Choros #10 in San Francisco

To many, Villa-Lobos' masterwork is the Choros no. 10, written in 1926. This piece has been recorded a few times - most notably with Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony on the RCA CD "Alma Brasileira", and the classic performance conducted by the composer from the 6-CD set "Villa-Lobos par lui-meme".

For a recent performance of the Choros no. 10 that MTT performed with the San Francisco Symphony, Michael Steinberg has written one of the most in-depth and searching program notes I've ever read. This "note" includes impressive scholarship and points to all sorts of interesting further research. Better yet, it's fun to read. Here's a sample:

"The music of Chôros No. 10, a tidal wave of energy, engulfs us more and more until, as old Goethe said when young Mendelssohn played him the Beethoven Fifth on the piano, one thinks the house will fall down."

I'm looking forward to reading more of Steinberg's program notes on the excellent sfsymphony.org website.

VL Conference in Paris

The International Villa-Lobos Conference will take place soon - April 10-13 at the L'Institut Finlandais in Paris. Here is the tentative schedule of the Conference - I'll update this page as I receive new information. I'll also include reports from the Conference, from this Blog and on the HVL Website.

New CD from Calgary

A very interesting, and very welcome message from down Highway 2 a piece:

"I thought you might be interested to know that last fall the Calgary Philharmonic recorded music by Villa-Lobos for CBC Records. The works are his Suites #2 & 3 from his film score for The Discovery of Brazil. Also on the disc will be two works by Darius Milhaud influenced by the time he spent in Brazil during the first world war.

This CBC Records disc is being released in May 2002. I'll follow up with details when they become available.

Harold Gillis, Producer - CBC Radio Two, Calgary, AB"

This is really beautiful music, which deserves to be better known. The Discovery of Brazil suites have always been among my favourites on the standard Villa-Lobos par lui-meme 6 CD set on French EMI, and I enjoy the Naxos CD as well. I'll pass on the information on the new disc as I receive it from Harold.

Sonia Rubinsky CD

My mention of Sonia Rubinsky above sent me to the Brazilian pianist's website, at http://www.soniarubinsky.com. This is an excellent example of how good a performing artist's website can be. The site is kept up to date, and with the heavy international schedules of modern performers that can be a challenge. Here's a note about an upcoming event:

"Thursday, March 14th, 6:30 pm Villa-Lobos "release-party" of Volume II at Klavier-Haus, Address: 211 West 58th St., New York, NY 10019. RSVP at (212) 245-4535. Come and discover the music of Villa-Lobos. This evening I will be playing selections from Volume II of Villa-Lobos, and I will discuss specific elements of the project: the organization of the series, editions, the different genres of Villa-Lobos' music for the piano and its special challenges. The public will have a chance to purchase the newly released CD."

This CD is the second in the Naxos series of complete piano music. The series so far (2 of a planned 7, altogether) has been very well reviewed around the world - it's one in an absolutely amazing string of artistic and engineering successes from this amazing recording company. Once again, hats off to Naxos!

And when you listen to the CDs, I think you'll tip your hat to Sonia Rubinsky as well. Her interpretations are full of character, as are those of Alfred Heller (on Etcetera), Débora Halász (on BIS) and Marc-André Hamelin (on Hyperion), to name a few of the pianists who have recorded works included on the first two discs. Listening to some of these works side by side only increases my respect for Villa-Lobos as a composer of music for the piano.

Incidentally, while typing the above, I listened to the very generous RealAudio samples from the Hamelin CD "Villa-Lobos Piano Music," on the Hyperion label. It really is marvellous music!

And don't forget, speaking of the piano music, to check out the CDs of Ricardo Peres on the HVL Website.

Mai Israeli Sings VL Songs

A recent e-mail from Mai Israeli in Tel Aviv reports on last month's Villa-Lobos concert there:

"i am very happy to tell that the recital i gave in tel Aviv were a great success and we got very good critics in the newspapers. the audience were facinated, they said they never knew that this kind of music can be so excited and full of feelings. i also told some stories from the stories you have send me." The stories I sent Mai came from cronicas translated by Lee Boyd and Harold Lewis - most can be found at the "Essays" page on the HVL Website.

Mai goes on to say: "we have been invited already to perform in some other places in israel and in April we will perform in Paris in the first Villa lobos conference."

There will be an impressive list of people performing at the Paris Conference. Others scheduled to appear include guitarists Turíbio Santos and Benjamin Bunch, and pianist Sonia Rubinsky. I'll update this list when I hear more...

Paris Conference

Lee Boyd is one of the lucky people who will be attending the International Villa-Lobos Conference, to be held at the L'Institut Finlandais, Paris, April 10-13, 2002. Lee will be presenting a paper entitled "Truth and Justice for Dona Arminda, as well as for Dona Lucília, and even Dona Lisa." It's clear that Lee's presentation will add a great deal to our knowledge of Villa-Lobos' life. I'm looking forward to posting more information about this fascinating subject as I receive it.

I'll also pass on information about the Conference as I receive it, Dear Blog Reader. I'll try to post a bit more frequently in the next little while. This is an exciting time in Villa-Lobos scholarship!

Heitor Villa-Lobos: A Life

An important new book is just about to be published: David P. Appleby's Heitor Villa-Lobos: A Life (1887-1959).



You can buy the book from Amazon.com. I'll post more information once I receive my copy. Note that the Scarecrow Press website includes a Table of Contents.

I love the picture on the cover. Surely Villa-Lobos deserves to be on the cover of Cigar Aficionado!

George Hufsmith

It was great to hear again from Jackson Hole Symphony Conductor Eric Wenstrom, but unfortunately Eric's e-mail brought bad news. George's research into Villa-Lobos composition pupil George Hufsmith brought him close to this American composer:

"Unfortunately I must notify you that George passed away this morning. He had been having heart problems for the past couple of years and they took quite a toll on his general recent health. He died very peacefully with his wife, Ellie at his side. He was a great man and a great influence in my life. I will miss him greatly."

The first thing I did when I received this message was to re-read Hufsmith's story, as told to Eric, "Lorenzo Fernandez is Dead," a moving tale of friendship in music.

"George and I were planning to premiere a string quintet in the spring, but we will play it for our concert this Saturday. Ironically, it was composed for the death of his son. It seems appropriate for us to play it this Saturday."

I've only had a chance to hear a few piano and chamber works by George Hufsmith. They showed the characteristic mix of folklore and modernism one hears in many of Villa-Lobos' works, but written in a strongly individual way. I look forward to bringing you more of the fascinating stories - cronicas - that Eric has already presented to the world on the Heitor Villa-Lobos Website. I trust that Eric's championship of Hufsmith's music will bring this American original to a much wider audience.

Semana de Arte Moderna

Eighty years ago this week in the city of São Paulo a group of revolutionary artists and intellectuals published a manifesto that brought modernism to Brazil. The Semana de Arte Moderna - Week of Modern Art - took place on February 13-17, 1922. The week caused a major stir amongst the conservative, academic critics and audiences who had not yet been exposed to modernism in a big way.

The prime mover of the festival was Mário de Andrade, one of Brazil's great intellectuals. But it was the young Heitor Villa-Lobos who probably made the biggest impression, at a series of concerts that were made up largely of his own compositions. Indeed, the week was called the "Apotheosis of Villa-Lobos".

To comemorate this event, the São Paulo radio station Cultura FM will be presenting a series of programs focussing on the music of the Semana. There is a last chance to hear one of the programs in this series, which is entitled "Juvenilidades Auriverdes - 80 anos da Semana de 22", on Feb. 27 at 21:00 São Paulo time - that's 4:00 p.m. here in Red Deer (MST). This program is repeated the following Saturday, March 3, at 12 noon São Paulo time (7:00 a.m. MST).

You can listen to Cultura FM online on the Windows Media Player, at http://www.tvcultura.com.br/radiofm/radiofm.asx.

Renee Fleming interview

A new interview by David Patrick Stearns with soprano Renée Fleming on the Andante.com website contained this interesting exchange:

'DPS: Some of your early recordings are coming back to haunt you. That Villa-Lobos film score, The Forest of the Amazon, in which you sang with the Chorus of the Moscow Physics and Engineering Institute, has just been re-released.'

'RF: Actually, I tracked [overdubbed] that in somebody's apartment in the Bronx. It's pretty music. This was before any kind of a recording contract. My feeling was, "Ohmygod! Somebody wants to record me?"'

Of course, this CD has been a favourite of Villa-Lobos lovers for years. The work, conducted by Alfred Heller, was put together by Villa-Lobos from the music he wrote for the MGM film Green Mansions, with Audrey Hepburn and Anthony Perkins. This indeed is pretty music, and very prettily sung!

Erico Verissimo's Cronica translated

As promised, here are some excerpts from Lee Boyd's translation of Erico Verissimo's cronica:

'It's evening at our house. Mafalda is seated under the lamp, knitting. Through the big window in the study a light can be seen growing in the December sky, like a pale slice of watermelon.The breeze brings us the fragrance of roses from our little garden. A record is turning on the phonograph, and from its speaker flows the plangent music of violoncellos, in a long, languid, undulating phrase, with the sweetness of a serenade. I recognize the voice of Villa-Lobos, the greatest minstrel of our people. I feel his living, human presence in the room, and I begin to think about our many meetings, their places and times.

'The first time I read that name was in 1923, in the art column of the "Revista do Brasil" [Brazil Review]. I was 18, sitting dreaming in one of the squares in Cruz Alta, on a bench under some bamboos quivering in the breeze of a waning September. It was then that I became aware of a modern Brazilian musician who belonged to the group of rebel artists and writers responsible for the Week of Modern Art in Sao Paulo. Villa-Lobos --- according to the columnist --- had recently gone to Paris and on his arrival, when a reporter asked if he'd come to study composing, he replied, "No. I've come to teach it."'

*******

'There were 30 of us in the audience. Villa-Lobos climbed up on stage and went to the front, follwed by Mr. Foss, a young man with beautiful hair and a sculptured profile, exactly what one expects in an artist and intellectual (and rarely finds...). The Brazilian is holding a burning cigar stub. For the first time in my life, I see a man smoke while giving a public speech. In his fluent and picturesque French, Villa-Lobos, who didn't have a clear theme for his talk, tells stories about music and musicians, not bothering about coherence -- a sort of oral list of "diverse activities." It was as if he were seated at a cafe table in Montparnasse; chatting with friends, having a brandy, legs crossed, relaxed in gesture and speech. On the whole, I can't really recall why the speaker brought up the case of the famous Italian tenor who, shut in the bathroom, managed to break a glass with a high C. The audience laughed and the speaker laughed with them. After that, he seemed somewhat at a loss and tired of all this talk. He glanced behind him, and off to the sides, as if he were looking for something, and cried out, "I want a piano! Bring me a piano!" Lukas Foss got up from his chair and went off to find a grand piano, which eventually was brought onto the stage.

'Still with his cigar between his teeth, our Villa sat down at the noble instrument, played a few chords, looked at the audience, and said, "I'll play Brahms" ... He begins to play a passage from a sonata, and then comments "and the piano won't budge." He addresses himself to the Apassionata and lightly plays the opening phrase.

'Turning to the audience, "I play Beethoven, but the piano doesn't stir." After that comes Schumann, Schubert, Chopin. And, according to the Maestro, the piano continues not to " budge." Finally the speaker cries out, "I'll play Villa-Lobos!" His hands romped over the keys, producing a passage from his "Rudepoema." He got up and pointed to the piano, exclaiming. "It budged! It budged!"'

Great story! Thanks for bringing it to a wider audience, Lee. Here's the moving final portion of Verissimo's memoir:

'During their 1959-60 winter season the National Symphony in Washington played the Villa-Lobos "Choros No. 10" in Constitution Hall with the Howard University Chorus. We were in the audience. Right from the first chord, the presence of the composer filled that great space. And with him came the whole of Brazil, grandiose Brazil, sentimental Brazil, wrongheaded Brazil, rascally Brazil, disorganized Brazil, lyrical Brazil the streetsinger --- our indolence, our sensitivity, our romance, our sensuality, our hopes, yes, and our faults, too, all transformed into music. And when the chorus, at the finale of the Choros, began to sing "Rasga o Coracao," it was as if our own hearts were breaking, and then, deeply moved (nostalgia for Villa-Lobos, for Brazil, nostalgia for the Marching Band of the Cruz Alta 8th Infantry, nostalgia for that plaza of my youth, nostalgia for nostalgia, how do I know! --- ), I stifled a sob, but I couldn't prevent the tears from rolling down my cheeks. I didn't dare look at Mafalda beside me, who was also suffering in that moment of picquant beauty.'

Italian guitar concert

I recently received news of an interesting concert in Italy, by guitarist Antonio Triolio. The concert will be held on January 19th at the Villa "Il Tasso" in Rimaggio (near Firenze), Italy. Included in the concert are the following pieces: Suite Populaire Bresilienne (Mazurka, Schottish, Valsa, Gavota), Choro n. 1, and 12 Etudes. This concert is a benefit for Terre des Hommes, an humanitarian world organization to help children in underdeveloped countries. For more information, you can contact Antonio by email, or his manager Stefano Manzini, Manzo Production, via Mattonaia 25, 50121 Firenze ITALY - e-mail: imanzini@libero.it

Ricardo Prado article translated

Back on October 27, 2001, I talked about an article by columnist Ricardo Prado, which discussed VL's Magdalena and its Broadway production in the late 1950's. The article was in Portuguese, but it was obvious (even to someone as unilingual as me) that there lots of interest here. Lee Boyd came to the rescue with a translation, and Ricardo Prado very kindly gave his permission for me to put the English version up on the web. So here it is - a fascinating story of a period in VL's life that's not especially well documented in English.

Ricardo's message was very nice: "...congratulations for your excellent work on the Heitor Villa-Lobos website. As a musician and a Brazilian, I'm always happy for every opportunity to confirm that my admiration for the master is not merely nationalist sentiment. I am honored by your invitation and it is with great pleasure that I and no.com.br authorize the publication of my article. Please let me know when it will be available for me to savor, once again, that most gratifying sensation I get from sharing my pleasure in Villa-Lobos' music. Please let me know of any news on your website and contact me should you need any further assistance from me."

I've loved working with Lee on this project, since besides providing the very readable translation, she is very much an expert on VL's life and music. I'm looking forward to providing more of Lee's work on the HVL Website - that will happen Real Soon Now.

Grammy Nominations

Happy New Year, Villa-Lobos lovers!

The Grammy nominations were released today, and there are few interesting bits of news.

Nominated in the Chamber Music category was the 6th volume in the excellent series of Villa-Lobos String Quartets on the Dorian label, by the Cuarteto Latinoamericano. This CD includes the 4th, 9th and 11th quartets.

As well, the nominations include recordings by some of VL's closest friends and musical associates. Also nominated in the Chamber Music category is the DGG recording of Messiaen's Quartet For The End Of Time. As well, Teldec's recording of Messiaen's Turangalili Symphony (with the Berliner Philharmonic and conductor Kent Nagano) was nominated in the Orchestral Music category. Also in the Orchestral Music category: music by Edgard Varèse, conducted by Pierre Boulez on DGG. The Varèse CD has also been nominated for Best Classical Recording.

Varese may have been the closest of VL's musical friends - they met a number of times in Paris and New York. I love the picture of the two earnest young men, together in Paris in 1927.

For complete information on the 44th Grammy Awards, go to http://www.grammy.com. The awards will be announced on Feb. 27.

Christmas Gift

It's only a week until Christmas, and time again to listen to Praesepe, the beautiful choral piece Villa-Lobos wrote in 1952. Praesepe is based upon a medieval poem about the Nativity. For more information, and to hear the piece as performed by the Corydon Singers, go to A Villa-Lobos Christmas Gift.

Or, if you'll be in St. Louis over the holidays, catch the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus concert "A Latin-American Christmas", at St. Francis De Sales Church, on December 23, 2001. Also featured in this concert is the Gloria from VL's great Missa Sao Sebastiao. Thanks to Philip Barnes, Artistic Director of the SLCC, for this information. Check out the Chorus' excellent website as well.

Magdalena on CD

In a recent posting (Oct 27) I mistakenly said "Though Magdalena has recently been revived around the world (in Germany and in Los Angeles in 1999), we still need a good modern CD to bring this music to the attention of the large new Villa-Lobos fan base that's grown up in the last ten years" As my friend Bert Berenschot has pointed out: 'This "good modern cd" is available for years (since 1989) on Sony Records.' Bert goes on to note that 'At Amazon it is filed under Popular Music, as are many other Villa-Lobos cd's! Some things go very wrong at Amazon. For example all Kuarup records of Villa-Lobos are filed at popular.' Check out Magdalena here.

Thanks so much for the correction, Bert. I haven't heard this music yet, but I have my order in at Amazon. Actually, Ricardo Prado mentions the recording in his column, though he says that it's out of print. According to their website, Amazon will ship in 3 to 4 days.

While you're at Amazon, check out Bert's reviews and Villa-Lobos lists - I think very highly of Bert's critical faculties: he knows his Villa-Lobos!

Here's a very interesting site that deserves further investigation. Unfortunately for me, it's entirely in Portuguese. I use Altavista's Babelfish online translation service to get a feel for what's happening in Portuguese websites or e-mails, but the state of the art of machine translation just isn't ready for something like this.

The site is Crônica de Érico Veríssimo sobre os encontros e as vivências dele com Villa-Lobos. Verissimo apparently knew Villa-Lobos, in Brazil in the 20's, and later in Los Angeles. The report of happenings in L.A. has apparently been the cause of some controversy. A recent article in the May 2001 issue of Brasiliana (the journal of the Brazilian Academy of Music) includes an article by Robert Stevenson discussing the visit. Here, from the Academy's website, is an abstract of the article:

Abstract - "Villa-Lobos visit to Los Angeles", Robert Stevenson
"Exchange of acrid remarks, scorn and unpleasantness seem to have been the note of the meeting between two important figures of Brazilian culture in USA, in 1944. Hector Villa-Lobos was visiting the country and Erico Verissimo, who was there for a series of lectures, acted as his interpreter. The article raises questions about the story told by Verissimo, confronting it with the newspapers' accounts made at the time, ascertaining ill-founded pieces of information. The author detects that personal issues led the writer to make a not very benign portrayal of Villa-Lobos."

I'm anxious to get an English translation of the Verissimo memoir. The players are of great interest: Lukas Foss, Werner Janssen, Walt Disney. I'll report on this in the future.

39th Festival Villa-Lobos

O Globo On line, the online site of one of Brazil's media giants, has a feature on the 39th Festival Villa-Lobos, just under way in Rio de Janeiro. It includes a listing of concerts, some of which I didn't catch in my recent note (October 27, below) about the Festival.

There are only a couple of days left in the Festival. Go to VivaMusica! for a complete list of what's happening in Rio.

A fascinating radio archive from Brazil is available at Sistema Globo de Rádio - História, on the website of the media giant Globo. There's a five-minute feature entitled "Homenagem a Villa-Lobos", with commentary in Portuguese and some interesting-sounding historical music clips. Also included on this site are tributes to such important figures as Ary Barroso, Elis Regina, Caetano Veloso and Pixinguinha.

Some upcoming Villa-Lobos concerts and programs on the radio:

Rádio Cultura FM in São Paulo has a program of VL's piano concertante works, with pianist and professor Gilberto Tinetti, on November 20th at 14:00 SP time.

The next day (Nov. 21) at 20:00, you can hear clarinettist Paquito D'Rivera and pianist Pablo Zinger in VL's Fantasie Concertante and the late Carlos Guastavino's Sonata.

And, on November 26 you can hear the Quarteto [Cuarteto] Latino Americano play the 17th String Quartet.

All of these programs can be heard on the Internet using Windows Media Player, at http://www.tvcultura.com.br/radiofm/radiofm.asx.

Ricardo Prado column

Darn! I'm going to have to learn to read Portuguese!

This article from columnist Ricardo Prado : Villa-Lobos na Broadway, discusses an important period in VL's life, when he was invited by producers Edwin Lester and Homer Curran to go to New York to write a Broadway musical.

From what I've been able to piece together from the often mangled Altavista Babel Fish machine translation (hey, I'm not complaining - it's a fabulous service!), Prado has some great stories to tell. Lester and Curran were known world-wide for their production of The Song of Norway, based on the life of Edvard Grieg. In 1959 they brought the team of Bob Wright and Chet Forrest, successful scriptwriters of a million MGM films and Broadway musicals, to New York to work with the world-famous Brazilian composer. Wright and Forrest came up with a pretty good story for a "musical adventure in two acts" - it was called Magdalena.

Language was also a problem for the Magdalena collaborators. VL's English stretched to the two things he liked best about North America: "vanilla ice cream" and "cowboy movies". The others had no Portuguese, so they all made do with gestures and bits of French. There seem to have been the kind of conflicts between the American commercial point of view and VL's more artistic sensibilities that became more rancorous in the 1950's when the composer went to Hollywood to write the music for Green Mansions at MGM. At one point VL had to remind everyone that, while Grieg was dead, he himself was still alive!

The production at the Ziegfeld Theater was a big success - the critics gave it raves, including one that said it represented "a new path for the musical theater." Richard Rogers said that it was 25 years ahead of its time, and saw its influence, eight years later, in Leonard Bernstein's score for West Side Story. Unfortunately, VL couldn't build upon his New York success for two reasons. James C. Petrillo's American Music Federation strike had shut down the bulk of recordings of new music, and VL was diagnosed with the liver cancer that would kill him late in the following decade.

Though Magdalena has recently been revived around the world (in Germany and in Los Angeles in 1999), we still need a good modern CD to bring this music to the attention of the large new Villa-Lobos fan base that's grown up in the last ten years. Prado himself worked on a major production of the piece in 1997, with the support of Turíbio Santos, director of the Museu Villa-Lobos, and money from a major Brazilian bank. Again events conspired against wider acceptance for the piece, when the bank was taken over by a foreign company. We can only hope for an important new production in Brazil or New York, followed by an excellent live recording.

Hey - enough blogging for one day! I think I'll scoop out some vanilla ice cream and watch a cowboy video on TV!

VL on Cultura FM

With the major Brazilian classical radio stations now available live on-line, I'll be watching out for major Villa-Lobos concert events and noting them here.

On October 31st at 11:00 a.m. São Paulo time (that's 6 in the morning here in Red Deer) you can hear an hour of VL's music on the program Circanda, on Rádio Cultura FM. The program includes two items from Brazilian CDs that might be difficult to come across in North America or Europe: the rarely recorded Sinfonietta number 1 (I've never heard it myself) with the Orquestra Petrobrás Pró-Música, and the important modernist work Sexteto místico with a Brazilian ensemble that inclues harpist Cristina Braga.

On the same program the following day you can hear the superb recording by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, pianist Ralf Gothoni and conductor Sakari Oramo, of the important Choros number 11.

A useful site in Portugese - from Portugal - is Leonor Lain's biographical essay Villa-Lobos. Among the many Villa-Lobos pictures is one of my favourites, which shows Villa-Lobos and his close friend Edgard Varese in Paris in 1927.

The site includes a revealing chronology of 20th Century ideas. It's interesting to note, for example, that while Villa-Lobos and his colleagues Manuel Bandeira, Oswaldo de Andrade and Mário de Andrade were shocking the citizens of Sao Paulo in 1922, Neils Bohr was winning his first Nobel Prize in Physics, and Henri Bergson was writing Duration and Simultaneity. This reference to Bergson sent me to some books and websites, at one of which I found a quote which might have been used as a motto by the young modernist rebels in Sao Paulo:

"Art has no other object than to set aside the symbols of practical utility, the generalities that are conventionally and socially accepted, everything in fact which masks reality from us, in order to set us face to face with reality itself."

I just came across the English version of the site - excellent!