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JANSMUSIC RECOMMENDED RECORDING

Heitor Villa-Lobos - Symphonies 4 & 12: SWR Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart
999 525-2
Villa Lobos:  Symphony No.4 (1919), Symphony No.12 (1937)

I confess that I don't know a lot of Villa Lobos, so this CD was a really pleasing discovery.  The symphonies are a real revelation: the 12 were written over the period of his life, so this CD is a good example of an earlier work and a later one.  Villa Lobos had an interesting life, some spent in Europe, some in his native Brazil, and was subjected to a variety of influences, particularly the folk music of  his homeland.

Symphony no.4 is the middle work of a triptych expressing his feelings about WWI - this one about "Victory" and expressing both joy and sadness. It begins quite sternly, and continues quite powerfully with plenty of light-hearted passages.  Villa Lobos certainly has a sense of drama and a sense of size - he makes use of quite large sections of instruments, including percussion and brass.

What is interesting about this work is the mix of styles - Stravinsky, Russian romanticism, impressionism, film music, South American, and other fleeting influences: somehow it manages to come together as a coherent whole, but I'm not quite sure how!  The second movement, which again alternates between sweeping melodies and drama-charged sections, has a bizarre and unexpected reference to the Marseillaise.  There are some lovely little touches - like the use of the piccolo fluttering away on some phrases. Movement 3 begins with a solo bass clarinet, joined subsequently by a contrabassoon - quite a spooky start which leads into a subdued reflective movement.  The 4th movement again meanders through several styles, not seeming sure where it is going, but for me this adds to the interest as each subsequent occurrence gives me something to think about (that bit sounded very filmy/oriental/Russian etc...)

Symphony no.12, completed 38 years later, clearly shows the composers maturity and the development of a much clearer musical personality, which is evident right from the start.  Although liking both very much, I prefer this symphony to the earlier.  The first movement is authoritative, direct and full of drive, while still showing the little individualistic touches evident in the 4th symphony.  The percussion and brass are still prolific but much more controlled, the writing generally is more precise, and the overall length of the symphony is shortened.  The influences are still obvious: the first movement has echoes of Shostakovich, the second of impressionism, of Stravinsky,

The second movement, unusually the longest of the 4, is contemplative, quite dark in tone, and feels more of this period than the first movement with its interesting use of chromatic harmonies. The 3rd movement is very neo-romantic in style, with so many moments when I feel it is going to lapse into a tune that I know, but then it moves away on another path. This brief movement is great fun - very energetic with exotic sounding phrases chasing each other through the wind instruments.  The finale is simply fantastic, with a driving main theme, fuller orchestration, cross rhythms fighting each other, and a huge sense of the dramatic.