movement "Tocata", there is no marking as to when the Violins remove their mutes. Would that occur at rehearsal 3?

"In "Bachianas Brasileiras No. 8":

"In the second movement "Aria": after rehearsal 3, the third and the fifth measure, the strings and horns have a musical figure that sometimes has marked a glissando between beats 3 and 4. In the third measure, the strings have the glissando, and the horns do not. But in the fifth measure the horns have the glissando, but the strings do not. Then, at rehearsal 4, third measure, the strings have this and the horns do not. Should these all match? Should there be a glissando every time? Or is it correct the way it is printed? In the same movement, rehearsal 3, fourth measure, the strings have beat 3 slurred together, but the horns do not. Should these match? Is there a slur?

"Thanks for your help with this.

"Wilson Ochoa, Principal Music Librarian, Nashville Symphony" - wilson@nashvillesymphony.org

I'm hoping some of the readers of The Villa-Lobos Magazine might be able to help Wilson with these questions. If you're in Nashville this March, you'll be able to attend the concerts of all nine Bachianas. I'm not sure if live recordings will be made from the concerts given this March, or if the concerts will be preparations for studio recordings. In any case, you can get all the information from the Upcoming Villa-Lobos Concerts page, and at the website of the Nashville Symphony.

Symphony no. 10 on Harmonia Mundi

I'm back after a long break. Hope you're all still out there...

The BBC's Classical Review website is featuring the new CD from Harmonia Mundi of Symphony no. 10 'Amerindia', with the Orquesta Sinfonica De Tenerife conducted by Victor Pablo Perez.


The new Harmonia Mundi Cd of Symphony 10

After only a couple of VL symphony recordings until just before the turn of the millennium, we can now choose between labels, orchestras and conductors for more than a few of the eleven symphonies. The BBC review by Andrew MacGregor notes that there are three recordings of no. 10, one of which has not been released. This would be a key disc in the soon-to-be-completed Carl St. Clair Stuttgart project of the complete symphonies. Recently Bert Berenschot let me know about the latest release in that series: Symphony no. 7 and Sinfonietta no. 1.

CPO's new CD of Symphony 7

The first recording of no. 10 was of course the Koch International Classics recording by Gisele Ben-Dor and the Santa Barbara Symphony. This disc has been a favourite of mine since it was released in 2000.

Koch's Symphony no. 10 with Gisele Ben-Dor

The BBC page has short RealAudio clips from the first and fifth movements of the Tenerife CD that give you an idea of the kind of music to expect, if not the sound quality. I'm looking forward to listening to the new disc more closely.

Here, by the way, is Bert Berenshot's posting to rec.music.classical.recordings on the new cpo disc:

"Finally CPO released another cd in the Villa-Lobos cycle of 12 symphonies, conducted by Carl St. Clair. This time we get Symphony no.7 combined with the Sinfonietta no.1 (1916). The complexity of Symphony no. 7 dates almost audible from 1945, the same year Villa-Lobos wrote his most complex Piano Concerto (no. 1) and his most complex String Quartet (no. 9). All pieces contain more dissonant and even atonal sections he didn't write any more after 1930. Surely he did write them in the period 1917-1930 in pieces like Amazonas, Choros no. 8 and 11, the Trio and some others, but in a different way, more influenced by the 'primitivism' of those days. Symphony no. 7 is with 36 minutes longer than most of his symphonies and is a impressive piece starting with those orchestral glissandi we already know from the opening of Uirapuru and Symphony no. 11 and somewhere at the end of Genesis.

"It is combined with the early Sinfonietta no. 1 of 1916 which is much lighter and more transparant, composed for a Mozart-size orchestra and written in memoriam Mozart. It runs 23 minutes and is nice but still less typical Villa-Lobos.
So, now we still have to wait for the CPO release of no. 2 (a long piece of one hour, only recorded in the '40's by the Jansen Symphony of Los Angeles) and the choral 10th (Amerindia), already two times recorded by others the last years.

"See http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/hnum/1561100/rk/classic/rsk/notepad for information and sound samples. Until February 15th they sell it cheaper. I suppose it takes some weeks before it will be available elsewhere.

"Bert B."

Thanks for this, Bert - as usual you're on the leading edge of the Villa-Lobos recording world.

Villa-Lobos on Letterman

Try to catch The Late Show with David Letterman on Tuesday night, October 7th. Dave's guest is the great soprano Renee Fleming. Word is that we'll hear her sing Bachianas Brasileiras no. 5. This from industry insider Lee Boyd, who emails me this additional information, which she heard on WQXR:

"Renee Fleming will be doing probably just the Aria, with the cellists organized by Edward Aron, who is an award-winning cellist from our very own town of New Castle, only he is from the Chappaqua side of the tracks. Aron also does some programming with the station, so he told them about his performance, which incidentally includes VL and Renee."

So make sure you catch tonight's program (and you'll also get to see Uma Thurman doing her Kill Bill promotion).

Upcoming Villa-Lobos Concerts

Since 1997 I've been keeping track of Villa-Lobos concerts around the world, that I've heard about from performers or presenters, or that I've come across on the web. You can find the Upcoming Villa-Lobos Concerts page at http://www.rdpl.org/villa/concerts.html. I've recently reorganized them by month in a convenient calendar format. Here, for example, is the page for September 2003, which includes concerts from Rio de Janeiro, Brooklyn, Teresopolis, Belo Horizonte, Sao Paulo, London and Delaware & Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Besides letting people know about concerts they may wish to attend, these pages now play another role: to document Villa-Lobos concerts from around the world over the past six years. I've analyzed the concerts by work, and will be keeping this information up-to-date in a spreadsheet linked to at the page above. It's also available in this cool new format from Macromedia called FlashPaper - here's the link: http://www.rdpl.org/villa/concerts/ConcertsSpreadsheet.htm.

Please let me know about any Villa-Lobos performances coming up in your neck of the woods.