Search - Sonia Rubinsky :: Villa-Lobos: Piano Music Vol. 1 / Rubinsky

Lively Piano Music from Brazil

Osvaldo Colarusso | 05/20/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Villa-Lobos, who is of course the great composer of Brazil, has a less secure place in the history of modern music of the West, so it is good that his art is getting a reappraisal, with various record labels committed to issuing cycles of his works-the symphonies and string quartets, for example. Villa-Lobos wrote a great deal of piano music that isn't heard as much as it used to be, so the present CD, the first in a two-volume series (maybe there will be more) from Naxos is welcome indeed. If Ginastera is the Bartok of the pampas, Villa-Lobos, in his piano music at least, might be seen as early Prokofiev or Stravinsky transported to the Amazon. As with Ginastera, there is much of surface glitter and of grit, but the emotional depths that Ginastera plumbs in his more inward music seems sorely lacking in much of this piano music by Villa-Lobos. Maybe inwardness wasn't on the composer's agenda as he tried to recreate the world of childhood in these pieces. But I wish he had taken his cue from Schumann, whose "Kinderscenen" is great music primarily because it doesn't shy away from the truth that childhood isn't all fun and games, though the troubling dissonances that intrude on the surface serenity of Villa-Lobos' "The Countess" and "What Beautiful Eyes!" hint at this fact.Anyway, there is certainly a place for brilliance and grit, which Villa-Lobos' music has in abundance, and especially if you don't listen to all these pieces at one sitting, you will appreciate the freshness and liveliness of Villa-Lobos' invention. I think you'll also find Villa-Lobos' brand of musical primitivism, which intelligently combines European modernism and native New World musical elements, intriguing. You'll probably be amused, too, by "Little Black Doll" and "Look at the Pretty Birdy," which start off as perfect Debussy knockoffs but quickly absorb Villa-Lobos' own Latin-tinged idiom. Certainly, it's easy to see why the Petrouchka-influenced "Punch" from "A Prole do Bebe" suite was at one time an encore favorite with pianists such as Villa-Lobos' champion Artur Rubinstein. Then there is the jazzy "In This Street" from "Cirandas," which illustrates Villa-Lobos' unique assimilation of European and Brazilian popular music.Sonia Rubinsky brings the requisite pianistic chops to this recital. She has great technique and finds no hurdles she can't manage in Villa-Lobos' sometimes grueling keyboard writing. But she also brings delicacy, charm, and wit to her assignment as well, which breathes life and purpose into the quieter pieces like "What Beautiful Eyes!" A first-rate sound recording, too, from Fisher Hall in Santa Rosa, California. This disc is recommended without hesitation."

More, please!

A HAAKMAN | Amsterdam, Noord-Holland Netherlands | 02/28/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have heard Villa-Lobos' A prole do Bebê in various interpretations, but I cannot remember it ever has impressed me more than in Sonia Rubinsky's recording of it, which is utterly virtuoso (I mean a natural virtuosity without bravado)and at the same time very warm and colorful. As in `A prole do Bebê' the `Cirandas', on the same record, show a surpring succesion of various moods, dreamy or exciting, tender or fiery and passionate. There is a continuous tension between strong rhythm and free flowing melody, and a sonority that is very well preserved in the excellent recording. She does not `hammer' the Cirandas as if they were written by Bartòk - a pitfall that seems not altogether imaginary. This is only the first of a series of discs on which Sonia Rubinsky will play Villa Lobos' complete piano works. I hope it won't take too long before we will be able to hear them all. In a broadcast by The Radio Suisse Romande I heard a marvelous sample of the net yet available second volume, which I am eagerly awaiting, as well as the other volumes."