Tumbling Villa-Lobos RSS

A Villa-Lobos tumblelog, from the guy who brought you the Villa-Lobos Website and the Villa-Lobos Magazine. Focus, Dean, focus! Traduzir para Português

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Archive

Feb
25th
Mon
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A 75th Birthday Tribute to Julian Bream, the Guitar Institute Celebration at the 92nd Street Y in NYC is featured on the front page of the current Classical Domain site.  The highlight for Villa-Lobos lovers will be David Leisner’s performance of the Preludes.  I’d love to be there on March 1st.  I first heard Villa-Lobos many years ago on an old Bream LP, and Leisner’s is one of my favourite modern recordings.
A 75th Birthday Tribute to Julian Bream, the Guitar Institute Celebration at the 92nd Street Y in NYC is featured on the front page of the current Classical Domain site.  The highlight for Villa-Lobos lovers will be David Leisner’s performance of the Preludes.  I’d love to be there on March 1st.  I first heard Villa-Lobos many years ago on an old Bream LP, and Leisner’s is one of my favourite modern recordings.
Feb
24th
Sun
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The fifth Bachianas Brasileiras starts off Day 4 (March 6, 2008) of Musimars at the Schulich School of Music, McGill University.  Featured are Iris Luypaers, soprano + UCCELLO 8 celli.
The fifth Bachianas Brasileiras starts off Day 4 (March 6, 2008) of Musimars at the Schulich School of Music, McGill University.  Featured are Iris Luypaers, soprano + UCCELLO 8 celli.
Feb
15th
Fri
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Villa-Lobos for Wind Band

Here’s an exciting new disc just announced, from Naxos:

The President's Own Marine Band

The disc includes a new version on CD of a superb late Villa-Lobos work for Concert Band: The Concerto Grosso for Wind Quartet and Wind Orchestra.

Performed by: President’s Own United States Marine Band, The
Composed by: Heitor Villa-Lobos
Conducted by: Jose Serebrier
Gail Gillespie, flute
Leslye Barrett, oboe
Lisa Kadala, clarinet
Christopher McFarlane, bassoon

You can hear a preview of the disc on the Naxos Direct site. 

Or download the same work, performed by the DePaul University Wind Ensemble on a 2001 Albany CD, from emusic.com. 

Feb
13th
Wed
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Villa-Lobos’s signature, one of many by famous musicians who signed The Bakaleinikoff Tablecloth, now in the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh.
Villa-Lobos’s signature, one of many by famous musicians who signed The Bakaleinikoff Tablecloth, now in the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh.
Feb
11th
Mon
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Villa-Lobos gets his hands dirty and is fastidious at the same time.
— Bernard Holland, in a fine NY Times review of “The Villa-Lobos Experience”, a Feb. 9, 2008 concert in NYC.
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In a clip from Korean Television, Lee Song-Ou plays the third Prelude.
Feb
9th
Sat
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Mr. Villa-Lobos was a good conductor, especially of his own music. He could conduct with a glance.
— Wesley Wehr, The Eighth Lively Art: Conversations with Painters, Poets, Musicians, and the Wicked Witch of the West
Feb
3rd
Sun
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From the Music on Stamps blog.  I haven’t seen the Cuban stamp before.  I’ll need to see what kind of instrument a “Tompeta con resonador de calabaza” is, and where Villa used it.
From the Music on Stamps blog.  I haven’t seen the Cuban stamp before.  I’ll need to see what kind of instrument a “Tompeta con resonador de calabaza” is, and where Villa used it.
Feb
2nd
Sat
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In his conducting he bounced along with the beat animatedly and managed to keep the sometimes complicated rhythms clear of each other…. The further afield he goes, the more likely he is to bring back discoveries of true charm and value.
— Paul Bowles on Music, p. 220
Feb
1st
Fri
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Bassoonist Benjamin Coelho’s disc Bravura Bassoon includes a Villa-Lobos piece I’ve never heard, or heard of: it’s called “Corrupio: Bailado.”  I haven’t had a chance to listen to this disc yet, but the first minute of the VL piece, for bassoon and string quartet, is very appealing.  Listen to excerpts from each of the tracks on Amazon.com’s Music Sampler, and buy Bravura Bassoon here.
Bassoonist Benjamin Coelho’s disc Bravura Bassoon includes a Villa-Lobos piece I’ve never heard, or heard of: it’s called “Corrupio: Bailado.”  I haven’t had a chance to listen to this disc yet, but the first minute of the VL piece, for bassoon and string quartet, is very appealing.  Listen to excerpts from each of the tracks on Amazon.com’s Music Sampler, and buy Bravura Bassoon here.
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When in 1936 he was invited to take part in the Congress for Musical Education in Prague, he flew the ocean in the Zeppelin, and at the Congress could hardly speak of anything except the wonders of transoceanic travel by air.
—

Nicholas Slonimsky, “A Visit with Villa-Lobos,” Musical America, October 16, 1941, p. 10

Here’s a poster for regularly scheduled passenger service between Europe and Brazil from Hamburg-Amerika Line, from an excellent online exhibit from Denmark “The Airship is Coming!”

Jan
27th
Sun
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It still reveals things to me — fortunately, there is enough technical and melodic stuff that I can play it repeatedly and not get tired of it.
— Robert Bonfiglio, on the Harmonica Concerto (from an interview in the Louisville Courier-Journal).  Bonfiglio plays the concerto on February 2nd with the Louisville Orchestra.
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The Uirapuru, an Amazonian bird that’s the subject of one of Villa’s great orchestral works.  This picture is from the blog of Olivier Bleys, who wrote a five-part radio play “Le Vert Paradis de Villa-Lobos,” recently broadcast on France Culture.   Click here to hear the song of this “Musician Wren.” You can hear the Symphonic Poem and Ballet Uirapuru performed by the Odense Symphony on a Bridge CD, in a great performance conducted by Eduardo Mata, and in the legendary Stokowski recording from the 1950s.

The Uirapuru, an Amazonian bird that’s the subject of one of Villa’s great orchestral works.  This picture is from the blog of Olivier Bleys, who wrote a five-part radio play “Le Vert Paradis de Villa-Lobos,” recently broadcast on France Culture.   Click here to hear the song of this “Musician Wren.”

You can hear the Symphonic Poem and Ballet Uirapuru performed by the Odense Symphony on a Bridge CD, in a great performance conducted by Eduardo Mata, and in the legendary Stokowski recording from the 1950s.

Jan
25th
Fri
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It’s a tremendously exciting piece with quite a bit of musical worth, although it’s really very bizarre - one episode after another with peaks and valleys. As a whole, it’s quite riveting and deserves to be heard every so often.
— Marc-André Hamelin, on Villa’s Rudepoema.  Hamelin will be performing the work, along with Haydn, Chopin, Liszt, Schubert, and “Sonata in a State of Jazz” by Alexis Weissenberg.
Jan
18th
Fri
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7 Rue Jean Goujon is just off the Champs Elysee, not too far from the Hotel Bedford (7 Rue Arcade), where Villa-Lobos lived when he was in Paris from 1952 to 1959. [By the way, I didn’t live there (I wish!) - I came across this picture on the web using Google’s image search - the website itself wouldn’t load.] 

7 Rue Jean Goujon is just off the Champs Elysee, not too far from the Hotel Bedford (7 Rue Arcade), where Villa-Lobos lived when he was in Paris from 1952 to 1959.

[By the way, I didn’t live there (I wish!) - I came across this picture on the web using Google’s image search - the website itself wouldn’t load.]