New Marcelo Bratke CD

In 2010 Marcelo Bratke began his series of complete Villa-Lobos piano music on Quartz Music.  Here is the second volume.

As Irineu Franco Perpetuo notes in his liner notes, all of the works on this disc make specific reference to Brazil:

• Bachianas Brasilerias No 4
• A Lenda Do Caboclo
• Saudades Das Selvas Brasileiras
• Choros No 5 "Alma Brasileira"
• Ciclo Brasileiro

This disc is available at the Quartz Music site.  It hasn't shown up yet on Amazon.com, but is available at Amazon.co.uk.

Humberto Mauro's Sangue Mineiro

The Brazilian film-maker Humberto Mauro is best known for his 1937 film Descobrimento do Brasil, the score of which was written by Villa-Lobos. New to YouTube is this beautiful silent film Sangue Mineiro, from 1929, a restored print from BossaFilmes with an excellent soundtrack of music from the period.

Villa-Lobos's first String Quartet plays an important role in the score, as does his rarely-heard orchestral work Ruda: God of Love. The complete music credits are at 1:16:40; included are pieces by Mignone, Hekel Tavares, Camargo Guarnieri, Nazareth, and Guerra Peixe.

Villa-Lobos Top 10

In commemoration of the 52nd anniversary of Villa-Lobos's death, journalist Rui Agapito wrote this excellent article at ovale.com.br [English translation by Google]. I was really pleased that Rui asked me to come up with my favourite 10 pieces by Villa-Lobos. My choice:

1. Preludes for guitar
2. Choros #10
3. Nonetto
4. Quarteto simbolico
5. Bachianas Brasileiras #5
6. String Quartet #07
7. Prole do Bebê, book 1
8. Uirapuru
9. Floresta do Amazonas
10. Missa São Sebastião

What are your favourite 10 works by Villa?

Villa-Lobos for trumpet & orchestra

Here's a brand-new video from the 49th Festival Villa-Lobos taking place this month in Rio. This is a fabulous new arrangement of the Saxophone Fantasia for trumpet and orchestra, by Roberto Duarte.

Marcelo Rodolfo from the Museu Villa-Lobos says this about the new piece in an email:

According to Flávio Gabriel, the splendid trumpet player who accepted the challenge, this is the most difficult work he ever played in his life. But the result, as you'll hear is worth it. A lot!!! My expectation is that other trumpet players will be encouraged to meet this challenge, too. Strangely, Villa-Lobos never wrote a work for trumpet, even in chamber music, just some solos in orchestral parts.

This concert is from November 19th, and featured Orquestra Sinfônica de Barra Mansa, under the direction of Vantoil de Souza. Two other concerto arrangements are being premiered at this year's Festival: Cirandas das Sete Notas (for cello - originally for bassoon), and the Guitar Concerto (for harp).

I'm anxious to hear what you Villa-Lobos lovers think about this new take on a very familiar work.

Wilhem Latchoumia plays Impressões Seresteiras

Here's an interesting short film featuring a very talented pianist. This is from his 2008 Sony/BMG CD Impressões.

1930 Varese/Villa-Lobos Concert in Paris

Here is the notice in La Semaine a Paris of the March 14, 1930 concert in Paris with important performances of music by Edgard Varese (Octandre, Offrandres) and Villa-Lobos (Quinteto em forma de choros, Saudades das Selvas Brasileiras, Deux Choros Bis, Poeme de l'Enfant et Sa Mere, Cirandas, and Chansons typiques bresiliennes).

I don't know the music of Marcel Mihalovici, but he hung out with some very talented musicians.

Agenda VivaMúsica

The monthly magazine Agenda VivaMúsica is available on the web. This month's issue focuses on Villa-Lobos, with the highlight being the 49th Festival Villa-Lobos.

Danças Brasileiras from BIS

A new CD from BIS features the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP) under the direction of Roberto Minczuk. It includes dances by Alberto Nepomuceno, Alexandre Levy, Francisco Mignone, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Oscar Lorenzo Fernández, Camargo Guarnieri, Edino Krieger, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Clóvis Pereira and César Guerra-Peixe. 

The Villa-Lobos piece is the Dança Frenética, written in 1919. This is the second recording of the piece; it's also on an old Marco Polo disc conducted by Roberto Duarte. The disc will be released on Amazon.com on November 22nd.

Maestro Minczuk spends part of the year in Rio de Janeiro as the Principal Conductor of the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, but he's also the Music Director of the Calgary Philharmonic. I'm looking forward to making the 150km trip down Highway 2 from Red Deer to Calgary to see Minczuk conduct the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra & Chorus in Choros #10, Villa-Lobos's greatest work, on December 3rd.

The Green Mansions Project

Alfred Heller is the founder and president of the Villa-Lobos Music Society of New York City. Alfred is a composer, conductor, and pianist, and, I'm pleased to say, a friend of mine.  It's great to see today's announcement of the Green Mansions Project. There's more information at the project website. I'm hoping I might be able to make it to New York for the October 1, 2012 Gala at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.

49th Annual Festival Villa-Lobos

The 49th Annual Festival Villa-Lobos takes place in Rio de Janeiro from November 11 to November 27. Featured performers include soprano Rosana Lamosa, pianist Lúcia Barrenechea, the Quinteto Villa-Lobos, Art Metal Quinteto, Quarteto Radamés Gnattali, violinist Daniel Guedes, Trio Aquarius, Wagner Tiso, Naná Vasconcelos, Andre Mehmari & Hamilton de Holanda, guitarist Turibio Santos, and pianist Cristina Ortiz.

Two Modernists in Paris

Villa-Lobos and Edgard Varese met in Paris in 1929, and soon became best friends. I'll be adding some posts in the next few days about their interactions, and how two great modernist composers explored new musical ideas and new sounds together.

Here is a poster from an important concert at the Maison Gaveau Salle des Concerts on May 30th, 1927.  Opening and closing the concert were a couple of ground-breaking works: Amazonas, the 1917 ballet by Villa-Lobos, and Ameriques, a large-scale work written by Varese in 1918-21 and revised in 1927.

The Award-Winning Miloš Karadaglić Plays Villa-Lobos

Miloš Karadaglić, who recently won the Specialist Classical Chart Award and the Young Artist of the Year awards at the 2011 Gramophone Classical Music Awards, plays the first Villa-Lobos Prelude.

Villa-Lobos Trio Video

Here is a bit of the 1st Villa-Lobos Piano Trio by the Austria-based Villa-Lobos Trio (along with some beautiful Piazzolla and Zequinha de Abreu's great "Tico Tico no fuba"). The Villa-Lobos Trio was recently nominated for a Latin Grammy for their 2010 Oehms Classics CD.

Roberto Burle Marx: The Modernity of Landscape

A new book about the great modernist landscape architect and designer Roberto Burle Marx (1909-1994) shows his versatility and originality. Roberto and his musician brother Walter were friends of Villa-Lobos. One of Roberto Burle Marx's Villa-Lobos legacies is the garden he designed in 1986 for the Museu Villa-Lobos.

Roberto Burle Marx also collaborated with the composer: in 1959 (the year of Villa's death) he worked on stage and costume designs for the ballet Zuimaluti, with music by Villa-Lobos, and a libretto by Mario de Andrade. I haven't been able to track down any references to this work other than the Burle Marx designs.  Zuimaluti isn't included in the latest version of Villa-Lobos: Sua Obra. Have any Villa-Lobos scholars out there heard of any surviving music from this project?

Burle Marx is an amazing artist; you can see many of his designs in this preview of the new book.

Alfred Heller on Villa-Lobos

My good friend Alfred Heller says all sorts of great things about Villa-Lobos in this short interview on Veja TV, including this: "Villa-Lobos is the most important composer since Beethoven."

Alfred Heller knew Villa-Lobos well during the last few years of the composer's life, when he acted as his assistant in New York in the late 1950s. Alfred's conducting and piano playing on a wide range of CDs has enriched the Villa-Lobos discography. Read his excellent article "The One-World Style of Villa-Lobos".

Two Villa-Lobos Discs Nominated for Latin Grammy Awards

Two Villa-Lobos discs have been nominated for Latin Grammy awards.  The excellent Delos CD from the Brazilian Guitar Quartet [pictured above] includes a wide variety of piano and chamber works arranged for four guitars by group member Tadeu do Amaral. You can listen to Track 14 from the disc at Soundcloud: it's one of Villa-Lobos's Cirandas, A procura de uma agulha (Hunting for a Needle).

The other disc is from the young Austrian ensemble the Villa-Lobos Trio: pianist Rosângela Antunes, violinist Florian Wilscher, and cellist Katrin Schickedanz. This fine Oehms Classics CD includes Villa-Lobos's early (1911) First Piano Trio, along with an arrangement by J. Bragato of Piazzolla's Las Cuatros Estaciones Portenas, and an interesting work by Lucio Bruno-Videla called Yumba Verwandlung. You can listen to the first movement of the Villa-Lobos Piano Trio at the VLT website.

Good luck to both groups!

A Arte de Villa-Lobos

In 2009 TV Cultura showed the documentary "A Arte de Villa-Lobos" on Programa Mosaicos. It's so nice to have the entire show, in 6 parts, on YouTube. There are lots of great bits in this first section: Anna Stella Schic playing the 2nd Piano Concerto in a 1979 concert, and an endorsement from Aaron Copland, who didn't often say nice things about Villa-Lobos:

"A passionate type of man. I don't know how he ever managed to get to sleep at night. He seemed to be so very much alive all the time: very spontaneous, easily combustible, you know, just very lively in the head. So it was fun to be with him."

Video: Portrait of Villa-Lobos in Rio

Portrait of Heitor Villa-Lobos in Rio by medicitv

This excerpt from a longer documentary on Villa-Lobos at Medici.TV includes one of the greatest of Villa-Lobos stories: the meeting in Rio between the young composer and the pianist Arthur Rubinstein.

Villa-Lobos at 8Tracks.com

From 8tracks.com, a mix of Popular Villa-Lobos, music by Villa-Lobos in jazz & MPB versions by Cyro Baptista, Egberto Gismonti, Rabo de Lagartixa. And a second mix: Villa-Lobos Chamber Music.

Tarsila do Amaral

Yesterday (September 1) was the 125th anniversary of the birth of Tarsila do Amaral. Born the year before Villa-Lobos, the great Brazilian painter was a friend of the composer's, and a participant with Villa-Lobos in the festivities during the Semana de Arte Moderna in Sao Paulo in 1923. Many of Tarsila's paintings show up on Villa-Lobos CDs. The painting above (Carnaval em Madureira, 1924), for example, is on the BIS set of the Complete Choros and Bachianas Brasileiras.