Brazil's classical music awards

The Prêmio Carlos Gomes de Ópera & Música Erudita is Brazil's classical music award program.  Nominations for the thirteenth edition of the awards were announced yesterday, and they include some musicians that Villa-Lobos lovers will know well.  I'll highlight a few:

• Turibio Santos, guitarist and the Director of the Museu Villa-Lobos, is nominated in the Instrumental Soloist category (won last year by Sonia Rubinsky for her Naxos recordings of the complete piano music of Villa-Lobos)
• Isaac Karabtchevsky is nominated for his DVD of Villa-Lobos's Floresta do Amazonas
• Quarteto Radamés Gnatalli, for their performance of the complete cycle of Villa-Lobos String Quartets
• The production of A Menina das Nuvens, Villa's fairy-tale opera presented at the Palácio das Artes in Belo Horizonte, received multiple nominations, including "Espetáculo de Ópera", along with nods for the Orquestra Sinfonica de Minas Gerais and conductor Roberto Duarte, singer Gabriella Pace, and other musicians and technical artists
• Soprano Eliane Coelho, who'll be featured in the upcoming presentation of Villa's Yerma in Manaus, was nominated for Schoenberg's Erwartung in Belo Horizonte
• Pianist Nelson Freire was nominated for the Troféu Guarany, which I'm guessing is a kind of life-time achievement award.  This was won last year by the great Villa-Lobos conductor John Neschling.

The award organizers have opened up the polls for online voting here: http://www.premiocarlosgomes.com.br/popular/votopopular.asp.  Polls will be open until April 25th.

The awards will be announced in the Sala São Paulo on May 5th.

Villa-Lobos gets the Congressional Seal of Approval

Here's an interesting story from Brasília. The Brazilian Congress has approved the first steps to adding Villa-Lobos to the Livro dos Heróis da Pátria - the Book of Heroes of the Fatherland.  Representative Dr. Talma presented the motion, which I gather will be debated, and will then go to the Senate once it is approved.

Here is what the article says about the Book of Heroes (via Google Translate):

The Book of Heroes of the Fatherland is a memorial in the pages of steel with the name of Brazilians who, in life, "contributed to the greatness, pride and glory" of Brazil. It is located in the Pantheon of the Fatherland, monument to freedom and democracy, located in the Plaza of Three Powers in Brasília. Tiradentes, Zumbi dos Palmares, Placido de Castro, Santos-Dumont are some of the names inscribed in the Book of Heroes.

One of the pleasurable side-effects of my Villa-Lobos researches is that I'm learning more about Brazilian history and culture. I knew a little about Alberto Santos-Dumont, who made the world's first public flight in an airplane, on October 23, 1906.  This is a very engaging individual.  Though admittedly from a wealthy family, it says a lot about Santos-Dumont that he donated half of a big prize he won in an early dirigible contest to the poor of Paris, and distributed the rest to his mechanics.  It's sad that he ended up killing himself, depressed by his multiple sclerosis and by the use of airplanes to kill thousands in wars.

Zumbi dos Palmares, the "black leader of all the nations", is a fascinating figure from the second half of the 17th century.  From the stronghold of  Quilombo dos Palmares, a republic the size of Portugal near Bahia, Zumbi led a spirited resistance against the Portuguese government.  His warriors were skilled in capoeira, Brazil's home-grown martial art.  Zumbi was eventually captured and beheaded, though his martyrdom was the inspiration for many future struggles.

Joaquim José da Silva Xavier, known as Tiradentes, was a revolutionary from the same generation as the American Founding Fathers and the French Revolutionaries. From what I've read in the Wikipedia article, he seems somewhat like the Canadian Louis Riel; both were hanged by their governments, and the names of both have lived on as heroes.

Finally, José Plácido de Castro led the successful resistance of Acre against Bolivia in the late 1800s.  He became President and Father of his Country in 1900, when he was only 27 years old, and Governor of the State when it was annexed to Brazil three years later.  He was only 35 years old when he was ambushed and assassinated by rivals.  Though Plácido de Castro doesn't have his own article in the English Wikipedia, a life like this really deserves one - here is the Portuguese entry.

Here is the Panteão da Pátria (Pantheon of the Fatherland) Tancredo Neves, in the Praça dos Três Poderes (Plaza of Three Powers) in Brasília - home of the Book of Heroes, from the Wikimedia Commons:



This is pretty impressive company, even for a larger-than-life figure like Heitor Villa-Lobos!

The Lost 6th Prelude Found? [Nope]

What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. - Matthew 18:12-13

I was excited to read this tweet from Brazilian guitarist Alvaro Henrique today:

@alvaroguitar http://brazilianguitar.net/index.php?showtopic=3453 Achado o 6o Prelúdio para Violão de Heitor Villa-Lobos!

Alvaro links to this post at the forum Brazilianguitar.net:

http://brazilianguitar.net/index.php?showtopic=3453

Is it really true that the missing 6th Prelude of Villa-Lobos has been found?  This being April Fool's Day, I was immediately suspicious that this most important Villa-Lobos find ever might be a joke. As I said in a message to Alvaro, it sounds too good to be true. Here, thanks to Google Translate, is the gist of the story.

The Brazilian rock musician Dado Villa-Lobos and his brother Luis Octavio Villa-Lobos, grand-nephews of the composer, were looking through some papers of their father, the diplomat Jayme Villa-Lobos. There they found the score to the missing Sixth Prelude (left behind in Paris when Villa-Lobos & Mindinha returned to Brazil), as well as other works for guitar, including a complete version of Valsa de Concerto no 2. Also found were sketches for a symphony Villa-Lobos had planned in honour of Brasilia. Unfortunately, the composer died before the symphony (and the city) could be completed.

According to Alvaro's post the found Prelude will be played by guitarist Marcus Moraes at the next meeting of Associação Brasiliense de Violão (BRAVIO), on April 10th.

Boy, it's hard enough for me to keep from getting tricked in my own language.  If I have to get to Google Translate to help, I may be in trouble!  I will keep you all posted!

April 5: Well, yeah, it was a joke.  Alvaro tweeted this:

@alvaroguitar @villa_lobos Vill Unfortunately it is a April Fool's Day joke... Too good to be true! 

Of course, it seems obvious now.  The Villa-Lobos in-laws who are likely to have lost scores would be Guimares, the families of the brothers of Villa's first wife Lucilia.  Good joke!

Yerma in Manaus

It looks like the production of Yerma at the Teatro Amazonas is a go for next month.  Here is the cast and production staff for the show, from the Amazonas Festival website.  This is a really big deal - a rarely performed Villa-Lobos opera in the great Opera House in the Amazon rain-forest.


23.Abr (Sex) - 20h - Teatro Amazonas
25.Abr (Dom) - 19h - Teatro Amazonas
30.Abr (Sex) - 20h - Teatro Amazonas
YERMA
Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)
Ópera em três atos
Libreto do compositor, baseado na obra de Federico Garcia Lorca
Yerma – Ana Lucrecia Garcia
Juan – Marcello Puente
Maria –Isabelle Sabrié
Victor – Homero Velho
1ª velha – Keila de Moraes
2ª velha – Elaine Martorano
3ª velha – Elmiza Carvalho
4ª velha – Regina Santiago
5ª velha – Lincoln Pires
6ª velha – Kelly Fernandes
1ª moça – Patrícia Botelho
2ª moça – Carol Martins
1ª lavadeira - Jaiana Silva
2ª lavadeira - Lídia Mendes
3ª lavadeira – Carolina Herculano
4ª lavadeira - Thalita Azevedo
5ª lavadeira - Dhijana Nobre
6ª lavadeira - Thelvana Freitas
1ª cunhada – Miriam Abad
2ª cunhada – Raquel Brasil
Dolores – Elaine Martorano
1ª mulher – Tamar Freitas
2ª mulher – Marinete Negrão
1º homem – Cristiano Silva
2º homem – Eli Soares
Macho – Randal Oliveira
Fêmea – Priscilla Pinheiro
Menino – Marlon de Souza Pereira
Menina – Marília Rodrigues Pinheiro
Voz feminina interna – Elane Monteiro
Companhia de Dança do Amazonas
Coral Infantil do Liceu de Artes e Ofícios Claudio Santoro
Coral do Amazonas
Amazonas Filarmônica
Direção Musical e Regência: Marcelo de Jesus
Direção Cênica e Figurinos: Allex Aguilera
Coreografia: Monique Andrade
Iluminação: Moisés Vasconcelos

Thanks to Richard, who posted this information on a comment to my story about Yerma in Brazil.

Digital Cabernet Challenge

An interesting and illuminating experiment at the Proper Discord site: can you tell the difference between compressed and CD-quality music? I couldn't (and admitted so in the poll).

Here's another poll: try this digital Cabernet Sauvignon test.

1. Play your favourite Villa-Lobos CD or MP3 file (I chose John Neschling's version of Choros #08).
2. Open a good bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon (for me, it was a 2006 Penfolds Bin 407).
3. Click on the video above.

So, which wine is better?  Can you really tell the difference?  Let me know!

P.S.  Note to Casa Valduga's advertising agency: next time, use Bachianas Brasileiras no. 5 as the background music in preference to Vivaldi.

Clara Rodriguez at Wigmore Hall

The Venezuelan pianist Clara Rodriguez will be playing three Villa-Lobos works in her Wigmore Hall concert on April 12, 2010.  Check out her website - you'll find a nice version of Poema Singelo, from a live performance in London.

Trío Cordvent's "Homenaje a Villa-Lobos"

Jesús Saiz Huedo from Trío Cordvent sent me an update on their concert "Homenaje a Villa-Lobos," which took place in Madrid last December. You can watch videos of many of the works from that concert at The Trío Cordvent website.

Here is Recordando a Villa-lobos by Félix Sierra; a lovely work:

Cristina Ortiz plays Bachianas Brasileiras no3

The two greatest Villa-Lobos works for piano and orchestra aren't included in the five Piano Concertos. They are Choros #11 and Bachianas #3; both are among Villa's top works. Each of these fairly rare pieces calls for a virtuoso pianist, a large, well-prepared orchestra, and a conductor who can provide a sense of forward momentum to the sprawling scores.

Here is Cristina Ortiz playing BB#3, with Fábio Mechetti conducting the Orquestra Filarmônica de Minas Gerais in a concert from August of 2009. The second, third, and fourth movements are also at YouTube, thanks to the MinasMusical Channel.

The Burial of Villa-Lobos

From TV Tupi, film footage of the scene in the square in front of the Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro on November 19, 1959, two days after Villa-Lobos died. I find these scenes very moving.

The Music Wins

Recently I've been following two really interesting stories about Brazilian pianists.  Last month I blogged about Marcelo Bratke, who overcame near-blindness on his way to becoming a world-renowned concert pianist.  I look forward to the publication of Bratke's new recording of the complete Villa-Lobos piano music.

Another story, in O Globo's Gazeta on-line, is a feature on the great pianist and conductor João Carlos Martins. The article by Erik Oakes tells the really fascinating stories of the incredible physical disabilities Martins has overcome: nerve damage and repetitive strain injuries to both hands, combined with the effects of a nasty mugging in Bulgaria.  Last October Martins appeared with jazz great Dave Brubeck at Lincoln Centre, and he'll be conducting the Orquestra Camerata Sesi on March 16 in Espírito Santo.  That concert includes Bachianas Brasileiras no. 4.

One of the coolest things in Oakes' story is that the Sao Paulo Samba School Vai-Vai will be including the story of Martins in their 2011 Carnival presentation.  The title will be A Música Venceu - The Music Wins.

Recently I've been enjoying the music of João Carlos Martins on The Naxos Music Library.  Martins recorded the complete keyboard music of Bach on the Labor label, and you can listen to all of them at NML.  I especially enjoy his concertos discs, and especially Brandenburg Concerto no. 5: LAB7042.

Magdalena: "magnificently bedecked in feathers & twigs"

Magdalena: magnificently bedecked in feathers & twigs.  From LIFE magazine, October 25, 1948, p. 107.

Choros no. 6

From the 30th Annual Festival de Inverno de Campos do Jordão in July 1999, Roberto Tibiriçá conducts the Festival Orchestra in Choros no 6, one of Villa's greatest works.   Part 2 is here, and part 3 is here.

David Soyer

I've read quite a few tributes to cellist David Soyer of the Guarneri Quartet, who died on February 25 at the age of 87.  His music has given me so much pleasure over the years, and in the last week I've enjoyed listening to a variety of CDs that I've acquired over the years that this great musician played on.

I was surprised to read in Anne Midgette's article in the Washington Post about some of Soyer's freelance work:

He supplemented his solo appearances with stints ranging from playing in the NBC Symphony under Arturo Toscanini to performing in the studio band on the first-ever "Ed Sullivan Show." He played with pianist-singer Nat "King" Cole, backed jazz singer Billie Holliday on her final major album and soloed on folk singer Joan Baez's 1964 recording of Heitor Villa-Lobos's "Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 -- Aria."

The Joan Baez BB#5 has been a favourite of my readers at the HVL Website and The Villa-Lobos Magazine over the years.  The cello soloist in this piece doesn't always necessarily get credited on CDs or in concert programs, but listening to this piece again David Soyer's playing is really a standout.  Now I'm off to check out the Billie Holiday and Nat Cole discs!

Villa-Lobos on Cultura FM: March 2010

Every month I post highlights from the upcoming schedule of Cultura FM from Sao Paulo. Since you can listen live to this station on the Internet, it's a great way to hear Brazilian classical music.

March 1:
23:00 NOTURNO:
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART – Quinteto em sol menor  KV 516. Quarteto Melos e Franz Beyer (viola). / Maurice RAVEL – Conversas da Bela com a Fera. London Brass. / VILLA-LOBOS - Berceuse - Barcarolla do Trio no. 2. Aulustrio. / KURTAG - Canto Gregoriano: De Adão a Abraão. György Kurtag (órgão). Schola Hungarica. Reg.: Janka Szendrei.

more

Mid Europe International Wind Music Festival

The Banda Sinfônica de Cubatão has been invited to Austria this summer, for the 2010 Mid Europe International Wind Music Festival.  This is cool, because it will be a chance to bring Brazilian symphonic band music to a wider audience.

Villa-Lobos wrote some amazing works for band.  I'm especially impressed with the late (1959) work Concerto Grosso for Woodwind Quartet & Wind Orchestra, which really deserves to be better known.  There are two excellent recordings of this work, on Naxos & Albany.  You can listen to both at The Naxos Music Library.

Mosaicos videos

In a special from the Brazilian TV program Mosaicos, available on YouTube in 6 parts, you can watch a who's-who of great Villa-Lobos performers: Turíbio Santos, Gilberto Tinetti, Roberto Duarte, Quinteto Villa-Lobos, Paulo Pedrassoli, Eduardo Monteiro, amongst many more.  This special includes some archival video of some great performers of the past that I haven't seen before. I'm looking forward to watching these!

Watch the remaining parts here.

Yerma at SouthBank

 

From July 1989, a programme from the European premiere of Yerma.  The performance received high marks from a reviewer who knows his Villa-Lobos: Guy Rickards (Tempo, September 1989, pp. 42-43.)  Odaline de la Martinez has recorded one of the best CDs of Villa-Lobos's chamber music for Lorelt.  It's high time for her to bring Yerma to the recording studio!

Thanks to Harold Lewis for this.

Canção Carioca: Song from Rio

Steve Griggs is one of a number of jazz masters who is contributing to a really interesting musical re-appraisal of Villa-Lobos in the 21st Century.  The Steve Griggs Ensemble's Brazilian Serenade was a very successful part of the Ano Villa-Lobos celebrations of last November, and the new project is timed to celebrate Villa's birthday in March.

Besides Villa's Suite floral, Ciclo Brasileiro, Brinquedo da Roda, and Bachianas Brasileiras, Canção Carioca includes music by Ernesto Nazareth, Darius Milhaud, Horace Silver, and Tom Jobim.  Go to the Steve Griggs website for more on this exciting project.

Cyro Baptista Vira Loucos Tour

Percussionist and composer Cyro Baptista was born in Brazil, but moved in 1980 to the U.S.  In 1997 he worked with Michael Tilson Thomas in Miami, on the very successful New World Symphony CD of Villa-Lobos music, and the same year he released his album of music based on Villa-Lobos themes: Vira Loucos.

In the years since then, Baptista has been a busy musician, working with people like John Zorn, Yo-Yo Ma, Herbie Hancock, Daniel Barenboim, and Wynton Marsalis.  His latest project is Banquet of the Spirits, which is especially recommended.   My favourite track is Macunaima, which refers to the wildest side of the Brazilian experience.

Luckily for us, Cyro Baptista will be returning to his Vira Loucos material in an upcoming U.S. tour.  Eleonora Alberto, Baptista's manager, tells me that a number of dates are confirmed, but that additional ones may still be added:

October 13: Zankel Hall, NYC
October 15: Richmond VA
October 17: Warm Springs VA
October 26: Austin TX

Contact Eleonora if you'd like to book another date, or for more information on the tour.

Visit Cyro Baptista's website, his Vira Loucos page, and his Banquet of the Spirits Myspace page.

Villa-Lobos en dix ouevres

The excellent Villa-Lobos section of the France Musique website includes a list of 10 characteristic works (or groups of works) that best represent the composer.  Here is the list, which also includes suggested recordings:

1. Amazonas (for orchestra)
2. Rudepoema (for piano)
3. Prole do Bebe (both suites)
4. Momoprecoce
5. The Choros series (includes an interview with conductor John Neshling)
6. Etudes for guitar
7. Guitar concerto
8. The Bachianas Brasileiras series
9. O Descobrimento do Brasil
10. The 12 Symphonies

This is an admirable list, but my own is a bit different:

1. Uirapuru
2. Rudepoema for piano
3. Prole do Bebe suites
4. The Choros: Villa-Lobos's greatest music
5. Nonetto: a chamber work that stands with the best of the Choros series
6. Guitar Preludes
7. The String Quartet series
8. Bachianas Brasileiras
9. Missa Sao Sebastiao (though the late choral work Bendita Sabedoria could have taken its place)
10. Forest of the Amazon

Let me know what you think of these lists; feel free to include your own list in the comments below.