Heitor Villa-Lobos - Choros Nos. 5, 7 & 11 (John Neschling)

Information

Composer: Heitor Villa-Lobos

• Choros No. 11, for piano and orchestra
• Choros No. 5 'Alma Brasileira', for piano
• Choros No. 7 'Settimino', for winds, violin and cello

Cristina Ortiz, piano

São Paulo Symphony Orchestra

John Neschling, conductor

Date: 2007

Label: BIS

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Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 10 / SOUND QUALITY: 10

Ondine already has a fine recording of Choros No. 11, an hour-long concerto for piano and orchestra that runs continuously (and so is almost never performed live); but this one is even more atmospherically played and no less rhythmically charged. It’s very nice to see Christina Ortiz back in the saddle for a major recording. As you may recall, she recorded a lot of stuff, mostly very good, for EMI, and also did the complete Villa-Lobos piano concertos for Decca. She probably knows the style and the music as well or better than anyone alive, and her playing here has real sweep and bravura, particularly in the quick outer sections of what is basically a three-movements-in-one sort of structure. The work is one of the composer’s major masterpieces, and with brilliant sonics, you’d have to be crazy not to buy this disc if you have even a shred of interest in Villa-Lobos.

Better still, unlike Ondine BIS offers couplings. Choros No. 5, subtitled “Brazilian Soul”, is a five-minute piano solo that not surprisingly sounds like an extended cadenza from No. 11. Ortiz plays it with unaffected gusto and a powerful lyrical impulse. Choros No. 7 is scored for an exotic assortment of strings, winds (including saxophone), and offstage tam-tam. Now be honest: what music wouldn’t be improved by the presence of an offstage tam-tam? (Okay, you caught me, I’ve played the part in question, so I’m biased). It’s hugely fun and full of timbres and textures that you’ll find nowhere else. If this disc signals the start of a complete Choros series with these forces on BIS, we’re in for a real treat. [4/2/2008]

-- David Hurwitz, Gramophone

More reviews:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/mar/14/classicalmusicandopera.shopping

https://www.allmusic.com/album/villa-lobos-choros-nos-5-7-11-mw0001569025

https://www.musicweb-international.com/classRev/2011/Jan11/Villa-Lobos_Coros_BISCD1440_BISCD1450_BISCD1520.htm

https://www.amazon.com/Villa-Lobos-Choros-11-Osesp/dp/B001KZNVL4

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Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887 – November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist. Described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music", Villa-Lobos has become the best-known South American composer of all time. A prolific composer, he wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works, totaling over 2,000 works by his death in 1959. His music was influenced by both Brazilian folk music and stylistic elements from the European classical tradition, and is well represented on the world's recital and concert stages and on compact disc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heitor_Villa-Lobos

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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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