Hugely enjoyable music, fresh and free of pretence
Disadvantages:
Unfamiliarity?
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Brazil’s most celebrated classical composer wrote some two hundred works for piano, many of which sadly languish in the wilderness. This disc will do much to advocate his appealing musical personality. The collection begins with the suite “As Tres Marias,” a trio of movements lasting barely three minutes. Based on the stars of Orion’s belt, it is one of Villa-Lobos’ most popular pieces, here played with great panache by the Canadian virtuoso Marc-Andre Hamelin. The closing Rudepoema, a fiercesome score from the 1920s dedicated to Arthur Rubinstein, paints a completely different sound picture. It’s a concentrated work, powerful and uncompromising, and perhaps surprisingly it delves into the world of polytonality as realised by Milhaud in the same decade. It takes several listens to fully appreciate the larger scale that Villa-Lobos is working on, and Hamelin responds by giving a barnstorming performance of virtuosity and musicality. Not one for the faint-hearted, but rewarding for those of you who might previously have considered Villa-Lobos to be an unadventurous composer. This is perhaps his darker side.
In between we have two children’s suites, “A Prole De Bebe,” delightfully characterised and coloured by Hamelin. There are several gems here - try the sparkling “O Polichinello” (Punch) or the fireworks of “O Camundongo De Massa” (The Little Papier-Mache Mouse) in the second suite. Pianistically we hear occasional echoes of Debussy, or Stravinsky’s Petrushka. The first suite, “The Dolls”, is a set of miniature treasures, whilst the more substantial second, “The Little Animals,” is more concentrated but highly effective. Hyperion deserve many plaudits for an enthralling disc of piano repertoire slightly off the beaten track, brought spectacularly to life by Hamelin. Do give it a try.
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