Music for Piano, v.6 (Rubinsky)
Sonia Rubinsky, piano
Sonia Rubinsky's great cycle of the complete Villa-Lobos piano works nears its end. Volume 6 includes a fascinating group of smaller pieces, including some getting their first recording, to go with the greatest piece Villa-Lobos wrote for piano: Rudepoêma.
Read James Melo's excellent liner notes here, on the Naxos site. This extended essay is very useful. It provides valuable information about the obscure pieces, along with a good discussion of the avant-garde nature of New York Skyline Melody and Melodia da montanha. Melo says these works were written under the influence of Villa-Lobos's very good friend Edgard Varèse.
Melodia da montanha
Valsa da "Menina das nuvens"
Colleccão infantil
Carnaval de Pierrot
Serra da Piedade de Belo Horizonte
Dave Lewis's review on Allmusic.com contains samples of each track. Lewis feels that this is the best disc in the series.
MP3 downloads on Amazon.com are unfortunately (for us Canucks) only available for U.S. customers. Lucky Yanks should take advantage of a real bargain: Rudepoema for only $.90.