Stravinsky is quoted
to have said, "Why is it that whenever
I hear a piece of music I don’t like,
it’s always by Villa-Lobos?" This would
have been rude of him since Villa-Lobos
was frequently an honoured guest in
his home, so I question the authenticity
of the quote. But many find Villa-Lobos’s
music disquieting, and there is a good
reason for this. When a person goes
to the conservatory to study composition,
one of the things one learns is to spin
out notes in the effective imitation
of music even in the absence of any
genuine motivation. In other words,
one learns to fake orgasm. Villa-Lobos
is self-taught and so he never learned
this, and when he ran out of inspiration,
he ran out of music, resulting at times
in some odd noises. Fortunately, he
hardly ever ran out of inspiration,
and in fact produced a half dozen authentic
top-drawer masterpieces as well as many
hours of very interesting music which
is only now being examined in detail
in recording projects similar to this
one. However wild or strange this music
sounds, there is always the sense of
a brilliant mind in control.
That having been said,
a lot of Villa-Lobos sounds like so
much cut off the bolt. Like many composers
he could improvise in his own style
for hours and like most improvisers
he had a few tricks he used over and
over. The Symphony #7 sounds to me a
lot like the other symphonies in this
set. However, if I don’t hold that against
Mozart and Haydn, I can’t and don’t
hold it against Villa-Lobos. It takes
intense listening to hear the substance
in this style and the individuality
in these works, and it is worth the
effort.
The Symphony begins
with the same downward scale rush as
in Uirapurú, and then
it’s off to the races with polyrhthymic,
polytonal phrases organised according
to an ideal of counterpoint that would
leave Bach bewildered and speechless,
but might bring a benign smile to the
face of Charles Ives. Bach would recognise
the orchestration, however, it’s basic
organ practice, one sonority — one instrument
or mixture of instruments — to a line.
Overall it sounds a little like the
first movement of Honegger’s Third
Symphony, the chaos of war, or maybe
a carnival mob scene. For the next three
movements this exotic mélange
heats up and cools off and makes use
of every kind of tune you’ve ever heard.
There’s a passing taste of Turandot,
and then right next to it a very dignified
"Woody Woodpecker Song."
The Sinfonietta sounds
unlike anything else Villa-Lobos ever
wrote. Based on themes by, and dedicated
to, Mozart, it sounds like a student
work by Rimsky-Korsakov written in imitation
of early Sibelius with a little late
Elgar in the mix. If you have any interest
in Villa-Lobos at all, you must hear
this delightful work!
Paul Shoemaker
SWR Radio Orchestra Stuttgart/Carl St. Clair 