Villa Fantome Labyrinthe

Heitor Villa-Lobos - par lui-même (1991) {6CD Box Set EMI Classics CDZF 7672292 rec 1954-1958}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.36 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 0.98 Gb
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© 1954-58, 1991 EMI France / EMI Classics | CDZF 7 67229 2
Classical / Orchestral / Early 20th Century / Contemporary Classical

This 6-CD set of "Villa-Lobos par lui-même" ("Villa Lobos performed by himself") presents the complete recordings made for Pathé between 1954 and 1958 and conducted by, or (in the case of the occasional Bachianas Brasileiras or Chôros scored for piano or duet) made under the supervision of the composer. As many of his contemporaries who made Paris their second home (Enescu comes to mind), Villa-Lobos shared his life between his native Brazil and Paris. Thus it has an important historical value.

Heitor Villa-Lobos - The Complete Choros & Bachianas Brasileiras (2009) {7CD Set BIS-CD-1830-32 rec 1995-2008}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 2.11 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.20 Gb
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© 1995-2008, 2009 BIS Records AB | BIS-CD-1830-32
Classical / Orchestral / Vocal Music / Chamber Music

Here's an easy call: these are the finest recordings of these works currently available. In reviewing the individual releases, I had perhaps one small reservation concerning the disc containing Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4, but this evaporates in the face of the achievement as a whole. Both cycles, the Bachianas Brasileiras and the Choros, constitute two of the most original, colorful, and enjoyable collections of works by any 20th-century composer. They belong in every serious record collection, and they have never been so consistently well performed and recorded. At last, Villa-Lobos' compatriots have managed to do his quirky genius full justice. The excellent disc of solo guitar music makes a fine and thoughtful bonus, and at seven discs for the price of three, you'd have to be insane not to grab this set immediately.

This dedication appears at the beginning of the collection of madrigals titled I DIPORTI DELLA VILLA IN OGNI STAGIONE ,spiegati in quattro canzoni dall’Ill.S.Francesco Bozza Cavaliere et posti in musica da diversi famosi Autori, a cinque voci (“The Pastimes of theVilla in Each Season”, explained in four songs by the Illustrious Knight Francesco Bozza and set to music by several famous Composers),published inVenice in 1601 by the publisherAngelo Gardano.

Choral music holds a central position in Villa-Lobos’s catalogue of works, but among these famous pieces is a series of little-known transcriptions for a cappella choir taken from the standard classical repertoire. They were intended for a teachers’ chorus and for use in schools, and through astonishing alchemy they achieve a true ‘orchestration’ of largely piano originals, adding a fresh new repertoire for vocal ensembles. This album also includes the first ever recording of Villa-Lobos’s complete set of a cappella transcriptions from Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier.

Heitor Villa-Lobos was a key figure in twentieth- century Brazilian music, an instinctive creator with a luxuriant imagination, at once provocative and conformist. He forged a personal style by founding his idiom on the melodic and rhythmic traditions of his country and enriching it with all the innovations he found among his contemporaries. His protean music captivates the listener with the diversity of its aesthetic orientations, which exalt his ardent patriotism and find expression in vast epic scores or, on the contrary, in delicious, piquant miniatures.