Camargo GUARNIERI (1907–1993)
Seresta for Piano and Orchestra (1965) [19:26]
Chôro for Bassoon and Orchestra (1991) [9:15]
Chôro for Flute and Chamber Orchestra (1972) ]11:28]
Chôro for Violin and Orchestra (1951) [17:36]
Davi Graton (violin); Olga Kopylova (piano); Cláudia Nascimento (flute); Alexandre Silvério (bassoon)
Săo Paulo Symphony Orchestra/Isaac Karabtchevsky
rec. 2019, Sala Săo Paulo, Brazil
NAXOS 8.574197 [57:45]
While not attracting the exposure in which Villa-Lobos’s music basks, that of Guarnieri begins to blossom in a few shafts of persistent light. His six symphonies have appeared on BIS (review review ~ review) and the six piano concertos on Naxos (review). In BIS’s case the project was facilitated by the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs working with the Săo Paulo Symphony Orchestra directed by Isaac Karabtchevsky.
With the present disc Naxos now embark on Guarnieri’s Chôros and this is Volume 1 in that series. It will surely encompass all the Chôros, including those for viola, cello and piano and perhaps the two concertos for violin and the Variations for piano and orchestra.
Of Italian parentage and a musically immersed family, Camargo Guarnieri’s first name was in fact Mozart. The other three boys also bore composer names. His birthplace was Tietę in Săo Paulo. With the poet Mário de Andrade he formed the Brazilian Nationalist School. The musical culture of his adopted country is to some extent reflected in his concert works. Unlike the approach of his older compatriot Villa-Lobos, ‘Chôro’ is deployed by Guarnieri as “a replacement for a concerto” and a concise concerto at that.
Guarnieri’s Seresta for piano, harp, xylophone, timpani and strings is in three movements (Decidido; Sorumbático; Gingando) forming a typical fast-slow-fast pattern. Gangly, jazzy and loose-jointed, it is a shortish work that is explosive, gentle and fey. There are some folk-national infusions but they are occasional. These serve as contrast to a weave of soloistic textures reminiscent of Ravel, Arnold and Martinů. The two-movement Bassoon Chôro is from three decades later. A rumbling misterioso precedes a faintly Copland-like and light-hearted little Allegro; by this stage Guarnieri bade farewell to folk titles. The Chôro for Flute and Chamber Orchestra (1972) is in one movement but three sections. It is a sinuous and sultry jungle dream of a piece. The earliest piece here is the three-movement Chôro for Violin and Orchestra. A gentle ecstatic wash of sound leads into a lambent, meditative solo Andante - rather like a Brazilian Lark Ascending or Introit. The other two movements together are as long as the opening movement. A Calmo seems to describe a glowing sunset with lazily descried birdsong. If you are looking for dazzle then that is a quality that characterises the Allegro ritmado finale.
Soloists and orchestra are well in tune with an attractive idiom. Guarnieri in his Brazilian direct-talking way finds more in common with the folk-camps of Kodály and Rózsa rather than those of Bartók and Schurmann.
The notes by Paulo de Tarso Salles are in Portuguese and in English translation. They are helpful in arriving at an understanding of Guarnieri’s place in the musical world. It’s a place that is likely to hold more pleasures as later volumes appear.
Rob Barnett
