UNEXPLORED BRAZILIAN MUSIC

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Seresta (Portuguese for forest), a rhapsody for piano and orchestra in three movements by Brazilian composer Camargo Guarnieri features the excellent pianist Olga Kopylova, with the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo led by Isaac Karabtchevsky.

In three compact movements: Decidido (decisively), Sorumbático (somber), and Gingando (swaying), the composer achieves a multitude of colors in a densely-orchestrated work rich in unpredictable multi-tonal twists and turns, surprisingly inventive harmony, and, in the first and last of its sections unrelentingly-driving rhythmic pulsation.

A work by Guarnieri a largely unheralded composer outside his native Brazil, this composition and the others in this album provide an entrance into the world of a 20th century Latin American master. Guarnieri’s Paulista (São Paulo) roots define him aesthetically as Brazilian in his soul, yet European in intellect, his music deeply influenced by some of the French masters with whom he studied at the beginning of his career.

The two-movement Chôro (Portuguese for “cry”) for Bassoon and Orchestra affords Alexandre Silvério an opportunity to deftly shine as soloist in a composition that begins with a slow Calmo (calmly) and then breaks out into a rhythmically intricate Allegro that is immediately followed by the lengthier Chôro for Flute and Chamber Orchestra, a work-within–work in which the peerlessly musical flautist Cláudio Nascimento shares the musical heavy-lifting with his bassoonist colleague Silvério in a hauntingly moody composition evocative of an otherworldly Brazilian musical landscape.

Throughout these quintessentially Brazilian chôros the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, led by maestro Isaac Karabtchevsky proves the ideal partner, claiming stage center at moments, self-effacingly supportive at others.

Violinist Gavi Graton excels in the tri-partite Chôro for Violin and Orchestra, ostensibly the most concerto-like of all three of the works in the album. In the first and second movements the soloist asserts his presence from the very onset with his handling of Guarnieri’s expansively melodic lines, against which the chamber orchestra provides passages of quiet support often alternating with massive fortissimo outbursts. Graton then engages in an intricately rhythmic dialogue with the ensemble that leads the final movement of the work to a riotously concluding finale.

Naxos must again be saluted for its enterprising venture in the largely unexplored yet fertile field of Brazilian concert music.

Sample: https://youtu.be/ygRvvq78Iok

Rafael de Acha

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”