Camargo Guarnieri - Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6; Villa Rica Suite (John Neschling)

Information

Composer: Camargo Guarnieri

• Symphony No. 5, for orchestra and choir
• Suíte Vila Rica
• Symphony No. 6

São Paulo Symphony Choir & Orchestra

John Neschling, conductor

Date: 2004

Label: BIS

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Review

The best issue yet in BIS’s fine, if mixed, Guarnieri symphony cycle

The first volume of this Guarnieri symphony cycle (Nos 2 and 3, 12/02) was excellent, the second – with the First coupled with the rather empty Fourth (2/04) – somewhat less engaging. However, from the (slightly Bartókian) outset of the Fifth (1977) the music compels attention. Guarnieri’s style remained close to that of North America: the language sounds much closer to that of, say, Peter Mennin than to his compatriot Villa-Lobos. There is a good deal of Hindemith in the scoring as well as the melodic writing, though Guarnieri’s harmonic and structural processes are not those of the German master. The wistful Lento nostalgico is equally impressive but the music enters a new dimension with the primitivistic choral-orchestral finale setting a short poem in praise of the ‘stubborn’ river of Guarnieri’s home town.

The Sixth Symphony (1981) is another compact three-movement design, this time in the Walter Piston mould, with a brief preludial Allegro succeeded by a longer, haunting slow movement and short, rapid finale. The symphony’s heart – like so many of the American’s – lies in the Triste central span. Yet it is middle-period Stravinsky that bubbles to the surface in the vivid opening Energico e ritmado.

Separating the symphonies – and quite different from them in expressive intent – is a 10-movement suite from music written for the film Vila Rica in 1957. There are several splendid movements that would make this a welcome concert item, not least the Gingando finale. The São Paulo Symphony Orchestra play marvellously and John Neschling directs with great understanding. Excellent sound.

-- Guy Rickards, Gramophone

More reviews:

ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 10

https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/jan05/guarnieri_neschling.htm

https://www.allmusic.com/album/camargo-guarnieri-symphonies-nos-5-6-vila-rica-suite-mw0001372122

https://www.amazon.com/Orchestral-Works-3-CAMARGO-GUARNIERI/dp/B0001P1DVE

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Camargo Guarnieri (February 1, 1907 – January 13, 1993) was a Brazilian composer. He was born in Tietê, São Paulo, and studied piano, composition, and conducting in São Paulo and Paris, where his teachers include Charles Koechlin, among others. A key figure in the Brazilian national school, Guarnieri served as a conductor, a member of the Academia Brasileira de Música, and Director of the São Paulo Conservatório. His extensive oeuvre includes symphonies, concertos, operas, chamber music, piano pieces, and songs. He was regarded by some as the most important Brazilian composer after Heitor Villa-Lobos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camargo_Guarnieri

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John Neschling (born May 13 1947, Rio de Janeiro) is a Brazilian conductor. He studied under Hans Swarowsky and Reinhold Schmid in Vienna, and under Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa in Tanglewood. Neschling has been music director of Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon, Sankt Gallen Theater in Switzerland, Teatro Massimo in Palermo and the Bordeaux Opera. During the twelve years under his leadership (1997–2008), the São Paulo State Symphony became a first rate international orchestra, and recorded a series of CDs of Brazilian and international music, winning five Diapason d'Or and one Latin Grammy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Neschling

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