HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS, born in Rio de Janeiro in 1887, has, by virtue of both his immense output and colourful and accessible musical language, become the most celebrated Brazilian composer of all time. His work not only richly typifies the diverse and kaleidoscopic Brazilian scene but also, in its abundance, originality, and vitality, provided the key which unlocked Brazilian art music once and for all from the shackles of European late-Romanticism..
The Ensemble Villa Musica has established an outstanding reputation for itself in the music world. Its members number among the leading instrumentalists currently active in Germany. Today these former concertmasters and principal soloists of great orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra devote their time and effort exclusively to solo and chamber performance…
Two Brazilian artists pay tribute to Villa-Lobos and the Amazon rainforest… Sebastião Salgado is a world-renowned photographer who has been working since the 1990s to protect and restore the Atlantic forest and water resources of the Rio Doce valley in Brazil. The Italian-Brazilian conductor Simone Menezes is passionate about the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos and his symphonic poem Floresta do Amazonas, for which she created a suite for large orchestra and soprano. Together they travel the world to present an exhibition of Salgado's photographs, combined with concerts conducted by Simone in which the photographs are projected, the photographer having associated each musical phrase with one of his images… The music of this monumental project has been recorded with the Philharmonia Zürich and soprano Camila Provenzale. Ten photos by Salgado, each more striking than the last, are included in the booklet that accompanies this recording, which is completed by another tribute to Amazonian nature, by Philip Glass, with an extract from his Aguas da Amazonia.
The Ensemble Villa Musica has established an outstanding reputation for itself in the music world. Its members number among the leading instrumentalists currently active in Germany. Today these former concertmasters and principal soloists of great orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra devote their time and effort exclusively to solo and chamber performance…
The music of Heitor Villa-Lobos is known for its characteristic nationalism, driving rhythms, and original instrumentation. He was trained as an autodidact opposed to academic instruction, his music grew in a completely independent and individual fashion.
This album is a delicious offering from one of the most underrated guitar maestros of all time. Not only does he capture the Samba-inspired passion of Villa-Lobos music (unlike Rodrigo, Villa-Lobos was an accomplished guitarist in his own right), but interprets it in a way that commands and maintains the attention.