The Brazilian Heitor
Villa-Lobos (pictured right) composed a total of five piano
concertos. In a way, he reminds me of the Frenchman Camille
Saint-Saëns, who incidentally also composed five piano
concertos. Both were highly skilled in their art and extremely
prolific. These qualities however tended to work against them,
with the maxim “Quality rather than quantity” regularly being
leveled to their disadvantage. This unfortunately has the effect
of prejudicing one against what can be attractive and
well-crafted music.
Like Saint-Saëns’s five, Villa-Lobos’ five piano concertos are
borne of high Romantic gestures – gushing melodies, lush
orchestrations and virtuosic piano playing. Unlike a couple of
Saint-Saëns’ concertos that do stand out (notably Nos.2
and 4), the same unfortunately cannot be said of Villa-Lobos.
Performances and recordings are rare; I can only think of only
one recorded cycle of the Villa-Lobos concertos – by Cristina
Ortiz on Decca from the 1990s.
This CD is a showcase for both Villa-Lobos and pianist Felicja
Blumental. A little bit of history; Blumental was born in Poland
in 1908, was a composition student of Karol Szymanowski and
later settled in Brazil during the Second World War. She gave
the world premiere of Villa-Lobos Piano Concerto No.5 in
London in 1955, and recorded it shortly in Vienna (this
recording), both under the composer’s direction. She died in
Israel in 1991. Her name however still survives in record
catalogues thanks to a number of concerto recordings on the Vox
label. Judging from what is heard here, she must have been a
considerable virtuoso.
This “live” performance of the Fifth Piano Concerto lacks
nothing in passion and Romantic rhetoric. The outer movements
coast through quite busily and excitingly, but it is only the
slow movement that is memorable. Its achingly nostalgic melody
could only come from the same hand that wrote the famous Aria
from Bachiana Brasileiras No.5. Bachianas Brasileiras
No.3 is a four movement piano concerto, lasting almost half
an hour and seems too long for its own good. Although teeming
with thematic ideas, very few stick in the mind despite repeated
listenings. Blumental’s (pictured above) advocacy, though dutiful, sounds wasted
here.
Between the two concertante works are four short solo pieces,
which Blumental gives good accounts of. Best known is Camargo
Guarnieri’s Dança Brasileira in a glittering and
insouciant reading. There is also a bit of barnstorming in
Villa-Lobos Dança do Indio Branco (Dance of the White
Indian) from Ciclo Brasileiro.
The recorded sound, taken from 1950s recordings, is less than
ideal – with surface noise, distortion and sounding especially
thin in the orchestral bits – but does little to diminish the
committed and dynamic pianism. Blumental’s memory is probably
well served here but those seeking to further their Villa-Lobos
listening would want to check out Cristina Ortiz’s recordings on
Decca and EMI Classics.
CDs of Felicja Blumenthal may be purchased from
http://www.branarecords.com and Amazon.com
