Quintettes pour piano brésiliens

Description

SOMM Recordings is delighted to collaborate once again with I Musicanti, led by the virtuoso double bassist Leon Bosch and praised by The Strad for their "performances of passion and insight." This latest release features Brazilian-born, London-based pianist Clélia Iruzun, whose frequent collaborations with SOMM include the International Classical Music Awards-nominated Piano Concertos by Albéniz & Mignone with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jac van Steen. This release highlights five remarkable Brazilian composers from generations that followed the singular Brazilian composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos. Although their names may not be as familiar as their famous compatriot, the musical qualities of their compositions — all written for the forces of Schubert's "Trout" Quintet — are revealing. The program opens and closes with works by Edmundo Villani-Côrtes (born in 1930), who acknowledges the early influence of Shostakovich and French impressionism. He composed his 5 Miniaturas brasileiras in 1978 for flute and piano, and their immediate success led to no fewer than seventeen transcriptions for various instrumental combinations. Caratinguê, a municipality in the Southeast region of Brazil, lends its name to Villani-Côrtes' work that concludes this program. It combines art and folk music to evoke the lively rhythms and irresistible musical atmosphere of Brazil. João Guilherme Ripper (born in 1959), who earned his D.M.A. in composition from the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C., later served as composer-in-residence at Kean University in New Jersey, which commissioned From My Window No. 3 in 2011. Ripper describes this three-movement work — heard here in its first recording — as depicting aspects of his hometown, from the Carnival of Rio de Janeiro to feelings of nostalgia. A short Song without words, Canção sem palavras, is by Arrigo Barnabé (born in 1951), one of the early and most talented followers of a movement of urban musicians trained in classical music in São Paulo, who brought scholarly experimentation to pop music. His varied output also includes soundtracks for about half a dozen Brazilian films. The works of pianist-composer José Carlos Amaral Vieira testify to his ability to write brilliantly for the piano and his intense engagement with the music of Franz Liszt. His Piano Quintet Fronteiras (Frontiers), a reflection on cultural and sonic boundaries, is characterized by Amaral Vieira's distinctive blend of rigorous technical structure and deep emotion. Like Amaral Vieira, Marisa Rezende (born in 1944) began her musical life as a pianist. She started composing while studying piano at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she later returned to complete a doctorate in composition. Cismas (Schisms) bears her name, evolving through contrasting segments of gloom, brightness, and energy.