One considerable advantage of downloading is that it presents
an opportunity to catch up with recordings which, for one reason
or another, we missed when they were issued. Here on MusicWeb
International we have reviewed some of John Neschling’s BIS
recordings of the Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras but
seem to have missed these albums containing the Chôros when
they were issued a couple of years ago.
The main work on Volume 1 is a piano concerto in all but name,
and one of considerable length at that, which is presumably
the reason why it receives so few concert outings. Like all
the Chôros – derived from the Portuguese verb chôrar,
to weep – its predominant mood is dark, but what it lacks in
joie de vivre it more than makes up for in colour. In
fact, as Villa Lobos himself acknowledged, the term Chôros
was merely a peg on which to hang a variety of music and the
tone here is not so much plangent as quiet and thoughtful, perfect
music for the late evening in the manner of a Nocturne or Serenade
– Villa Lobos acknowledged that the word Serenade might be a
good synonym for Chôros.
For all its length, it never outstays its welcome in this idiomatic
performance. Cristina Ortiz is, of course, herself Brazilian
and no stranger to the music of her fellow countryman. She copes
with the technical difficulties of the score with aplomb and
receives equally excellent support from the São Paolo Orchestra
and John Neschling, whose recent recording of Respighi’s Roman
trilogy recently received high praise in these pages and elsewhere:
Recording of the Month – see review.
Cristina Ortiz had recorded the short solo-piano Chôros
No.5 before – it’s available on a Classics For Pleasure recording
which I recommended, though preferring the 2-CD album which
also contains it. (2283762 – see review)
If anything, the version on the BIS recording outshines the
older one.
Chôros No.7 is also a compact work, a highly attractive
Septet for wind, violin, cello and offstage gong or tam-tam.
Like everything else on this volume, it receives an idiomatic
performance.
The second volume offers the most varied programme of the three,
including the best-known of these pieces, No.1 for guitar. Fabio
Zanon’s performance may yield to the slightly more nimble one
by Manuel Barrueco on the CFP anthology (see above) but not
by much. Listen to this recording courtesy of the Naxos Music
Library, as I did, and you will find yourself not only able
to understand why it has won so many accolades, but also pressing
the button which takes you to purchase at classicsonline, or
placing an order for the CD.
The acid test for the third volume is Chôros No.10 –
I know that the Amerindian chant which it contains is simply
too Technicolor for some tastes. Try it first at the Naxos Music
Library if you can. If you find that you can come to terms with
this work – I found it great fun – the sheer variety of combinations
of instruments and voices on offer on this disc makes for a
strong recommendation.
The download of volume 1 from eMusic costs a mere £2.10, but
is available in mp3 only and none of the tracks is at the optimum
320kb/s bit-rate or anywhere near it. Track 4 containing Chôros
No.5, is offered at an unacceptably low 149kb/s, though, surprisingly
it doesn’t sound too bad. Passionato have the first two albums
in mp3 at the full bit-rate and also in lossless flac – unfortunately
my review credit has just expired, so I haven’t been able to
hear the lossless version but I have always found Passionato
flac downloads to be excellent.
Classicsonline also have full-rate mp3 versions of all three
albums and subscribers can also stream the recordings from the
Naxos Music Library. The Naxos Library offers the booklet with
Volume 2, as do classicsonline. Notes on all three volumes are
available from the BIS website. If the eMusic and Naxos music
library versions at lower bit-rates sound so good, you can be
sure that the classicsonline and passionato downloads and, of
course, the parent CDs, sound excellent.
Try Volume 2 first – listen via the Naxos Music Library if you’re
uncertain – and I’m sure that you will then wish to obtain all
three volumes by one means or another.
[NB: I’ve given the usual dates of composition, but it has recently
been suggested that some of the later Chôros actually
date from the 1930s.]
Brian Wilson
[NB: I had to rely for expediency on downloads from eMusic
and the Naxos Classical Library in compiling this review. Though
these sound more than adequate, I did make the point that the
lossless flac downloads from Passionato.com and the original
CDs would inevitably sound much better. I’m grateful to
Robert von Bahr for pointing out that these and other BIS recordings,
together with a handful of other labels, are available from
eclassical.com in mp3, flac and 24-bit sound, all at reasonable
prices based on the length of the recordings. Most albums come
with their booklets.
The Villa-Lobos Chôros are available as follows:
· Volume 1 (BIS-CD-1440) here
($9.25 at the time of writing)
· Volume 2 (BIS-CD-1450) here
($9.58 at the time of writing)
· Volume 3 (BIS-CD-1520) here
($9.42 at the time of writing)
Additionally the BIS recording of Villa Lobos’s Floresta
do Amazonas is available here
($9.35 at the time of writing).
I hope to be able to review some downloads from this source
in my future Download Roundups.]
Cristina Ortiz (piano); São Paolo Symphony Orchestra/John Neschling
CD
or download from 
