If the title of this disc - ‘The Brazilian Cello’
puts you off by sounding too specialist or esoteric - don’t
be. This is a well put together and performed disc of music
that is as pleasurable as it is little known. I do think that
Meridian have missed a marketing trick by not making more of
the fact that it contains the complete works for cello and piano
by Camargo Guarnieri. By some distance Guarnieri is the best
known composer here and on the evidence of the music presented
the best composer too. In comparison to his three well argued
Sonatas and rather beautiful shorter works, the salon-esque
nature of the bulk of the rest of the programme is made rather
apparent. This is a very well-filled disc running to over seventy
eight minutes. Of that nearly fifty-five minutes is by Guarnieri
so I don’t think any Trade Description Acts would have
been contravened if this composer and his music ‘headlined’
the disc more obviously.
The first third of the disc is devoted to the aforementioned
‘salon’ works by six different composers only one
of whom contributes more than a single work. All of these seven
pieces are well-crafted miniatures but only one could be thought
to show the nationalistic individuality to merit the ‘Brazilian’
epithet. Slightness in itself is not a problem but it does mean
the disc divides into two distinct portions; perhaps best to
consider these simpler works as an appetiser for the more substantial
‘meat’ to follow. One element it does highlight
is how Euro-centric these South American composers were before
the likes of Guarnieri or Villa-Lobos in Brazil or Ginastera
in Argentina established themselves. Interesting that the most
individual of these miniatures is the Modinha by Francisco
Mignone who is the only other composer I had previously encountered
- the fruitful BIS/São Paulo Symphony Orchestra collaboration
has produced a disc of his colourful orchestral works. Mignone
manages to write a work that is very much in the lyrical/romantic
style of the salon genre but with enough sinuous sly grace in
both the melody and the gently musing piano accompaniment to
lift it far beyond the platitudes of the rest of this group
of works. A couple of times, particularly in his use of long
slow descending glissandi I heard a pre-echo of Piazzolla -
this piece is a real winner. One thing this opening sequence
does establish is the quality of the playing and engineering
of the disc. Brazilian cellist Tânia Lisboa clearly identifies
with every note. By the very very highest standards of string
playing this is good not exceptional cello playing - just occasionally
I detect a little stiffness in the bow arm and the tone thins
in alt but she is a passionate and convincing guide to this
unfamiliar repertoire. Her accompanist, Cristina Capparelli,
adapts her technique to the various styles and both are well
recorded in an appealingly natural acoustic - although the rather
brief liner-note makes no mention of recording dates or venues
which is curious given the label’s (rightly) proud stance
regarding their ‘natural sound’ recordings. I tried
locating this information on the company’s website but
that seems to be out of commission at the time of writing using
any of IE, Chrome or Firefox as browsers.
Camargo Guarnieri is a very important South American composer.
Luckily, there are increasing numbers of CDs available - most
notably his symphonies on BIS from the excellent São
Paulo Symphony Orchestra and the complete Piano Concertos on
a pair of Naxos discs. I reviewed the second of these recently
and was bowled over by the quality of both music and performance.
Now the complete works for cello and piano presented here add
both to my knowledge and admiration for his work. Rather neatly
the three sonatas were written at - approximately - twenty year
intervals so giving us the listener a neat graph of his compositional
development. So in 1931 Guarnieri was just completing five years
of study with Lamberto Baldi. Baldi had introduced him to the
works of Stravinsky and Bartok amongst others and his enthusiasm
for them here is apparent as it is still largely undigested
- around 5:00 into the opening Tristonho of the first
sonata [track 8] illustrates the degree of homage. The central
Apaixonadamente [passionately] is interesting because
it has more than an echo of a Villa-Lobos Bachianas in
the sense there is a similar feel of adapting Bach’s contrapuntal
techniques to something more nationalistic. But it is with the
closing Selvagem [wild] that he starts to move away from
pounding Bartokian rhythms into something more individual. Capparelli
makes a tremendous job of her piano part here - personally I
like the balance with the piano a fully equal partner although
I could imagine some listeners might feel the cello was occasionally
swamped. If so I would take that as a miscalculation by a young
composer not the engineers or performers. The placing of the
Cantilena No.1 - although a much later work- between
the sonatas works well. This is a gently lyrical song-like work
as the title implies providing a welcome break from the rigours
of the more overtly serious sonatas. Indeed the planning of
this ‘half’ of the disc works far better than the
haphazardly saccharin opening tracks. I can’t help feeling
two different programmes were compressed onto a single CD. This
sense of reduction is heightened by the abbreviated liner note
that needs to be more detailed for such unfamiliar works. At
one point the liner states “as observed by Verhaalen…”
without having mentioned this writer earlier. In fact it is
the Marion Verhaalen who wrote Camargo Guarnieri, Brazilian
Composer. Indiana University Press in 2005. The context
does suggest a longer original note that has been cut. My impression
is Meridian do themselves a disservice by not presenting this
disc and the music on it in a more ‘luxurious’ manner
- all of the packaging smacks somewhat of an economy drive.
By the time of the second sonata in 1955 Guarnieri was clearly
much more of his own man. On purely technical terms he has upped
the stakes for the cellist and the dissonance level and sense
of instruments in conflict is much higher. None of the three
sonatas are extended works - the first is the longest at just
over sixteen minutes - but the sense of concentration and the
distillation of musical ideas is palpable here. The piano writing
is still highly virtuosic but the use of contrapuntal linear
writing is more dominant. The central Melancolico is
another winner - perhaps here the piano should accompany more
in the instrumental balance, the sustained lyrical line of the
cello occasionally being engulfed by the motile piano writing.
It provides the perfect balance for the boisterous Festivo
which is written in double-stops throughout for the cellist.
Lisboa plays well and with great gusto without that very last
drop of apparent ease which the greatest players somehow seem
to exude.
The second and third sonatas are separated by Cantilena No.2
written when Guarnieri was in his-mid seventies. By its own
frame of reference this is another beautifully lyrical and passionate
piece. The contemporary music train had moved on long before,
so for a work of the 1980s this does sound positively conservative.
Curiously, in parts it sounds less radical than the earlier
sonatas but this could be as much to do with a function of its
miniature form rather than anything else. The movement away
from modernistic excess to neo-classical rigour is completed
by the third sonata. This is the shortest and tersest of the
three. Not that with increasing years is there any sense that
the energy is flagging - far from it. Indeed the opening Sem
pressa [track 16] contains some of the leanest most muscular
writing on the disc. Guarnieri’s special gift for folk-inflected
lyrical melancholy is reflected in another beautiful central
movement - Sereno e Triste. The three central movements
of the sonatas are highlights on this disc and here Lisboa is
in her element capturing the nostalgic regret of the music perfectly.
With the final Com alegria it seems to me that Guarnieri
has found the best balance between the motoric energy of the
first sonata finale and the neo-classical severity of the second.
Indeed, on reflection, I think this last sonata is the finest
of the three by a short head. The CD closes with what is - apparently
- Guarnieri’s best known work for this combination of
instruments; the Ponteio and Dança of 1946.
The quality of the writing in miniature form here again throws
into relief the limitations of the earlier group of works. Simple
need not be simplistic. Perhaps these works are well known in
the cello-playing fraternity but this was my first acquaintance.
They are ideal recital material expressive, exciting and instantly
engaging by turns. But those are the very same qualities that
could be applied to all of Guarnieri’s compositions.
A disc full of music that at its best is very fine indeed and
richly deserving to be more widely known.
Nick Barnard
Tânia Lisboa (cello); Cristina Capparelli (piano) 
