On the birthday of Heitor Villa-Lobos, here’s a documentary about Brazil’s most celebrated composer. Of course, most of it’s in Portuguese, but there are plenty of candid stills and footage and examples of his music, and Arthur Rubinstein speaks French.
A few bonuses:
Villa-Lobos plays Villa-Lobos
Andrés Segovia (at 93)
Julian Bream
Arthur Rubinstein
Nelson Freire
Leonard Bernstein talks Villa-Lobos
Conducting Villa-Lobos’ greatest hit, the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5
Joan Baez gives it a whirl
The classic recording with Victoria de los Angeles and the composer conducting
Bernstein conducts “The Little Train of Caipira,” from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 2
The José Limón Dance Company performs “The Emperor Jones”
Folkloric rainforest piece, “Uirapuru,” named for a Brazilian bird
Things had already been heating up for Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco for some time. His music was banned from radio and performances of his works were cancelled, well before the passage of Italian racial laws in 1938. Castelnuovo-Tedesco was a Jew living in Mussolini’s Italy. He finally emigrated in 1939, when Arturo Toscanini, who loathed fascism, sponsored the composer’s passage to the United States.
Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s music was embraced by Jascha Heifetz and Andrés Segovia, among others. His Violin Concerto No. 2, “The Prophets,” was given its first performance at Carnegie Hall, with Heifetz the soloist and Toscanini on the podium, in 1933. Its three movements are named for the Biblical figures Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Elijah.
I always make it a point to listen to this piece every year around Passover (which this year begins on Wednesday at sunset), but Castelnuovo-Tedesco is a composer whose music is unfailingly enjoyable in all seasons.
Furthermore, anyone who loves film music owes an incalculable debt to him. He wrote music for some 200 movies (including “And Then There Were None,” with Barry Fitzgerald, and “The Loves of Carmen,” with Rita Hayworth), and as a teacher, his students included André Previn, Nelson Riddle, Herman Stein, Henry Mancini, Jerry Goldsmith, and John Williams.
So thank you, and happy birthday, Mario C-T!
Violin Concerto No. 2 “The Prophets”
Segovia masterclass on the Guitar Concerto No. 1
Radio interview with Segovia and the composer
Toscanini conducts an adventurous program, including Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s “Overture to a Fairy Tale” (which, if I’m not mistaken, is the same as his “Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture”)
Another star has gone out from Venezuela’s cultural firmament. Only a week after the death of composer Inocente Carreño at the age of 96, Alirio Diaz, a protégé of Andrés Segovia and the dedicatee of Joaquin Rodrigo’s “Invocación y Danza,” has died at the age of 92.
Diaz acted as Segovia’s personal assistant. He also studied with Regino Sainz de la Maza, the dedicatee of Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez.” “Invocación y Danza” was the first of many works dedicated to the late guitarist.
