Welcome to the Heitor Villa-Lobos Website; on the web since 1994

500cruzadosback

The 500 Cruzado bank-note that featured Villa-Lobos was pulled from circulation when the Cruzado was replaced by the Cruzado Novo in 1989, so it was in place during the 1987 Centennial celebrations. There's more on the history of this note at this post from The Villa-Lobos Magazine.

The future of the Heitor Villa-Lobos Website.
This is the 19th year of the Villa-Lobos Website, which has been an information resource on the web since before blogs, Twitter, even before Google. The website is hosted by Red Deer Public Library, a great organization that I've been Director of all that time. As I look towards my retirement from the Library in July 2013, though, it's time to make a change or even retire the site.

I'm wondering if there's an organization out there that might want to host this site. It would be a shame to lose the information on more than 950 recordings, and especially the fairly comprehensive database of concerts from 1999 to the present. A new host could either post a read-only archive of the existing site, or add content moving forward. Let me know if you have any ideas!

The site has had some significant traffic: 425,000 visits and 1.2 million page views since Google Analytics was turned on in 2008. This is from 205 countries, with 23% of the traffic from Brazil, 22% from the US, and 5% from each of the UK, Canada, & Germany. The site is built in Drupal v.5.

Villa-Lobos Podcasts & Streaming Audio

Here are some podcasts and on-demand concerts that include music by Villa-Lobos:

  • NEW: Juliana D'Agostini & Emmanuele Baldini play Sonata Fantasia no1, from a June 2012 concert. Listen to the InstantEncore stream.
  • NEW: From Tanglewood, a concert from July 27, 2012, with the BSO and pianist Nelson Freire, featuring Momoprecoce. Stream this concert on your desktop or mobile device. Lots more streams here!
  • The Radio Talks of Andre Kostalanetz, #5 - Kostalanetz talks with soprano Beverly Sills. Sills closes the program with Andre's only recording as a pianist: the 1st movement of Bachianas Brasileiras #4. (This is from the 1974 Columbia CD "Andre Kostalanetz plays Music of Villa-Lobos.")
  • Here is a Portuguese recording of the Sexteto Mistico, from the faculty of the Conservatório de Música do Porto.
  • Milos Karadaglic And The Power Of A Dusty Old Guitar, at NPR Music - a concert that includes the Villa-Lobos Prelude #1, the Etudes #11 and 12, and the Valse-Choro from the Suite Bresilienne.
  • From the program Concertos UFRJ on Roquette Pinto Radio (FM 94,1, a recent Carnaval-based program with music by Berlioz, Dvorak, Saint-Saens, and Villa-Lobos: Momoprecoce (the recording featuring Cristina Ortiz and the LPO conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazhy.)
  • From Radio MEC, a podcast from the program Música e Músicos do Brasil with an interesting program that includes O Martírio dos Insetos, with violinist Flavio Augusto, harmonicist (is that the right word for someone who plays the "harmônica de boca"?) José Staneck and cellist Antonio del Claro.
  • On Simone Leitão's website, streaming audio of Momoprecoce for Piano & Orchestra.
  • Choros #6 with the Orquestra Filarmônica de Minas Gerais directed by Fábio Mechetti, in a concert from Rádio Inconfidência FM
  • From Radio Inconfidencia, the great tone poem Uirapuru, played by the Orquestra Filarmônica de Minas Gerais, from a November 2009 concert.
  • Radio MEC posts podcasts of their A Música Clássica no Brasil program online. A recent episode, from February 27, 2011, features the great soprano Maria Lúcia Godoy singing Villa-Lobos songs, as well as Cantares de Minas.
  • Pianist João Carlos Assis Brasil plays Villa-Lobos, Jobim, Bonfa, and Assis Brasil, in this MEC FM podcast of the January 15, 2011 program from the series A Grande Música. The program includes Impressões Seresteiras and the Luiz Gonzaga arrangement of The Little Train.
  • The next edition of the Música e Músicos do Brasil podcast will feature the pianist Lúcia Barrenechea, playing Villa-Lobos and other Brazilian composers. The program is live on Radio MEC on Saturday, April 9, 2011, and should be available to stream online the same day. Here's the link.
  • Jorge Luis Prats plays Bachianas Brasileiras #4 and Granados's Goyescas, in this 2008 video from the Concertgebouw. This is from the excellent AVRO Klassiek portal.
  • Another Soundcloud.com set: all 9 tracks from the great Projeto B album A Viagem de Villa-Lobos.  There's more information on that project at The Villa-Lobos Magazine.
  • Found on Soundcloud.com: a track from the new Brazilian Guitar Quartet CD from Delos.  It's A Procura de uma Agulha, originally one of the Cirandas for piano, arranged for four guitars by Tadeu do Amaral. 
  • Keith's Classical Corner at WGBH features Villa-Lobos Guitar Preludes and Etudes.
  • NPR Music podcast: 11.16.2010, KUSP's "The Aeolian Impromptu", 150 minutes of 20th century music, including Bachianas Brasileiras #4 (not #6, as shown in the playlist), from the classic Louisville recording.
  • The program Música e Músicos do Brasil, on Radio MEC on Saturday evenings, features great Brazilian orchestras and soloists.  You can listen to Podcasts of these programs on the Radio MEC website.  On the November 6 program, cellist Antônio Meneses and pianist Ricardo Castro play Villa-Lobos's Pequena Suite.  On the October 23 program, pianist Paulo da Matta plays Villa-Lobos and Chopin.  Program information is here.  This is a site to keep an eye on.
  • From Deutsche Welle's excellent podcast archive of live concerts, the Sinfonica Heliopolis under conductor Peter Guelke play Bachianas Brasileiras #4.  See this article about this amazing youth orchestra, currently touring in Europe.
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