Search - Victoria De Los Angeles, Heitor Villa-Lobos :: Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras 1, 2, 5, 9

These are the composer's own recordings, made in Paris in 1956 and 1958. The approach is classical and clean, the accounts distinguished by transparent textures and pliant phrasing, even if the intonation of the cello ensemble in Nos. 1 and 5 is not the best. Admittedly, there are times when one can't help thinking that much of what Villa Lobos wrote sounds like bad movie music, for example, the "Prelude" from No. 2. But then those Brazilian rhythms kick in, the melody soars, and "The Little Train of the Caipira" comes chugging along at the end of the piece--and one realizes that no one else could have written anything so simply beautiful. The gem here is the rendition of No. 5 (for soprano and eight cellos). No singer of this century could bring out the words of a text with more expressiveness than Victoria de los Angeles, regardless of what the language was, and even, as is the case here, when one of the words was merely the syllable "Ah." Her vocalizing, agile yet graceful, glows with warmth, and her by-no-means-shabby high C at the end of the "Danza" is remarkable. --Ted Libbey