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Sweden's wonderful Bis label has been coming out with some outstanding, aggressively priced MP3 collections lately, and this set of the complete Choros, Bachianas Brasilieras and music for guitar by Heitor Villa-Lobos appears to be part of that trend. This is identical to the
this seven-CD set
released earlier by Bis. With this MP3 download going for under $18 and the CDs unavailable at this writing for less than about $46 with shipping, this really is a bargain.
But price alone doesn't make a bargain -- the performances are all great to outstanding. The bulk of the music was released originally on individual CDs in an acclaimed series of performances by the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra under conductor John Neschling, its music director for 12 years, during which time he gained international recognition for the orchestra. This is great, all-Brazilian Villa-Lobos played by top-flight musicians dedicated to bringing across the spirit of their national composer.
Villa-Lobos was always interested in expressing Brazilian themes and traditions through the media of classical European forms -- orchestral, string quartet, other chamber configurations, etc. His selection of compositional form was often influenced by the people he met. His experiences and friendships with Arthur Rubinstein and Andres Segovia, for example, led to his composition of more piano and guitar music than may have otherwise been the case.
The Choros were all written in the 1920s, still a period of exploration for Villa-Lobos. He spent at least half that decade in Europe, mainly Paris. He was soaking up the European tradition in a concentrated fashion and using European idioms to express his Brazilian musical ideas. The spirit is modernist and internationalist, while still emerging from Brazilian roots -- a few of the pieces, like Choros No. 3 and 10, are explicitly based on music of Brazilian Indian tribes.
The Bachianas Brasilieras, in contrast, were all written in 1930-1945, a period which has a definite political overtone in Brazil, coinciding perfectly with the regime of president Getulio Vargas following the revolution of 1930. This was a period of industrialization, populism and modernization in Brazil, as old landowner-based agricultural economies were overturned in favor of urbanization and industrialization. Villa-Lobos himself worked hand in hand with the regime, at least early on, and became quite politicized and steeped in Brazilian nationalism.
The political overtones are reflected in his works -- the Bachianas Brasilieras are more conservative in form, explicitly referring to Bach in the title. This is a clue that we're at least in part headed backward into more of a conservative idiom than in the Choros, which were written when Villa-Lobos was hob-nobbing with and absorbing influences from the likes of Edgard Varese. Still, the Brazilian national aspect is of key importance, just as before.
At any rate, these performances of the Choros and Bachianas Brasilieras are outstanding, and now usually seen as the best complete cycles of these works recorded to date. Not that there have been many other complete cycles -- especially of the seldom-performed Choros. Villa-Lobos works are often cherry-picked, but seldom recorded in a systematic way under a single musical vision, as is the case here. Bachianas Brasilieras No. 5 for soprano and eight cellos is clearly the best-known of the lot, having even been performed in the 1950s on American television in one of Leonard Bernstein's seminal
Young People's Concerts
.
Here is a breakdown of the contents of this collection by original release titles:
CD1 was originally released on this disc:
Villa-Lobos, H.: Choros, Vol. 3 - Choros Nos. 2, 3, 10, 12 / Introduction To the Choros / 2 Choros Bis
(currently looks to be available on Amazon only as MP3).
CD2 was originally
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Choros Vol. 2, Nos. 1, 4, 6, 8 & 9
CD3 was originally
Villa-Lobos: Choros Nos. 5, 7 & 11
CD4 was originally
Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras Nos. 1, 4, 5 & 6
CD5 was originally
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras Nos. 2, 3, 4
CD6 was originally
Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras Nos. 7, 8 & 9
CD7 was originally
Villa-Lobos: Complete Guitar Works
The last CD, featuring performances by Swedish guitar virtuoso Anders Miolin, is a bit of the odd man out here. It is a nice bonus disc featuring great performances of Villa-Lobos's oeuvre for guitar. But as some reviews have noted, the performances lack Latin passion. A direct comparison is possible in one case -- Choros No. 1 is available on CD2 played by the Brazilian Fabio Zanon, and on CD7 by Miolin. The difference is clear. Personally, I very much like Miolin's more meditative/intellectual/cerebral take on Villa-Lobos's guitar music, but I can understand those who fault it for a lack of heat.
Overall, the set is enthusiastically recommended. Get it at this price before they change their minds.
