Latin America Alive [Box set]

William Alvarado (Performer), Claudio Muskus (Performer), Antonio Estevez (Composer), Heitor Villa-Lobos (Composer), Silvestre Revueltas (Composer), Julian Orbon (Composer), Alberto Ginastera (Composer), Carlos [1] Chavez (Composer), Manuel de Falla (Composer), Eduardo Mata (Conductor), Cecilia Angell (Performer), Martha Senn (Performer), Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra), Elizabeth Almenar (Performer), Idwer Alvarez (Performer), Ignacio Clapes (Performer), Fernando de la Mora (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: William Alvarado, Claudio Muskus, Cecilia Angell, Martha Senn, Elizabeth Almenar, et al.
• Orchestra: Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Eduardo Mata
• Composer: Antonio Estevez, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Silvestre Revueltas, Julian Orbon, Alberto Ginastera, et al.
• Audio CD (October 27, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 6
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Dorian Recordings
• ASIN: B002N5KEMO
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #175,696 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent Legacy, December 2, 2009

By 

Dean Frey (Red Deer, AB CANADA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Latin America Alive (Audio CD)

In 1954 Aaron Copland attended a major festival of Latin American music in Caracas. There he met the festival organizers Heitor Villa-Lobos and Carlos Chavez, and heard music from composers like Alberto Ginastera from Argentina, Julían Orbon from Cuba, and Antonio Estéves from Venezuela.

Two of the works that impressed Copland the most are included on this valuable new box set from Dorian: Estévez's "ingratiating" Cantata Criolla, and the "natural and spontaneous" Tres Versiones Sinfónicas by Julían Orbon. He was less impressed with the music of Villa-Lobos, which left him "...astonished, but quite confused. It is works like these that make Villa-Lobos the pride and despair of his Latin-American colleagues."

Copland characterized Villa's music as "sprawling in form and luxuriant in manner," and the three works that the late Eduardo Mata recorded are definitely in this mode. Mata and the Simón Bolivar Orchestra recorded the great early work Uirapuru in 1993, and this recording has long been a favourite of mine (though I still have a soft spot for the first recording, by Stokowski in 1955.) Mata brings out the Brazilian popular-music rhythms in his recording of the ostensibly neo-classical Bachianas Brasileiras #2, with its famous Little Train. And this version of Choros #10 is really passionate, with superb singing by the Schola Cantorum de Caracas & Orfeon Universitario Simón Bolivar.

There are so many other excellent works included here. Chavez's 2nd Symphony, the Sinfónia India, and Silvestre Revueltas's Sensemaya, are both stand-out recordings. I loved Orbon's craggy Concerto Grosso. The set is entitled "Latin America Alive", but I would only complain about the inclusion of two discs of music by the European Manuel de Falla if Eduardo Mata were still around to record new music by the many composers of Latin America that rarely make it on to disc. As it is, these six discs represent a magnificent legacy of a great, great artist who died much too soon.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Music, Perfomances & Value!, October 21, 2011

By 

Ralphus (Goyang, Gynggi-Do Korea (South)) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Latin America Alive (Audio CD)

This 6 CD set not only presents interesting and varied Latin American repertoire performed exceedingly well, but offers must-buy value. If you are even vaguely interested in some of the works/composers featured, I recommend snapping this one up as soon as you can - before it goes out of print, or someone at Dorian realizes how insanely cheap they're selling it for!

Six Latin American composers are featured: Chavez, Estevez, Ginastera, Orbon, Revueltas & Villa-Lobos. Also, as Dean Frey's excellent comments mention, the Spaniard Manuel de Falla is represented by 2 whole discs. I agree with him that this set would have been better served by more actual Latin American works, but the Falla performances are of a very high calibre and include some works I (and perhaps you too) didn't previously own. Even with these 2 discs discounted from our reckoning, the "4 disc" set is still of amazing value and quality.

Recorded sound is uniformly excellent across the discs. The orchestra is very clearly heard with nuances and individual timbres easily distinguished. Comparing this recording of the Villa-Lobos Choros no.10 with that on the Bis label, this one is brighter, clearer and 'punchier'. I feel Villa-Lobos's music, as rich and dense as it is, as well as being highly rhythmical and harmonically and rhythmically interesting, is particularly well served by the recording engineers.

Disc 1: Antonio Estevez, "Cantata Criolla" - This piece is a hoot! What an under-appreciated gem! The last movement would not be out of place in Bernstein's "West Side Story". It has the rhythmic infectiousness of 'America' but all sung over a 'riff' based on the Dies Irae. I say it made me think of Bernstein, but that's not to suggest it's at all derivative. Disc 1 concludes with Choros no.10 by Villa-Lobos (as mentioned above).

Disc 2: Revueltas: Redes; Julian Orbon: Concerto Grosso for String Quartet & Orchestra; Revueltas: Sensemaya; Ginastera: Pampeana no.3 - All great pieces. Revueltas' "Redes" is great fun and excellently performed here. It's a typically colorful score not without Revueltas' characteristic 'piquancy'. The Orbon is a stand-out. The wonderful Cuarteto Latinamericano, who feature so magnificently on Dorian's outstanding Villa-Lobos String Quartet cycle (another 'must-buy': Villa-Lobos: Complete String Quartets [CD+DVD]), score another winner here. For the famous "Sensemaya", I probably prefer another Mata recording on RCA - which, incidentally, also represents great value and is certainly essential for anyone interested in this incredible but sadly neglected composer: Silvestre Revueltas: Centennial Anthology 1899-1999.

Disc 3: Orbon: Tres versiones Sinfonicas; Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras no.2; Estevez: Melodia en el Llano; Chavez: Sinfonia India - Another fine work from the Spanish-Cuban, Julian Orbon, Carlos Chavez' celebrated Symphony no.2 "Sinfonia india" - a work I knew by reputation but, embarrassingly, I had never actually listened to - a vibrant traversal of Bachianas Brasileiras no.2 with a particularly charming little train chugging along in the famous final movement. The highlight of this disc for me, though, is another great piece by Antonio Estevez. The "Melodia en el Llano", rendered in English as 'Noon on the Plain', but more literally 'Song of the Llano', with the Llano being the great Venezuelan plain described in the booklet as "[being] much more than just a feature of a beautiful, varied and diverse landscape. In Venezuelan consciousness, in its history, its culture, its art, the plain reaches mythic proportions". Estevez' score is still and brooding and highly atmospheric.

Disc 4: de Falla: "La Vida Breve"
Disc 5: de Falla: "El Amor Brujo", Seven Popular Spanish Songs, Homenajes, Three Dances from the Three-Cornered Hat.

Disc 6: Villa-Lobos: Uirapuru; Chavez: Horse-Power Suite; Ginastera: Estancia - A marvelous performance of Villa-Lobos' early masterpiece. Luckily, there are a couple of excellent readings of this bizarre little ballet commercially available. My favorite previously had been on Bridge, with the Odense Symphony directed by Jan Wagner (Heitor Villa-Lobos: Orchestral Music). While that performance is highly atmospheric and evocative, this one is 'snappier' and a tad more energized. Frankly, I think both approaches work very well.

Finally, I'd like to add that the packaging is excellent. The CD box has a glossy high-quality look and feel to it (again, belying its budget price point) and each slip is elegantly presented. The booklet is thick and thorough with an opera synopsis included (but no libretto) for "La Vida Breve" as well as a note from the conductor and information on all the singers. The only slight negative is that there are many grammatical 'oddities' and spelling slips that smack of a less-than-perfectly-handled translation. None of this hinders comprehension though, and the depth of the notes and information given more than makes up for any orthographical shortcomings.

If you have a nascent interest in Latin American music this set is an ideal starting point and represents outstanding value for money. If you're a connoisseur you may well already own these discs. If you are a lover of 20th century music, as I am, by Prokofiev, Ravel, Copland or other masters, then these 'finds' will surely satisfy also.