Heitor Villa-Lobos: Floresta do Amazonas (Super Audio CD)

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)

Anna Korondi, John Neschling

Super Audio CD

SACD (Super Audio CD)

The SACD uses a higher digital resolution than the audio CD and also offers the possibility to store multi-channel sound (surround sound). To enjoy the music in high-end quality, a special SACD player is required. Thanks to the hybrid function, most of the products marked "SACD" in our store can also be played on conventional CD players. In this case, however, the sound does not differ from that of a normal CD. In case of deviations, we point this out separately (non-hybrid).

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Sound Format:: stereo & multichannel (Hybrid)
Artists:: Anna Korondi, Sao Paulo State SO & Choir, John Neschling
Label:: BIS
Year of recording ca.:: 2009
Item number:: 3548914
UPC/EAN:: 7318599916606
Release date:: 23.6.2010

Schon in einigen seiner frühesten Orchesterkompositionen (wie „Uirapuru“ von 1917) brachte Heitor Villa-Lobos seine Sorge um den Fortbestand des Regenwaldes zum Ausdruck. Auch in den „Choros“ Nr. 3 und 10 beschreibt er unberührte Wälder.
In „Floresta do Amazonas“, einem seiner letzten Werke, wendete er sich wiederum dem Regenwald zu, seinen Tieren und Mythen. Das Werk kann als symphonische Dichtung für Sopran, Männerchor und großes Orchester beschrieben werden.
Den Anstoß zur Komposition gab eigentlich der Auftrag, für einen Hollywood-Film mit Audrey Hepburn und Anthony Perkins die Musik zu schreiben. Villa-Lobos hatte da keine Erfahrung und hielt es nicht für nötig, die Musik mit dem Geschehen auf der Leinwand zu synchronisieren. Er kam deshalb mit einer fertigen (und unbrauchbaren) Partitur in Hollywood an. Und so musste ein anderer Komponist ran, der unter Verwendung von Material aus Villa-Lobos‘ Partitur eine neue Filmmusik schrieb. Der wiederum arbeitete seine Komposition zu dem hier eingespielten Werk um. Wobei einige der Lieder sehr populär wurden.

In some of his very first orchestral scores, such as Uirapuru from 1917, Heitor Villa-Lobos was already concerned with the vast Amazonian forests. The subject surfaces in a number of works throughout his production, for instance in the depictions of virgin forests in Choros No. 3 and No. 10. In Floresta do Amazonas, one of his very last works, Villa-Lobos again focused explicitly on the rain forest, the creatures that live in it, and the myths that have been woven around it. The work has been described as a symphonic poem for soprano, male-voice choir and large orchestra, and began its existence as a commission for the soundtrack to The Green Mansions, a Hollywood film starring Audrey Hepburn and Anthony Perkins. Not used to writing for the cinema, Villa-Lobos did not consider the need to synchronize the music with what was going to take place on the screen. He therefore arrived in Hollywood with a finished score, and eventually another composer was engaged to write the film music, in which some of Villa-Lobos' own themes were included. Villa-Lobos on the other hand used his score to create the work recorded here, and commissioned lyrics to the four songs which make up the substantial solo soprano part, together with the vocalises appearing in several movements. The songs, Melodia Sentimental in particular, have also become popular as separate concert items. The suite's twenty-three movements have rousing titles such as 'Forest Fire', 'Head Hunters' and 'Dance of the Indians', but also include numbers such as 'Lullaby' and 'Twilight'. This expansive fresco has now been recorded in a recent, revised edition, prepared by the Villa-Lobos specialist Roberto Duarte, who has also written the liner notes to the disc. The interpretation has been entrusted to John Neschling and the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, a team which in a recent cycle of Villa-Lobos' complete Choros has proved its ability to paint Brazilian landscapes: 'Villa-Lobos' compatriots have managed to do his quirky genius full justice' wrote the website ClassicsToday. com while the French magazine Diapason awarded the cycle its prestigious Diapason d'Or de l'Année, designating it 'Artistic Project of 2009'.

Reviews

Stereoplay 01/11: "Mit Neschlings langsamen Tempi kommt die Klassizität der Musik mit ihren extravaganten Harmonien hervorragend zur Geltung. Die Männerstimmen des Chores der Staatssinfonie Sao Paulo singen die amazonischen Texte und indianischen Themen pointiert, homogen und zupackend. Anna Korondi gestaltet die liedhaften Passaagen mit vibrierender Leidenschaft, berückenden Kantilenen und großer Durchschlagskraft."