Customer Reviews

A Maestrina (2 CD)

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This disc contains works of the brazilian composer Chiquinha Gonzaga. She was born in the mid nineteenth century and died in 1935 and was a very significant composer in Brazil. Many of her works were featured at the Carnaval each year. She composed what can probably be labeled popular music; for us looking back, we would most likely see it as something like popular classical music of a sort. Later composers in Brazil like Villa-Lobos and even A.C. Jobim stem from her tradition of fusing europeen dances with portuguese folk forms, african traditions and a little bit of indigenous flavors into something new that is whole into its own, and is quintessentially brazilian. The forty plus recordings here were put to wax between 1902 and 1932. As such the sound quality is a little muddled even though great efforts of digital restoration have certainly cleared up alot of the old distortions. What we have, then, is a precious historical document. We get to hear exactly how «they did it all back then», as it were. A true treasure. There are other recordings to be found wherein today's musicians in Brazil play works by Gonzaga, and maybe even other greats of her generation, and they would be more pleasing to the listening; but here we get first hand information. For those fans of brazilian music, like myself, who wish to dig a little deeper into the past, this a quite the find!

An impressive 2-CD set of EARLY recordings by one of the towering figures of Brazilian popular music, Rio's legendary Francisca Edwiges Neves Gonzaga, familiarly known as Chiquinha. Born in 1847, Gonzaga was one of the pivotal early composers of samba cancao (song sambas), as well as a pioneer of the jazz-ish "choro" style. She was also an integral part of the lowbrow salon scene that spawned the choro genre and the first samba escolas... This collection features some of the earliest popular recordings made in Brazil, the oldest dating back to 1902 (!), and the latest being from 1932, a few years before Gonzaga passed away. A fair chunk of these recordings feature Chiquinha herself, although most are interpretations of her work made by radio stars such as Francisco Alves and Gastao Formenti. There's a wide variety of styles -- she seems to have tried her hand at just about every thing, from homegrown toadas and samba cancao, to various foreign styles such as tangos, waltzes, polkas, Cuban-flavored habaneras, Portuguese fados, and even comedic sketches. The sound quality is pretty good, considering the antiquity of these recordings, and the fact that modern electric recording processes were not introduced in Brazil until 1927. A remarkable and indespensible musical document -- and a must-have for anyone serious about delving deep into Brazil's musical past.