The Brazilian Cello
Alberto NEPOMUCENO (1864 - 1920)
Romance [3:59]; Tarantella [3:34]
Francisco MIGNONE (1897 - 1986)
Modinha [3:56]
João OCTAVIANO (1892 - 1962)
Canto Elegiaco [2:09]
Luiz Henrique LEVY (1861 - 1935)
Romance sans Paroles [3:37]
Henrique OSWALD (1852 - 1931)
Berceuse [3:24]
Ségio de VASCONCELLOS-CORRÊA (b.1934)
Seresta [1:53]
Camargo GUARNIERI (1907 - 1993)
Sonata No.1 (1931) [16:36]
Cantilena No.1 (1974) [4:11]
Sonata No.2 (1955) [12:44]
Cantilena No.2 (1982) [3:38]
Sonata No.3 (1977) [12:16]
Ponteio and Dança (1946) [5:23]
Tânia Lisboa (cello); Cristina Capparelli (piano)
rec. no dates or venues supplied. 2009?
MERIDIAN RECORDS CDE 84572 [78:30]
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
A disc full of music that at its best is very fine indeed and richly deserving
to be more widely known.