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Heitor Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 |
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Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887 -1959)
Heitor Villa-Lobos is among the most fascinating of the Twentieth Century. Before he was forty, he found warm acceptance from critics and the avant-garde but a cold shoulder from audiences. By the time he was sixty, the situation was exactly the opposite.
Villa-Lobos' series of nine works titled Bachianas Brasileiras reflects both the composer's Brazilian heritage and his lifelong admiration for the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. The fifth entry in the series (1938-1945), which has emerged as the most popular of the composer's works, further suggests the scope of his sonic imagination in its unusual original scoring for soprano and eight solo cellos, (tonight’s performance orchestrated for Soprano and String Orchestra). Like most of its companion works, Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 exhibits characteristics of the Baroque suite, and those of Bach in particular. The first movement, of a two movement work, the adagio Aria (Cantilena), we hear a tone that is marked by a particular lyrical expansiveness. Portions of the Aria are sung in wordless vocalise, though the central section is sung to words from a poem by Ruth Valadares Correia. |
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SYMPHONY NOTES |
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SYMPHONY SPONSORS |
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INFORMATIONAL |
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Did You Know...
...the average patron of the cultural arts spends an average of $22 above the price of admission? This translates to $20,000 in revenue for every sold-out Masterpiece Series show.
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