What's
NewWhat's
New
November, 2004:
Please note that the Villa-Lobos Website is no longer being updated.
This resource will remain on the RDPL server.
May |
The "What's New" weblog has been re-named the Villa-Lobos Magazine. That's the place to watch for most of the interesting things relating to Villa-Lobos. Typically it will be updated at least once a week. | ||||
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There's something really new with "What's
New": Villa-Lobos Blogs!
A Blog is a web-log - a chronological log or journal that's put together to keep people informed or amused. After hearing about Blogs from the University of Saskatchewan's Peter Scott at a recent conference, I began three Villa-Lobos Blogs: Villa-Lobos Website What's New. All this time (since 1996) I've been blogging without realizing it! This Blog will help you keep track of what's happening on this database, and in major Villa-Lobos events worldwide - online or in the real world. Eventually the What's New Blog will replace this page. So check out the weblog, and let me know what you think. The Villa-Lobos Blogs are powered by Blogger. |
Jan
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June |
Here's an exciting announcement: plans for a major international
Villa-Lobos Conference, which Prof. Eero Tarasti of Helsinki has shared
with us earlier this year, have been finalized. Sponsored by the
Institut Culturel Finlandais in Paris, the conference will take place on
April 10-13, 2002.
There is more information on the Conference, in English and Portuguese, at the following website: www.music.helsinki.fi/villa-lobos-2002/ This conference looks to be a major event in the continuing global exploration into the life and music of Villa-Lobos. Watch here for the latest information on the Conference.
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The Museu Villa-Lobos in Rio de Janeiro
is the most important centre for Villa-Lobos research. Thanks to
Villa-Lobos fan futura, we have some cool pictures of what's
up at the Museu. Thanks, futura!
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Mar
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Mar |
Professor Eero
Tarasti, the great Villa-Lobos scholar, writes with this exciting news
from Helsinki:
"I must tell you that together with my friend in Paris
Pierre Vidal we are planning to organize a major international symposium
on the life and work of Villa-Lobos in March 14-16, 2002 in Paris, mostly
at L'Institut Finlandais. This was decided last spring already when
we together visited the Brazilian Embassy in Paris and saw the Embassador
Marco Azambuja. So the convention will be realized as a Finno-Franco-Brazilian
cooperation. I hope you would be able to attend and I am also very much
looking forwards to receiving your kindest help in announcing this
event at your website. I have two assistant organizers: one Mr Luiz Fernando
de Nascimento Lima who is one of my doctoral students here at the
Helsinki Univ. and Mr. Alvaro Guimaraes a musician and director of the
ensemble Het Spectra in Belgium - he will be responsible for the music
program. As soon as we know how the economy is arranged we shall
send to you the complete announcement of the symposium.
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Harmonica virtuoso Robert Bonfiglio is one
of today's biggest Villa-Lobos advocates. He has played the VL Harmonica
Concerto more than 200 times, with symphony orchestras around the world.
I had a chance to interview Robert by email
recently.
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Feb
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Nov |
A major new work by Villa-Lobos has been released for
the first time - the 10th Symphony "Amerindia", written in 1952.
Amazingly, though this work has never been commercially available on CD
or LP, the work was recorded (by the Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra under
Gisèle Ben-Dor), at about the same time as a rival recording (by
Carl St. Clair and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony as part of their landmark
project, the integral recording of the complete
symphonies of Villa-Lobos.) Bert Berenshot provides this perceptive
review. My own first listening of the CD - which just arrived
from Amazon.com
- left me very much impressed with the deluxe package from Koch International
and the excellent performance by Ben-Dor and her vocal, choral and orchestral
forces. My first impression of the music itself is very positive.
Though I agree with Bert that it may not be as great a work as the Discovery
of Brazil suites, it is a fascinating piece: clever, occasionally moving,
and always lots of fun to listen to.
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I recently received an email from an old
friend, Alfred Heller - president of the Villa-Lobos Music Society in New
York. Alfred sends some interesting updates concerning Villa-Lobos
copyrights, which I've added to the new section in this site on Copyright.
Alfred sends this very interesting note about an important event: On April 27, the Villa-Lobos Society
Chamber Players of the Villa-Lobos Music Society celebrated the 500th anniversary
of Brazil and
Best regards,
Thanks so much for this update, Alfred. I trust we can look forward to a recording of the BB#2 for cello & piano soon? I've put together a second Villa-Lobos web-radio station - check out Heitor Villa-Lobos and the Music of Brazil on Live365.com. This is a 24-hours a day, 7 days a week station with a wide variety of music - officially licensed by ASCAP - by Villa-Lobos and some popular Brazilian artists influenced by him. Enjoy! |
Oct
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Aug |
An interesting upcoming concert from the Proms 2000 season:
The
Twelve Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra will be performing
both the 1st and 5th Bachianas Brasileiras (the latter with Soprano Juanita
Lascarro), along with interesting works by Francaix and Brett Dean.
This is of interest to those of you outside of the UK, since BBC's
Radio 3 (which broadcasts the Proms concerts live) is now available
on the Internet.
Check out this new CD review and an excellent review of the new Villa-Lobos film by Harold Lewis. A new feature: thanks to the cool concept of Radio Sonicnet, you can now listen to a web radio station that plays music by Villa-Lobos, along with European and American composers from his time, as well as music by today's popular Brazilian artists, most of whom were influenced by Villa-Lobos. It's the Villa-Lobos & His Contemporaries station on Radio Sonicnet. Click here to listen, and click here for more information on the composers you can hear: they include such important influences as Stravinsky, Debussy and Ravel, and such Villa-philes as Tom Jobim and Gilberto Gil. |
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The February 2000 issue of Brazzil magazine
includes this fascinating article by Daniella Thompson: "Stalking
Stokowski".
"Once upon a time, an American record company got its hands on some rare and wonderful Brazilian music and made it even rarer. This is the story of my hunt for Native Brazilian Music." It's great to know we have people like Daniella out there digging for this important information! Excellent work! Daniella's mention of "Saludos Amigos" reminds me that the classic Disney feature - released in 1942 as part of the U.S. "Good Neighbor" Policy during WWII - is now available on VHS and DVD. Besides being completely entertaining in its own right, this is an important release because it includes "South of the border with Disney". This documentary "featurette" shows an interesting picture of 40's Brazil through Hollywood's eyes. There's even a short clip of Villa-Lobos conducting one of his massive children's choral concerts at Rio's Vasco da Gama Stadium! This is highly recommended for Villa-Lobos and Donald Duck fans! |
June
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May |
Here's some exciting news: there's a brand new website for Zelito Viana's new film "Villa-Lobos: Uma Vida de Paixão" (A Life of Passion). The site includes pictures, excerpts from the score, information on the cast and technical crew, and a long interview with director Viana. It promises film clips soon - I'm anxious to see those, and to hear about distribution plans outside of Brazil. I'll definitely pass on any information I receive. In the meantime, check out the latest news at this page. | ||||
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Villa-Lobos died on November 17, 1959.
His grave is in the Cemitério São João Batista in
Rio de Janeiro. At the fascinating Find
a Grave site you can see pictures of his grave by Amir Borges.
As well, you can take a virtual tour of the cemetery, and see the graves
of Villa-Lobos's famous fellow countrymen and women: Carmen Miranda, Tom
Jobim and Nelson Gonçalves. This is the World-Wide Web at
its best!
The new Ricardo Peres CD "Voyages" - with music by Egberto Gismonti, Astor Piazzolla and Ricardo himself - is now available. Check out the Ricardo Peres website for more information. In the meantime, here's a cpiece by Egberto Gismonti, "A Fala da Paixao", arranged by Ricardo, in MP3 format. |
May
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Sep |
Lisa M. Peppercorn is one of the great Villa-Lobos scholars.
Her recent book The Villa-Lobos Letters is indispensible.
Order it direct from Toccata
Press, from the U.K. Amazon.com,
or from your local bookseller.. It's available in hardcover (ISBN
0 907689 28 0; £19.50) or paperback (ISBN 0 907689 29 9).
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Check out the new Ricardo
Peres pages.
 Thanks to Torin Shuster of the Classical
Guitar Society of Calgary for these scans of Brazil's 500 cruzeiro banknote.
Check out Torin's new CGSC
website, too.
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Aug
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Aug |
The first of the CDs from the very first integral recording
of the complete symphonies of Villa-Lobos
has been released in Europe on the cpo label, with the Radio Symphony Orchestra
Stuttgart , conducted by Carl St. Clair. You can get more information
on the CD, which contains the First and Eleventh Symphonies, at the jpc
website. The site includes 30-second RealAudio sound clips from
each of the 8 movements on the disk. The music sounds great! As well,
people in Europe can order the CD online, for 34.95 DM (17.87 EUR).
The number of the CD is 8228806. I'll include order information for North
Americans soon as the information becomes available. . |
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As the RSO Stuttgart
Villa-Lobos Symphonies project comes to the end of its recording phase,
we have the latest information from conductor Carl St. Clair, and a recent
article by Irineu Perpetuo from the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper, as translated
by Harry Crowl. Thanks, Irineu and Harry, for allowing us to reprint
this information for the information of the thousands around the world
that are eagerly awaiting these CDs!
Cantus
Quercus Press is pleased to announce the release of the next title
in their Villa-Lobos choral series: TANTUM ERGO (CQ9909). For mixed choir,
a cappella, this is a challenging piece for intonation with its chromaticism,
but what a beautiful sound! Approx. 2'25". 4 pp, $1.65
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Aug
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Aug |
George Gershwin is in many ways the North American equivalent of Villa-Lobos. Red Deer pianist and music educator Duke Thompson is a Gershwin (& McDowell) specialist. He's the taller half of "Dr. Duke & the Brazilian", with Ricardo Peres. Check out Duke's new website and his excellent new Gershwin CD. Also, watch for upcoming essays by Duke and myself on the largely unexplored link between George Gershwin & Heitor Villa-Lobos | ||||
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Here's the latest on the RSO
Stuttgart Villa-Lobos Symphonies project from conductor Carl St. Clair:
"In the first week of July we, the SRO and I will be recording the 9th
Symphony and the Sinfonietta. That will leave on the 10th which will be
recorded in December."
Fans of Villa-Lobos's guitar music - and
they are legion - will want to see this: Villa-Lobos
and the Guitar. Check out guitarist and composer David Leisner's
excellent website with many useful
links and resources. David will release a CD of the complete Villa-Lobos
guitar music on the Azica Records label, in early 2000. David's upcoming
summer guitar concerts in Europe are listed in the Upcoming
Villa-Lobos Concerts page.
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June
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May |
Here are some fascinating essays
by Harold Lewis, gleaned from the important "Presença de Villa-Lobos"
series of the Museu Villa-Lobos.
A new feature: Villa-Lobos Scores - information about availability of study and performance scores. And another: Villa-Lobos
Sound Files on the Web: links to RealAudio,
MP3 and WAV clips.
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I've often been struck by the importance
of Villa-Lobos' music to Brazilian popular musicians today. One excellent
example is the use of Villa-Lobos source material in the recent Rio
Carnaval. Another is this recent CD by Ney Matogrosso: "O Cair
da Tarde" ("Twilight": named for a song Villa-Lobos wrote for the 1959
MGM film Green Mansions. The marvellous
official Ney Matogrosso website
has RealAudio
versions of the entire album, including pieces by Villa-Lobos and the
2nd greatest Brazilian composer: Tom Jobim.
Just after I added the above note, I came
across an excellent new website by Arnaly Arriaga
called "The
Villa-Lobos and Brazilian popular music reference page". This
is very useful information, and well-timed. It's sent me back, again,
to my Jobim CDs!
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Apr
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Mar |
Check out Harold Lewis' excellent essay
on the recent Rio de Janeiro Carnaval, which featured a performance
by the Mocidade Independente samba school honoring Villa-Lobos.
I'll be posting more essays by Harold soon. |
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We've been following the career of Robert
Bonfiglio closely here. This harmonica virtuoso, who's equally
at home in popular bands and the classical music concert stage, has been
a one-man evangelist for a marvellous piece of music, the Harmonica Concerto
that Villa-Lobos wrote in 1959 for John Sebastian.
Coming Soon to a Concert Stage Near
You:
According to his spiffy new website, Robert
has played the concerto more than 160 times around the world. And
he's not stopping, or slowing down. Check out the Upcoming
Villa-Lobos Concerts page for orchestra and venue information.
The website includes information on the CD with Bonfiglio, the New York
Chamber Symphony and conductor Gerard Schwarz. It includes
a tantalizing portion of the Harmonica Concerto in WAV format. Highly
recommended!
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Jan
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Jan |
A recent e-mail from Álvaro Guimarães gives
details of an important upcoming event:
"The theatre De Rode Pomp in Gent Belgium is going to promote its 4th Latin American chamber music festival from 27 to 31 jan 1999. Main composer this year is Heitor Villa-Lobos, a homage on the 40th anniversary of his death. The Spectra ensemble will play his Quatuor Symbolique and Sextuor Mystique, beside Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps (28/1/99), The Strijkkwartet Musica will play his 1st String quartet (29/1/99) and pianist Paulo Alvares Guimaraes plays the Rudepoema (30/1/1999). The programme notes brings text by Gilberto Mendes (another very important Brazilian composer) and Eero Tarasti." [see the next note...] Álvaro sends the complete program of the event, which looks absolutely fascinating. I've posted it on this page. The 40th anniversary date is November 17; Villa-Lobos died on that day, 1959. |
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An e-mail has arrived from one of my favourite Villa-Lobos
scholars - Prof. Eero Tarasti of the University of Helsinki, the author
of Heitor
Villa-Lobos : The Life and Works, 1887-1959. Prof. Tarasti writes:
Happy New Year from Red Deer! |
Dec
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Dec |
I like to keep up with the discussion in the various
rec.music.classical
newsgroups
that relate to Villa-Lobos. The classical guitar fans in rec.music.classical.guitar
never go very long without some interesting technical discussions relating
to the Etudes and Preludes.
A recent posting by Harold Lewis caught my eye, concerning a new recording of historic Villa-Lobos performances and a delightful anecdote about Villa-Lobos and a mysterious mustachioed stranger. Go to Dejanews to check out the action if you don't have access to a Usenet netwsfeed.
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Check out (once again) the
Villa-Lobos
Christmas Gift page, which includes a WAV sound file and the Latin
words and English translation to Praesepe, Villa-Lobos' great Christmas
piece.
Last minute shopping? Alfred Heller's
new
piano CD (which includes the great Rudepoema) on the Etcetera label
has been getting rave
reviews. And, speaking of Villa-Lobos piano music: you can buy
Ricardo
Peres' CDs direct from the Heitor Villa-Lobos Website.
Search for books and CDs by Villa-Lobos
from "The World's Largest Bookstore": Amazon.com.
Check out these new pages, on the
Bachianas
Brasileiras, Choros,
Concertos
and Guitar Music of Villa-Lobos.
Happy holidays to all from Red
Deer!
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Dec
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Oct |
An update on the RSO Stuttgart Radio
Orchestra's integral cycle of Villa-Lobos symphonies comes in an e-mail
from conductor Carl St. Clair. The latest details on this important
project can be found on the Stuttgart Symphonies
page.
Portions of the recordings made by French EMI with Villa-Lobos conducting the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française have been re-released by EMI as one of the Great Recordings of the Century. The new release includes the famous and widely-praised Bachianas Brasileiras no. 5 with Victoria de los Angeles, as well as Bachianas Brasileiras no. 1, 2 and 9. While a Grammophone reviewer (quoted in the EMI publicity
material) says that these recordings "... can be recommended without reserve..."
there are obvious weaknesses in the orchestral playing and in the recorded
sound. I'm anxious to hear whether the Abbey
Road Technology re-recording used in the Great Recordings of the Century
series is successful in presenting these indispensable recordings in a
more advantageous sound-frame.
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Christoffer von Bonsdorff
sends an e-mail report from the Kuhmo
Chamber Music Festival 1998. The festival, which happened this
summer in northern Finland, included many Villa-Lobos performances, including
performances of all 17 of the Villa-Lobos string quartets. Thanks,
Christoffer, for this interesting picture of musical life in Finland.
The Kuhmo festival, along with the work of the Finnish scholar Eero Tarasti,
shows that Finland is right at the centre of the Villa-Lobos world!
***
Happy Birthday,
George!
***
A new feature: Important
People in the life of Heitor Villa-Lobos.
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Oct
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Sept |
There are some exciting new CD releases to look forward
to this fall. Buy them at CDNow.
Villa-Lobos: Piano Works Vol 3 with Alfred Heller is scheduled for release September 29th. I'm especially looking forward to hearing Alfred's interpretation of the great Rudepoema. The Etcetera CD number is 1220. The Berlin Philharmonic Woodwind Quintet has a new CD on BIS (942) that includes the Quinteto em forma de Choros, as well as music by Carter, Schuller and Barber. The Quintet performs many of these works at a March 1, 1999 concert in Chicago. Check out the Upcoming Villa-Lobos Concerts page for other concerts around the world. A new Klavier release (11080) with the National Chamber Players includes the Choros no. 7, along with music by Martinu, D'Indy, Jaroch and Stravinsky. |
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Claude Champagne was a Canadian composer
and music educator who visited Heitor Villa-Lobos in Rio de Janeiro in
the 1940s. I recently came across a very interesting web exhibit
on the National Library of Canada's website, entitled The
Claude Champagne Virtual Exhibition, and was struck by the many parallels
between the lives and music of the two composers. Check out this
new
feature.
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Sept
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July |
As promised, here is more information
on this October's performance of the Villa-Lobos
String Quartets, courtesy of the Cuarteto Latinamericano's 1st violinist
Saul Bitran.
I've also heard lately from the very popular harmonica-player Robert Bonfiglio, who continues his championing of the Villa-Lobos Harmonica Concerto. Robert writes that he's played the Concerto 150 times since recording it on RCA with Gerard Schwarz and the New York Chamber Symphony (RCA 7986-2-RC, recorded in 1989.) The next performance in this amazing string is in Baton Rouge this fall - more information on the Upcoming Villa-Lobos Concerts page. And Dr. Wilbur Skeels writes from Cantus Quercus Press:
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The DIA
Documentacao Indigenista e Ambiental (Indigenous and Environmental
Documentation) site is one of my favourites. I've borrowed (with
permission) an image from the site, an eça de adorno de plumas
para cabeça (head-dress) from the Bororo tribe of the Amazon
region, which you see (in an embossed version) as the background to some
pages on the site. It's also, of course, incorporated into the logo
of the Heitor Villa-Lobos site. This particular image comes from
the Langsdorff expedition to the Amazon (1821-1828.) Villa-Lobos
was a friend to the indigenous peoples of Brazil: he made extensive use
of their rhythms, poetry and legends, and helped to document their fast-disappearing
world.
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Aug
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Aug |
A new CD-ROM from Brazil's Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História and the Fundação Getulio Vargas is now available for purchase on the web. Entitled A Era Vargas: Dos Anos 20 a 1945, the CD-ROM provides complete documentation of a fascinating period in Brazil's history, and a key period in the life of Villa-Lobos. For more information, check out the CD-ROM page on the CPDOC server. |  |
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A new feature (and probably an indication
of typical obsessive behaviour by a webmaster): Villa-Lobos
in Space. Check it out!
I've had an interesting e-mail from Carsten
Dufner, executive editor for data broadcasting and online services at South
German Broadcasting, who sends an update on the Stuttgart Radio Symphony
Orchestra's Villa-Lobos Symphony Integral project. I've added this
information to the Stuttgart page.
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Aug
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July |
Carl St. Clair, conductor of the
new Stuttgart Radio Orchestra's integral cycle of Villa-Lobos symphonies,
sent me a message the other day to let me know the second recording session
(Symphonies 4 and 12) went very well. He also reports that the tapes
from the first session (Symphonies 6 and 8) are on their way, with good
reports from the producer. More information is here;
and I'll post news as soon as it arrives.
The George Hufsmith project continues; Eric Wenstrom has sent me another fascinating anecdote by George Hufsmith about his experiences as Villa-Lobos' only composition student. The Heitor Villa-Lobos Website has been awarded the "Great Books Five-Star Site" designation, by Malaspina University College's Great Books site. We're in good company: the Five-Star list includes the cream of the web's cultural sites. |
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Villa-Lobos Symphonies
to be recorded.
According to a report in the April 29, 1997
Orange
County Register, all twelve of Villa-Lobos' symphonies are in the process
of being recorded. The story states: "Pacific
Symphony music director Carl St.Clair has completed the first in a
series of compact discs with the Stuttgart Radio Orchestra surveying all
12 symphonies by Hector Villa-Lobos. The first disc, slated for release
in 1998, includes the sixth and eighth symphonies." Here is a press
release from the Süddeutscher Rundfunk.
New George Hufsmith
Page.
George Hufsmith is a distinguished American
composer who lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. In the late 1940's Hufsmith
became a composition student of Villa-Lobos in Brazil. The George
Hufsmith page contains information gleaned from the ongoing research
of Idaho conductor and music PhD. candidate Eric Wenstrom. This is
exciting research into the music and life of Villa-Lobos.
Syncopated Culture
A new essay
by pianist Ricardo Peres discusses three Brazilian
obsessions: soccer, music and carnaval.
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July
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March |
The re-publication of an important anthology of Villa-Lobos
guitar music is causing quite a stir in the Classical Guitar community.
This recent posting from rec.classical.music.guitar contains more
information:
The editor of the volume in question is Frederick Noad,
who has his own website: The Frederick
Noad Classical Guitar Homepage. Read more about it in the newsgroup
rec.classical.music.guitar,
or subscribe to the segovia-l Classical
Guitar Mailing List.
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Villa-Lobos' Brazil
is a look at how the life and music of Villa-Lobos was influenced by the
geography of this great country.
These tropical links get me thinking about
warmer climes... If you think I'm kidding about how cold Red Deer is, check
out what it's like outside
my office. I'm not joking! Really! (Unless you're reading this in August.)
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Jan
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