Search - Heitor Villa-Lobos, Miguel Gomez-Martinez, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra :: Villa-Lobos: 5 Piano Concertos - Cristina Ortiz / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Miguel Gómez-Martínez

Extraordinary Piano Concertos

Discophage | 07/08/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The works of some composers, like Villa-Lobos, do not receive the attention they deserve. People who get acquainted with him, generally, have listened only to "Bachianas Brasileiras", especially the fifth, a composition for soprano and eigth cellos, of which there are many recordings. This double CD with the five piano concertos by Villa-Lobos is sheer delight. The music is romantic and original. The performance of the Royal Philarmonic Orchestra, under Miguel Gomez-Martinez, is more than good. The pianist, Cristina Ortiz, plays in a flawless manner, well integrated with the orchestra. The sound quality of the recording is excellent."

Not the best Villa Lobos, but the lovers of concertos of Rac

Discophage | France | 03/18/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Villa Lobos produced a huge output and, other than the popular cycle of Bachianas Brasileiras (not in my opinion his best compositions) and a few odd Chôros, most of it is seldom recorded and little known, despite the fact that much of it is highly original and hugely appealing, with a knack for mesmerizing orchestral colors and great sense of drama. I've been hearing and reviewing of late some of his "Tropical" music and it is music of great coloristic invention, evocative power and dramatic impact (see my reviews of Villa-Lobos: Symphonic Dances (Rudepoema; Dancas caracteristicas africanas; Danca frenetica; Danca dos mosquitos), Villa-Lobos: Genesis / Erosao / Amazonas / Dawn in a Tropical Forest, A Brazilian Extravaganza - Heitor Villa-Lobos: Chôros No. 8 / Fantasia for Cello & Orchestra / Uirapuru / Marlos Nobre: Convergências - Janos Starker, Cello and Heitor Villa-Lobos: Orchestral Music). So I was very keen to explore the lesser-known sides of Villa Lobos, and this set with the complete Piano Concertos (the 1997 mid-price reissue of a set originally published by Decca in 1992 - but the original issue can actually be found cheaper at the time of writing, on Heitor Villa-Lobos: 5 Piano Concertos - Cristina Ortiz) seemed inviting. The 1929 Piano & Orchestra version of Momoprecoce - a vast piece originally written for piano and a fantastically free and imaginative composition - was a further incentive (Villa-Lobos: Orchestral Works, Villa-Lobos: Instrumental Et Orchestral Works).



Well, I must confess my disappointment here. The Concertos are late work in Villa Lobos' compositional career: they were all written between 1945 and 1957, when the composer's career took a renewed international turn, after his "nationalistic" years at the service of the revolutionary regime of Getulio Vargas in Brazil. Other than Momoprecoce, Villa Lobos had written works in piano concerto form (e.g. in which solo piano is pitted against orchestra) - but not in name: the early Suite for piano & orchestra from 1913, Chôros 8 for 2 pianos & Orchestra, Chôros 11 for piano & orchestra, Bachianas Brasileiras 3. All (I haven't heard the early suite) display Villa Lobos' originality of form and his unquenchable and powerful wellspring of melodic and orchestral invention.



I hear little of this in the Piano Concertos proper. Here, the composer seems to have been bogged down by the form and its highly charged history. They are Big Romantic Statements, full of grand gestures that often lapse into the bombastic, imbued with a lyricism that no doubt aims at the sweeping and passionate but sounds rather trite, and piano parts that ramble along, with many notes, big cadenzas, crashing chords, runs and arpeggios, but with little sense of direction or purpose. It all often sounds like the caricature of the pianist-composer seen through the eyes of Hollywood: Rachmaninoff looms large, peppered with whiffs of sunny Brazil - but a watered-down Brazil as seen on publicity posters for international tourism, sun, beaches and coconuts. The style vaguely evokes at times the Bachianas - the lyricism is somewhat staid and stiff - or Astor Piazzola - tango for export. There are very few moments that recall the more subtly coloristic and mesmerizing Villa Lobos of the Tropical pieces: the dramatic beginning of the 1st Concerto and the mysterious orchestral intro to the slow movement of the same, with hushed violins playing on harmonics over a deep-sounding bass melody followed by a dreamy piano, and, still in the 1st Concerto, the boisterous, samba-sounding finale; the colorful "feria" orchestral introduction to the 2nd Concerto and a short passage of shimmering strings and liquid piano at 7 minutes into its second movement, the exuberance of both the Scherzo (third movement) of the 3rd, some exuberant and joyous moments throughout the 4th (with even a few short dissonant brass fanfares), some high-pitched violins in the second movement of the 5th - that doesn't add up to much fodder. Villa Lobos' inspiration seems to peter out very quickly, and then it sounds like he is just filling the pages.



Granted my comments are very generalized, but it is not that there is much diversity among the five Concertos, either. Each one seems to repeat the gestures of the previous one, and hearing them in a row doesn't help focus one's attention. And it is not like the post-war Villa Lobos had lost his inspiration: pieces like Erosion (1952), Dawn in a Tropical Forest (1954), Genesis (1954) and Emperor Jones (1956) magnificently testify to the contrary.



But the lovers of the concertos of Rachmaninoff, George Lloyd or Selim Palmgren or of the music of Astor Piazzola might enjoy this more than I did.



I've compared Ortiz and Gomez-Martinez' interpretation of the 5th Concerto to Villa Lobos' own with pianist and dedicatee Felicia Blumenthal and the Orchestre National de France from 1954 (in the 6-CD EMI set of Villa Lobos conducting himself, Villa-Lobos par lui-même). They are very similar (Ortiz is even more dynamic and exuberant in the coda to the first movement), but the newer one comes in incomparably better sound of course, and the RPO strings are better than the ragged National's. So amateurs can infer that these are authoritative readings. Appropriate liner notes, compact but informative enough.

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