Heitor VILLA-LOBOS (1887-1959)
Symphony no.6 On the Outline of the Mountains of Brazil (1944) [28:49]
Symphony no.7 (1945) [39:28]
São Paulo Symphony Orchestra/Isaac Karabtchevsky
rec. Sala São Paulo, Brazil, 21 February - 5 March 2011. DDD
NAXOS 8.573043 [68:18]
Over its first fifty years the São Paulo Symphony has never yet been regarded
as one of the great orchestras of the world, despite the claims of its own
publicity - though it does occupy a high rung in South America, where it also
undertakes a good deal of worthy outreach work. Its numerous recordings on
the BIS label have brought it some degree of recognition, albeit among mixed
reviews. Its reputation will certainly grow further under the tutelage of
Marin Alsop, recently commenced, and an appearance at the 2012 BBC Proms certainly
boosted its visibility, although that performance did clarify the amount of
work still to be done. Isaac Karabtchevsky, despite his Slavic-looking surname,
was born in Brazil, and a long and decent, if rather low-key, career to date
sets him fair to gel with the SPSO and get this first Naxos volume of Villa-Lobos's
eleven symphonies off to a good start. Its competition is not invincible:
a 7-disc boxed set in CPO, consisting of recordings by the Radio Sinfonieorchester
Stuttgart under American conductor Carl St Clair (777 516-2, 2009).
Naxos have sagely chosen to open with the composer's first two mature
symphonies - numbers one to four are fairly early, some claim relatively immature,
works and the Fifth has been lost (explaining why his last is numbered 12
rather than 11). After five in five years, Villa-Lobos waited 25 more before
composing his Sixth and Seventh. They are both fleshy, big-boned works, the
Seventh for its sheer length and huge orchestra, and the Sixth for its subject
matter - Brazil's mountains. Naxos give it the rather unwieldy title
'On the Outline of the Mountains of Brazil', though according
to other sources Villa-Lobos himself called it simply 'Mountains of
Brazil' ('Montanhas do Brasil'). For what it’s worth,
he also subtitled the Seventh 'Odyssey of Peace' ('Odyssé
da Paz') - Naxos curiously omit that from the track-list. Either way,
both symphonies are grandly romantic and atmospheric, bursting with drama,
local colour and international appeal. In a discussion of his works in New
Grove, Villa-Lobos's symphonies are barely mentioned, yet there is
nothing in these two to account for such an omission.
Rather fancifully, Naxos's resident reviewer describes the sound quality
of this recording as "quite superb". In fact, it is rather on the
thin side - certainly in the strings - and audio is far from vivid anywhere,
despite the impressive setting of the Sala São Paulo. Sound engineer Ulrich
Scheider has immense experience at this level, with recordings going back
twenty years, but somewhere along the way a few shortcuts have left a sound
that a good pair of ears will rate no higher than comfortably acceptable.
It may well be worth tolerating a few such rough edges for Villa-Lobos's
riveting music. On the other hand, collectors who already possess CPO's
set will not feel compelled to duplicate any part of it just yet, unless they
would like, for sentimental reasons, a recording by a home-grown outfit.
Good notes by Brazilian guitarist and Villa-Lobos biographer Fábio Zanon even
explain the composer's curious employment of a surprisingly avant-garde
process he called 'millimeterisation' to come up with melodies
for Symphony no.6. A footnote mentions that this cycle project uses "revised
scores", but leaves it at that. The follow-up volume, featuring the Third
and Fourth Symphonies by the same performers, is due for release in spring
2013 - will the necessary engineering tweaks have been made?
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at artmusicreviews.co.uk
Works that are grandly romantic and atmospheric, bursting with drama, local
colour and international appeal.
see also review by Dan Morgan
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