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JANSMUSIC RECOMMENDED RECORDING

LIR002
Apollo Chamber Players with Lorna Anderson (soprano)
Sempre amor  (Portuguese modinhas (love songs))

I'm very pleased to draw your attention to this CD as it is the second on my own label, London Independent, which was founded to help unrecorded artist on the road to stardom.  I was immediately convinced to run with this project because it was simply so beautiful to listen to.  The recording, the performance and the music are all immensely appealing. 

In 1807 the Portuguese Royal Family, threatened by an impending invasion of Napoleon's armies, fled to Rio de Janeiro where they remained until 1821.  Modinhas were the most popular musical form created for the salons of this Portuguese/Brazilian society.  They are solo songs in which the charm of the Italian aria cantabile and the canzonetta of Neapolitan opera is combined with the seductive and sensuous melodies originally sung by African slaves and adopted by both Brazilian and Portuguese composers.

The original modinhas would have been intended for Portuguese guitar or piano. David Chernaik, musical director of the ensemble has arranged all the works on this CD for string quartet with double bass and occasionally an obbligato flute, transcribing directly from the original song sheets.