Composer: Heitor Villa-Lobos
Performer: Renée Fleming, Damon Coleman, Alexander East, Kenneth Freudigman, Eran Meir, Brad Ritchie, Pamela Smits, Robert Vos, Sofia Zappi, BBC Singers
Orchestra: New World Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Michael Tilson Thomas
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: RCA
Catalogue: 09026685382
Release: 1997
Size: 322 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4 for piano or orchestra
01. I. Prelúdio (Introducao). Lento
02. II. Coral (Canto do Sertao). Largo
03. III. Aria (Cantiga). Moderato
04. IV. Danza (Miudinho). Molto animato
Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5: Aria (Cantilena)
05. I. Ária (Cantilena)
06. II. Dansa (Martelo). Allegretto
Bachianas Brasileiras No. 7, W. 432
07. I. Prelúdio (Ponteio). Adagio
08. II. Giga (Quadrilha Caipira). Allegretto scherzando
09. III. Tocata (Desafío). Andantino quasi allegretto
10. IV. Fuga (Conversa). Andante
Bachianas Brasileiras No. 9, W. 449
11. I. Prélude. Vagarosa e mistico
12. II. Fugue. Poco apressado
Chôros Nr. 10, W. 209
13. Animé – Lent – Animé – Très peu animé
In his booklet-note, the commentator here calls Chôros No 10 the masterpiece of that quintessentially Brazilian series. It’s certainly the most ambitious, with very large orchestral and choral forces in a complex mélange of urban street song (a popular schottisch by Medeiros), chattering native Indian chants and bird-song twitterings, of mysterious jungle atmosphere, compulsive ostinato rhythms and virtuoso orchestral effects. The present performance is excellent.
The couplings here are illuminating, consisting as they do of more Villa-Lobos – four of his highly individual tributes to Bach’s influence.
By far the best known of the BachianasBrasileiras is No 5, whose Aria demonstrates the composer’s ability to spin a haunting long-flowing melody. Renée Fleming is the sweet-toned soloist with the cello section of this accomplished orchestra of young graduates from American conservatoires: warmly lyrical as she is, however, and brilliantly exact in the dartings of the Dansa, her words aren’t very distinct even in the slow-moving Aria.
By his deeply expressive shaping of No 4’s Preludio Tilson Thomas avoids any satiety with its extreme monothematicism, and in the second movement secures coherent continuity despite the (rather loud) insistent interventions of the araponga bird’s repeated note. He produces a beautifully poetic tranquillity in the brief Prelude of No 9 and complete lucidity and rhythmic buoyancy in its Fugue. If that’s the most Bachian of the series, the much more substantial No 7 also has its moments of homage: its first movement has a fine breadth, and its finale is an impressive and serious-minded large-scale fugue that begins quietly and culminates in a grandiose blaze of sound; but the busy Toccata is characteristically and challengingly Brazilian, and the first part of its Giga (before it goes all Hollywood) is delightfully fresh in this invigorating performance.
