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‘Bachianas Brasileiras’ in Performance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2010

Michael Round
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Extract

The 1987 centenary celebrations of the birth of Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959) produced the first readily available complete recording in this country of the Bachianas Brasileiras. These nine suites, though containing some of his most popular pieces, are nevertheless very incompletely known, and deserve some examination. What follows is not a review of the EMI recording, but a use of it to shed light on the urgent need for a proper critical edition of this important composer's major works.

Type
Research Article
Information
Tempo , Issue 169: 50th Anniversary 1939–1989 , June 1989 , pp. 34 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

1 Bachianas Brasileiras Nos.1–9. Osorio (pno, No.3), Hcndricks (sop, No.5), Hansen, Bell (fl, bsn, No.6), RPO/ Bátiz. EM I EX 270580–3 (3 LPs), EX 270580–5 (3 cassettes), CDS 747901–8 (3 CDs). The CD s also include the Guitar Concerto (Moreno/Mexico City PO/Bátiz).

2 Villa-Lobos, Museu, Sua Obra, 2nd ed. (Rio, 1974)Google Scholar; Nobrega, A., As Bachianas Brasileiras de Villa-Lobos, 2nd ed. (Rio, 1976)Google Scholar; Mariz, V., Heitor Villa-Lobos, Compositor Brasileiro, 6th ed. (Rio, 1977)Google Scholar; idem., an earlier edition translated into English and titled Heitor Villa-Lobos, Life and Work of the Brazilian Composer (Washington D.C., 1970); many others.

3 Linguistic argument persists as to whether a single work should be called a Bachiatta Brasileira or a Bachianas Brasileiras. The BBC, for instance, pursues the former course (supported by the booklet accompanying the composer's own set of recordings, q.v. under reference 5): the titles of scores and manuscripts opt for the latter. A similar query pertains also to the Choros: here the titles are laid out e.g. Chorôs (No. 10), with the number always in parentheses, and grammatically comparable with, e.g., Symphonies (No.2). Cautious writer s have been known to resort to elaborate subterfuge such as ‘the tenth of the Chorôs’. Sec also correspondence in Gramophone, June 1985 and August 1985.

4 As in the BBC TV documentary ‘The World About Us: The Art of Survival in Brazil’ (first shown 1982).

5 Vill-Labos par lui-même: a IO-LP set of performances conducted or supervised by Villa-Lobos, , comprising Bachianas Brasileiras Nos.1–9Google Scholar – Braune (pno), De los Angeles (sop), Dufrène, Plessier (fl, bsn), ORTF – Chôros Nos.2, 5, 10, 11 2 Chorôs bis, Descobrimemo do Brasil (4 suites), Invocaçāo em Defcasa da Patria, Symphony No.4, Mômoprecoce, Piano Concerto No.5, and Prole do Bebê. Suites 1 and 2. French HMV2C 153 14090–9.

6 Bachianas Brasileiras Nos. 1–9. Freirc (pno), Guimarāes (sop), Orqucstra Sinfonica Brasileira/Karabtchevsky. Scotch/ RCA/Ariola 3MA 4001 A-H (4 LPs), issued 1987.

7 ‘Capadócio - tipo de malandro - que se apresenta gingando, sinuoso, num verdadeiro “Adagio“’. (Rio 1947, reprinted in Sita Obra, op. at.) The phrase ‘gingando, sinuoso“, generally translated as ‘swaggering sinuously’, is a means of locomotion intriguingly difficult to visualize.

8 Hyperion A 66257 (LP), KA 66257 (cassette), CDA 66257 (CD), issued 1987.

9 For reasons of altitude, Mexico City must surely be one of the worst places in the world to record wind music.