Camargo Guarnieri,
is a recently deceased South American
composer whose first three of six piano
concerti have just been released by
Naxos, with Polish forces. Some other
of his works of his have been released
by BIS (a couple of symphonies) and
some orchestral works (on Dorian). This
disc forms part of Naxos’s Latin American
Series and it is very well performed
and recorded. The Polish recordings
which Naxos are issuing are all really
pretty good, and both the Polish National
Radio orchestra and the Warsaw Philharmonic
as here, is excellent. I was surprised
not to see Antoni Wit as the conductor
as he seems to be the favoured conductor
for discs from this area. Thomas Conlin,
a student of Leonard Bernstein and Erich
Leinsdorf seems to be an all rounder,
rather than having any particular area
of repertoire to concentrate upon, but
on the evidence here, he seems eminently
capable of persuading an ensemble to
perform what must have been unfamiliar
repertoire as though they had it in
their bones.
On this disc we have
the three piano concerti written by
Guarnieri throughout his life, the earliest
of the three, No. 1, here receiving
its recorded premiere, has had a chequered
history. The score is lost, and the
concerto was reconstituted from the
orchestral parts. In addition, two separate
piano reduction scores, already available,
showed two different endings, and so
a choice had to be made as to which
one to use. Evidence was taken from
a recording of a private performance
with Guarnieri conducting. This concerto
is the most Brazilian in nature using
as it does traditional Brazilian instruments
such as the cuica (a friction drum),
the chocalho (a rattle) and the reco-reco
(a scraper). To be honest, I thought
that the concerto sounded more like
Gershwin in parts, but none the less
for that.
By the time we reach
Concerto No. 2, a more sophisticated
work is clearly evident. One of the
features of these concerti is the relative
paucity of the lyrical inspiration.
In this respect, this disc shares this
problem with many of the otherwise splendid
Romantic Piano Concerto series from
Hyperion. In terms of playing quality
and music, I wouldn’t have been in the
least surprised if this had not been
a Hyperion issue. The interplay between
soloist and orchestra is very well handled
by all concerned, and we shouldn’t be
in the least surprised that the concerto
won the Alexandre Levy Award, granted
by the City of Sao Paulo.
The lack of really
memorable themes a la Rachmaninov or
Tchaikovsky, allows the composer to
concentrate on technical matters and
both soloist and orchestra are taxed
with complex rhythms and complex interplay.
Naxos’s recording carries the day splendidly
allowing us to hear this with utmost
clarity.
No. 3 is more discordant
than the other two, but not too much
so that enjoyment is curtailed with
these decidedly late romantic concerti.
The slow movement includes an extended
oboe solo which recalls the languor
and melancholy of the Brazilian modinha,
a type of salon song. When we reach
the finale, the joint is really jumping
with the South American Rhythms to the
fore. The Polish Orchestra is really
first rate in dealing with the complex
sound patterns demanded by the composer.
With an excellent soloist
who never puts a foot (or more to the
point hand) wrong, this disc receives
an unconditional welcome. Will we now
get Concerti 4 – 6, I wonder.
John Phillips
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra/Thomas Conlin
