Bach Brazilian Style
Evening Music | May 6, 2010
Villa-Lobos felt that Bach’s music “comes from the astral infinite to infiltrate itself in the earth as folk music.” His “Bachianas brasileiras” are tributes to Bach in Brazilian style.
We hear “Bachianas brasileiras” No. 4, originally composed in 1930 for solo piano but orchestrated by Villa-Lobos 10 years later. The work, which uses Northeastern Brazilian themes and peeping bird songs to evoke the vast, lonely landscape of Brazil, is brought to life by the New World Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas.
Michael Torke says the title for his “Music on the Floor” came about when he needed a manila-folder classification for some music-manuscript notes that—yes—were scattered about as yet unused on the floor. He had run out of useful adjectives, but not out of musical ideas, as this piece, scored for piano, two vibraphones, and a gaggle of strings and woodwinds demonstrates. Lothar Zagrosec conducts the London Sinfonietta.
David Balakrishnan says his “Interplay” for violin and mandolin quartet is part of a lifelong search for ways to “integrate various elements of the musical styles that I deeply love.” Jazz, blues, rock, fiddle, bluegrass, European and East Indian classical music all contribute to this four-movement exploration of grief, acceptance, solitude, and transcendence. David himself is the violinist, joined by the Modern Mandolin Quartet.
We hear “Bachianas brasileiras” No. 4, originally composed in 1930 for solo piano but orchestrated by Villa-Lobos 10 years later. The work, which uses Northeastern Brazilian themes and peeping bird songs to evoke the vast, lonely landscape of Brazil, is brought to life by the New World Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas.
Michael Torke says the title for his “Music on the Floor” came about when he needed a manila-folder classification for some music-manuscript notes that—yes—were scattered about as yet unused on the floor. He had run out of useful adjectives, but not out of musical ideas, as this piece, scored for piano, two vibraphones, and a gaggle of strings and woodwinds demonstrates. Lothar Zagrosec conducts the London Sinfonietta.
David Balakrishnan says his “Interplay” for violin and mandolin quartet is part of a lifelong search for ways to “integrate various elements of the musical styles that I deeply love.” Jazz, blues, rock, fiddle, bluegrass, European and East Indian classical music all contribute to this four-movement exploration of grief, acceptance, solitude, and transcendence. David himself is the violinist, joined by the Modern Mandolin Quartet.
