Heitor Villa-Lobos News
Brazilian composer
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2024-04-22
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2024-03-05 20:17:36
Heitor Villa-Lobos, born March 5, 1887, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is the composer, and one of the f
2023-11-23 04:30:00
Recent Releases No. 66 (CD Reviews)
by Karl Nehring Amazônia. Villa-Lobos: Suite Floresta de Amazonas; Glass: Metamorphosis I (from Aguas da Amazonia). Camila Provenzale, soprano; Philharmonia Zürich; Simone Menezes, conductor. Alpha Classics ALPHA 990This release pairs two works infused with the energy and exotic sounds and colors of the Amazonian jungle, brought to you courtesy of the creative imaginations of two composers of different times and hemispheres, the Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) and the American Philip Glass (b. 1937). Villa-Lobos wrote this music in 1958, late in his career, originally conceiving it as “a symphonic poem, a long, abstract narration that nevertheless stimulates visual echoes,” according to the CD booklet essay, which goes on the explain that the music was intended to accompany a film titled Green Mansions. Not surprisingly, the film’s producers brought in a team of Hollywood arrangers who effectively destroyed Villa-Lobos’s music. As a result, “Villa-Lobos took back his music, and made an independent concert work […]
2023-11-18 13:58:47
The Bottom Line: This is a terrific disc full of luscious, exotic-sounding music, beautifully played and recorded by the composer’s home town team.
2023-09-28 14:19:16
Provenzale/Philharmonia Zurich/Menezes(Alpha)Villa-Lobos’s last major work is a vivid and exuberant evocation of the Amazon filled with moments of intense beautyIn 1958 Heitor Villa-Lobos was commissioned by MGM to provide the music for Green Mansions, a film version of the 1904 novel of the same name by WH Hudson, set in the Amazon rainforest and starring Audrey Hepburn and Anthony Perkins. But when it was released the following year, only a few minutes of Villa-Lobos’s score had made the final cut, and even that had been arranged and reorchestrated to the point of being almost unrecognisable. Undaunted, he reworked the music he had composed, adding further choral and solo vocal numbers to create a gigantic work in 23 movements. Floresta do Amazonas is part oratorio, part symphonic poem and lasts almost 80 minutes.A hymn to the power and overwhelming abundance of the Brazilian rainforest, it was to be
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