Brasileiro
$27.00
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BARROSO NETO / GUARNIERI / MIGNONE / OSWALD / VILLA-LOBOS / etc
Brasileiro
Nelson Freire (piano)
[ Decca / CD ]
Release Date: Monday 6 August 2012
Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire's eagerly awaited new album, Brasileiro: Villa-Lobos & Friends, pays tribute to his country's greatest composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos, upon the 125th anniversary of his birth.
In containing Freire's personal choice of rarely recorded pieces by seven other lesser-known Brazilian composers whose music helped shape his artistic personality during his formative early years, the album also offers a sonic "portrait of the pianist as a young man".
Comprising works that roughly span the seventy or so years of Villa-Lobos's own lifetime, Freire's chosen repertoire chronicles the efforts of three generations of Brazilian composers to forge a recognisably national musical language out of an amalgam of European influences and indigenous folk and popular styles.
In combination with his trademark technical mastery and legendary sense of melodic line, Nelson Freire's quintessentially Latin American temperament and innate sense of rhythmic ease ensure that he brings a uniquely authentic touch to the rarely heard piano music of his native land.
"Freire's kind of artistry raises [the repertoire] to an entirely different level. There's plenty of flair and soul, yet the playing is always crystalline and precise, perfectly pedalled, the colours as subtle as a Debussy prelude...Just drop-dead gorgeous repertoire and performances: I don't think I've enjoyed any piano recording more this year." (BBC Music Five Stars)
"Freire presents a masterlcass in nonchalant playfulness, capturing to perfection the charm of a composer often criticised for being too fecund and unselfcritical but here heard at his best...Freire is a class act - and 'Brasiliero', immaculately recorded by the way, is sheer delight from start to finish." (Editor's Choice Gramophone)
Tracks:
Barroso Neto:
Minha Terra
Fernandez, O L:
Três Estudos em forma de sonatina, Op. 62
Guarnieri, C:
Dança Negra
Ponteio No. 24
Toccata
Levy, A:
Tango Brasileiro
Mignone:
Valse élégante
Quatro Peças Brasileiras: Maroca (No. 1)
Congada (Danca brasileira)
Oswald, H:
Valse Lente
Santoro:
Paulistana Nos. 1
Toccata
Villa-Lobos:
Carnaval das Crianças (Children's Carnival)
Chôros No. 5 'Alma Brasileira' for piano
A Mare Encheu
Valsa da Dor
Saudades das Selvas Brasilieras
Pobre Cega (Cirandinha No. 5)
Cirandinha No. 14 - A Canoa virou
A Lenda do Caboclo
A Prole do Bebê, book 2: O Gatinho de Papelão
New York Skyline
