Customer Reviews

Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras Nos. 1, 2, 5 & 9 / ORTF National Orchestra, De Los Angeles

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The portions of Bachianas Brasileiras most of us are familiar with are on this CD. Originally recorded in 1958,this title was digitally remastered at Abbey Road Studios in 1998. It is stunning. Victoria de los Angeles is the soloist and when I discovered this recording I found the exact voice for Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5., Aria. And Villa-Lobos' conducting is like his music - enormous range and power. I own several editions of Bachianas Brazileiras and only listen to this one.

This is not intended to be a full review, but just a few comments:

1. If you haven't heard Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, you owe it to yourself to become familiar with this beautiful and haunting work.

2. I almost made the mistake of not buying this version because of its inferior sound quality (it's mono). The performance goes way beyond the recording techniques and the digital remastering makes this quite listenable.

3. Victoria de Los Angeles is amazing. Don't even breathe until the last echoes of the first movement have disappeared into silence. If you don't get chills up your spine, there's no hope for you.

This recording has everything we could wish from this complete masterpiece. The conductor is the composer himself, and Villa-Lobos manages to give us the real soul of his music. It doesn't only mean birds and forests, particularly because in my opinion he has never really meant to describe Brazilian nature, but Brazilian soul. Thus, we have moments that make us think of birds and forests in a sunny day, as well as other moments where we can hear deep feeling like love, solitude and that feeling that incredibly only the Portuguese language can describe in words: SAUDADE. It means that strange feeling we feel when we are far away from our home, from our lover, from our country. I've read another reviewer complaining about the fact that Bachianas Brasileiras n.5 isn't happy. Well, for me it's not happy and it's not sad. It's just 'saudade'. And the amazing soprano Victoria de los Angeles sings perfectly that aria, using her lyric voice and tearful timbre to give us one of the two best Bachianas Brasileiras n.5 I have ever heard (of course the other best is Bidu Sayão).
The whole piece Bachianas Brasileiras is a delight to our ears and to our hearts. It's a wonderful deep masterwork that should be listened by everyone!

P.S.: Another reviewer told Victoria de los Angeles, being a Spanish soprano, should be able to sing perfectly the poem in the middle of the Bachianas Brasileiras n.5. However, I must remind you that the poems were written in Portuguese, which is much different from Spanish. While the writing may be similar, the Portuguese language and the Spanish language have quite different pronunciations.

During his life, Heitor Villa-Lobos recorded almost all his orchestral works, mainly in France with ORTF Orchestra.

I see some customers saying this Bachianas collection isn't a wonderful recording quality (it was recorded in the 50's), this is mono, etc, etc.

I think some listeners are bad accustomed with digital recording, with technologically perfect sounds, superb mastering, and things like that, and they seems forget the principal: the quality of music, of the composition. How many Cds are so "perfect" in recording quality, and the recorded music is a trash, with no artistic value?

So, in my opinion this Bachianas recording is one of the best classical music recording of the XX century, because it has the own composer direction. A few classical composers got the opportunity to record their music with their own interpretation. At this point, Villa-Lobos was probably the most successful composer of all times (neither Stravinsky nor Richard Strauss recorded so many works during their lives).

In this collection, we have the rare opportunity to listen the music as the composer imagined.

About the music, I can say Bachianas Brasileiras has a melancholic taste at all. I agree with the review that say "this isn't happy, sunny day, birds, etc". Just the third movement of the Bachiana 8 (Catira Batida, an old brazilian folk dance) has a happy feeling. Even so, the middle of this movement is a melancholic valse in the old style of Rio de Janeiro serenaders (chorões).

But the "Trenzinho do Caipira" ("country train" of Bachiana 2), the Martelo dance (second movement of the famous Bachiana 5), and all the other dance movements have a pinch of melancholy, a characteristic of the neo-romantic style.

If you want to listen some more animated Villa-Lobos music, search for the "Choros" serie, "Mandú-Çarará", "Prole do Bebê" (Baby's Family), "Momoprecoce" (Carnival of the Brazilian children), and more of his early compositions, which has more freshness, vivid colors and stronger rhythm, including exciting percussion instruments.

This is one of my absolute favorite recordings that I own. 1st of all, Villa-Lobos is conducting his own music, so there is really no reason whatsoever to complain about tempo, dynamic levels, etc. (unless, of course, Villa-Lobos was drunk while conducting) This is the way he wants it, so if you don't like it, you obviously don't know his music

My favorite is #5- mysterious, with 8 cellos and soprano, Victoria de los Angles (who has a beautiful voice).

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is of course an unusual relic of a dead conmposer conducting his own signature works. And with a top-notch soloist too, albeit a second-rate
orchestra. As such it has great value per se.

First, be warned (again) that this is mono. It's well miked mono, but unfortunately not well balanced, as if the orchestra was not properly placed for recording with a single mike, and sounds like a hack at the editing console has had a go at it to try and fix some of this. The results is, among other things, screeching violins.

But what an ususual mix of sound comes through all this! This is not the usual recording of any of the very familiar B. B.'s! Orchestral balances (as opposed to recorded balances ... you can tell the difference if you listen for the difference between overall sound and that of single instruments) are unusual and so is phrasing and articulation.

Highly recommended to the specialist, not so otherwise. These are fine,
if idiosyncratic, performances and if some newbee were to "imprint" on this recording, they might never enjoy a live modern performance or recording.

Doug McDonald

I was thrilled to find a CD copy of the vinyl album I bought in about 1964! I had bought another rendition of these Villa-Lobos pieces but it just didn't do it for me. De Los Angeles has a wonderful soprano and the Bachianas Brasilleiras need a great voice.

Fine performances of selections not always heard. Sound balance not always excellent, but fine overall.

Yes, this is a recording done in the fifties in France with maestro Villa-Lobos directing. At this moment he was virtually unknown in Brazil, except for his organizing in the forties chorales with thousands of school children voices. Yet he was mostly unknown in his homeland. Brazilians have to be famous first abroad to be recognized among their peer countrymen. This is our living paradox. But, how many of us are famous abroad? Some chosen few, I daresay. Villa-Lobos is perhaps the first one to be publicly recognized, by the media as well. His spiritual invocation of the muses, to this day astounds us listeners. His capacity of transfering into sounds his (should I say our) troubled lives, does not cease to amaze me. Villa-Lobos mind is pregnant of birds, street cries, beautiful damsels and ardent lovers. This is Villa-Lobos' villa: that's where he dwells. That's were we Brazilians live at, poorly but in peace with mankind. Join us, folks. At least, try top grasp our music. I beg you! For your own sake!

I spotted this in a music store and bought it because I'm a fan of Villa-Lobos' compositions for guitar. Honestly, I was not familiar with the music on this disc at all. But wow, what a pleasant surprise. I downloaded it to my mp3 player last night so now I can listen to it anywhere.