Customer Reviews

Alma Brasileira- Music of Villa-Lobos ~ Fleming, Tilson Thomas, New World Symphony

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The orchestral selections are rich, spacious, and sonorous...they hold the attention consistently and happily. The CD is well worth its price for those alone.

But, Renee Fleming is not suited for the music in her Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5. The top-most notes get thin and screechy...and the humming section is pinched, pale, and puny -- not pleasant. I am a Renee Fleming admirer of the very first order....but, my "love" is not unconditional, and in this case...if asked, I would have advised her to avoid it.

I find it very interesting that Heitor Villa-Lobos could so easily equate Brazilian folk music with that of J.S. Bach. All the more interesting are his "tributes to Bach in a Brazilian style". Each of the Bachianas Brasileiras are scored differently, and in many cases, there are many versions of the same work. This disk features four of the Bachianas Brasileiras and one setting of the Choros, Number 10.

Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4 is very thickly textured for the entire orchestra. Percussion and use of brass give the Brazilian feel while the form and many of the progressions give the feel of Bach. Villa-Lobos will often use an actual Brazilian folk melody, but make sure its archetypal shape is Baroque or he will put the melody into a "Bachian" technique. The dance rhythms, however, are Brazilian through and through. No. 5 is scored for multi-divisi cello parts and solo soprano. Only two movemnts long, the 1st is very much a vocalise with is monosyllabic melody. Contrasting, the 2nd movement is more like a patter song. Renee Fleming has a naturally beautiful and resonant voice. She does change the final note from the written C5 to high C6. No. 7's movements are labelled with Baroque forms: Preludio, Giga, Tocata, and Fuga. Like No. 4, it is scored for full orchestra using the same techniques. Villa-Lobos' last contribution of Bachianas Brasileiras, No. 9, is a prelude and fugue. Scored for string orchestra, this one evokes Bach the clearest of all.

Choros No. 10 for orchestra, piano, a battery of Brazilian percussion, and chorus is a bit of a different work. The sound is not so romantic, but revels in using dissonance in nearly a Stravinskian manner. Driving tribal rhythms, virtousic passages for individual instruments, and inclusion of a "tribal" chanting chorus make this a miniature magnum opus.

It is hopeful that with this successful recording, that more Villa-Lobos music will become standard fare. The New World Symphony exploit the exoticism and Neo-Baroque/Romanticism fo the works with pinache. The music is very approachable and fun.

I really see no problem with this recording, I bought it several years ago, and I think is wonderfully performed
music. Tilson Thomas does a great job with the New World
Symphony Orchestra and soprano Renee Fleming. My favorites are the Bacchianas Brasileiras #5 "ALMA BRASILEIRA" and #7 with its fuga that sounds so much like Bach....

You won't get stung on this one.

Michael Tilson Thomas is one of the premiere conductors of the planet -- he doesn't fail us here. He conducts the New World Symphony (based in Florida) which is composed of the best and brightest music school graduates who are seeking more permanant posts with renowned orchestras, and many former members have done so. But don't be fooled into thinking that this is a "student orchestra," no sir! With this orchestra, there is no unskilled viola player in the back row -- this is some of the finest, most precise playing I've heard anywhere.

The big bonus here is that we get Heitor Villa-Lobos' most popular works (he actually wanted to be known for his many magnificent works other than these but the public would not allow it to be so) and they are performed in their most expansive form. The singing (on the limited number of vocal pieces) is flawless as far as I could hear and the recording is quite dynamic.

The works found on this recording were chiefly composed as a tribute to J.S. Bach, an icon of Villa-Lobos who was initially self-taught by studying the scores of the old masters and of Bach in particular. One can easily generate a clear mental image of period Brasil by listening to Michael Tilson Thomas' astute reading of these superb Villa-Lobos compositions. This music represents the core essence of Modern Music.

I could not recommend a classical music CD more highly.

I had already heard this CD and decided to send it to a friend whose wife had just passed away (having endured 6 years of cancer). He said it was uplifting and calming. It is a marvelous mixture of emotions. I'd encourage ANYONE to listen to this selection of music, esp. the Villa-Lobos' 8 celli accompanying Renee Fleming.

Hard to put a finger on it. LOVE the music - Villa-Lobos is ALWAYS exciting (even his Quartets are wild and fresh), and the Bachianas Basilieras is a magical score. Tilson Thomas attends to the colors, but there's something lackluster about the whole performance. Something missing in the conducting. I find myself NOT in a repeat play mode with this recording! Fleming parades an overstuffed voice in the doleful #5, why is she lately so unnecessary??? Gosh, I'd so like to like her art, but it seems she's lost and passing through some weird phase vocally. Hope it doesnt last. The performances on this recording have too much pretense around them, & it's a real negative. These folks are young and gifted, maybe I'm a crank... but there's no reason not to always make music with integrity, is there? On Joan Baez' first or second album she recorded the No.5.. I'd really like to hear that recording again.

Another winner from Michael Tilson Thomas. Villa-Lobos has all the flash and color that are right up the conductor's street. Some of the best performances of the selected Bachianas Brasileiras in opulent sound. Wow!

As a whole, Thomas does good with this music. Villalobos is always exciting to hear, and his extraordinary fusion of Brasilian folk music with that of Bach mixed with resounding rhytms is well worthy of another recording and version.
But Fleming is cheating. She sings some strange lines added from her own harvest in the second part of the Aria that the author didn't write. Besides she is accompanied not by the eight cellos (according to the composer's original score)but by the orchestra. That is cheating!!
I, too, love her voice, but, as another reviewer put it, my "love" is not inconditional. Why is she so necessary lately? Her repertoire is full enough of miscastings. And also, the face so often wrong, as with her Villalobos.

Most listeners, even very experienced ones, have not heard any but the smallest fraction of Villa-Lobos's Bach-like works in Brazilian style, and the fame of the Aria from the Bachianas brasilieras no. 5 whets the aappetite to hear more. If only the other works were nearly as strong, but they aren't. It owuld take a lot of fire and imaginaiton to get these pieces to shine, but MTT essentially walks through them without much swing or passion. This was a missed opportunity, although I msut say it might be impossible for anyone to mae this music interesting for a whole hour.