Search - Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian String Quartet :: Villa-Lobos: String Quartets Nos. 1, 6 & 17

Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian String Quartet
Villa-Lobos: String Quartets Nos. 1, 6 & 17
Genre: Classical

Track Listings (3) - Disc #1
1. String Quartet No. 1
2. String Quartet No. 6
3. String Quartet No. 17

CD Details

All Artists: Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian String Quartet
Title: Villa-Lobos: String Quartets Nos. 1, 6 & 17
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: Albany Records
Original Release Date: 9/1/2005
Release Date: 9/1/2005
Genre: Classical
Styles: Chamber Music, Historical Periods, Classical (c.1770-1830), Modern, 20th, & 21st Century
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 034061075127

Synopsis

Product Description

The wild, exotic music of Heitor Villa-Lobos, the most famous 20th century Brazilian composer, conjures up the impetuous, frenzied spirit of his country. At an early age, he studied folk music and absorbed its heady sounds. Throughout his symphonic works, such as the famous series of Choros and the Bachianas Brasileiros, which fused the Brazilian style with the formal structure of J.S. Bach, he demonstrated a remarkably free nature, never enslaving himself to any trends or ?isms.? The liberal use of multiple rhythms and harmonies simultaneously in the same work gave his music a wonderfully tangy sound. Though best known for his orchestral music, he did commit himself to that most sophisticated of chamber music forms, the string quartet, producing 17 remarkable works from 1915 to 1957. All three of these works reveal the sheer genius of his technique and the way he was able to use his unique style to ?open up? the usually introspective world of the string quartet! . These authoritative performances, recorded in the 1960's, are by the Brazilian String Quartet, founded in 1952. Over the years they have performed hundreds of concerts in Brazil, North, Central and South America and in Europe, performing at many important festivals. Known for their championing of Brazilian composers, they have performed and recorded works by Claudio Santoro, Alberto Nepomuceno, Jose Siquera and many others. They have received numerous awards for promoting Brazil, and the Quartet has been hailed as ?Ambassadors of Brazilian Music.? The President of Brazil has bestowed his nation's highest decoration on the Quartet, the Order of Rio Branco.

CD Reviews

Dreadful Playing in Harsh Sound

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 10/05/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"The booklet notes mention only in passing that these recordings of the First, Sixth and Seventeenth Quartets by Villa Lobos are 'historical' but they don't say when they were recorded. Looking at the Albany website one sees they come from the 1960s. This is actually a bit of a surprise because the recorded sound seems older than that. It is harsh, almost tinny, with poor bass response. But even if the sound were better, these would not be recommendable because the playing is pretty dreadful. The booklet tells us that the Brazilian String Quartet has had a distinguished history, having been formed in the early 1950s. The text makes it sound as if they are still performing; I cannot vouch for that as I've not been able to find any other information about them. What my ears tell me, though, is that on these recordings at least they are not too much above student level. The tuning is variable at best and sometimes downright painful, the timbre elicited from the instruments is often hollow or nasal (perhaps their instruments are not of high quality), and sometimes one cannot even quite make out what individual notes are being played. This is particularly true in the pizzicato accompaniment in the second movement of the Sixth Quartet; perhaps the intention is to mimic percussion instruments, although it doesn't strike me that Villa Lobos would have intended such approximate tuning. (And in the superior Cuarteto Latinoamericano recording - they've recorded all the Villa Lobos quartets - that certainly is not the case.) These wonderful quartets deserve better.

So, given the poor performances in poor sound, this is a definite no go. Possibly the only people interested in this would be those who have ties to the group, or who want to hear the group that gave the première performance of the 17th Quartet after Villa Lobos had died.

Scott Morrison"