One of the most grown-up review sites around

2020
54,416 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here

     
  
 

 

International mailing


 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW
Plain text for smartphones
and printers


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All APR reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

 

 

Support us financially by purchasing this disc from:

Heitor VILLA-LOBOS (1887-1959)
Symphony no.6 On the Outline of the Mountains of Brazil (1944) [28:49]
Symphony no.7 (1945) [39:28]
São Paulo Symphony Orchestra/Isaac Karabtchevsky
rec. Sala São Paulo, Brazil, 21 February - 5 March 2011. DDD
NAXOS 8.573043 [68:18]

Experience Classicsonline



 
Over its first fifty years the São Paulo Symphony has never yet been regarded as one of the great orchestras of the world, despite the claims of its own publicity - though it does occupy a high rung in South America, where it also undertakes a good deal of worthy outreach work. Its numerous recordings on the BIS label have brought it some degree of recognition, albeit among mixed reviews. Its reputation will certainly grow further under the tutelage of Marin Alsop, recently commenced, and an appearance at the 2012 BBC Proms certainly boosted its visibility, although that performance did clarify the amount of work still to be done. Isaac Karabtchevsky, despite his Slavic-looking surname, was born in Brazil, and a long and decent, if rather low-key, career to date sets him fair to gel with the SPSO and get this first Naxos volume of Villa-Lobos's eleven symphonies off to a good start. Its competition is not invincible: a 7-disc boxed set in CPO, consisting of recordings by the Radio Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart under American conductor Carl St Clair (777 516-2, 2009).
 
Naxos have sagely chosen to open with the composer's first two mature symphonies - numbers one to four are fairly early, some claim relatively immature, works and the Fifth has been lost (explaining why his last is numbered 12 rather than 11). After five in five years, Villa-Lobos waited 25 more before composing his Sixth and Seventh. They are both fleshy, big-boned works, the Seventh for its sheer length and huge orchestra, and the Sixth for its subject matter - Brazil's mountains. Naxos give it the rather unwieldy title 'On the Outline of the Mountains of Brazil', though according to other sources Villa-Lobos himself called it simply 'Mountains of Brazil' ('Montanhas do Brasil'). For what it’s worth, he also subtitled the Seventh 'Odyssey of Peace' ('Odyssé da Paz') - Naxos curiously omit that from the track-list. Either way, both symphonies are grandly romantic and atmospheric, bursting with drama, local colour and international appeal. In a discussion of his works in New Grove, Villa-Lobos's symphonies are barely mentioned, yet there is nothing in these two to account for such an omission.
 
Rather fancifully, Naxos's resident reviewer describes the sound quality of this recording as "quite superb". In fact, it is rather on the thin side - certainly in the strings - and audio is far from vivid anywhere, despite the impressive setting of the Sala São Paulo. Sound engineer Ulrich Scheider has immense experience at this level, with recordings going back twenty years, but somewhere along the way a few shortcuts have left a sound that a good pair of ears will rate no higher than comfortably acceptable. It may well be worth tolerating a few such rough edges for Villa-Lobos's riveting music. On the other hand, collectors who already possess CPO's set will not feel compelled to duplicate any part of it just yet, unless they would like, for sentimental reasons, a recording by a home-grown outfit.
 
Good notes by Brazilian guitarist and Villa-Lobos biographer Fábio Zanon even explain the composer's curious employment of a surprisingly avant-garde process he called 'millimeterisation' to come up with melodies for Symphony no.6. A footnote mentions that this cycle project uses "revised scores", but leaves it at that. The follow-up volume, featuring the Third and Fourth Symphonies by the same performers, is due for release in spring 2013 - will the necessary engineering tweaks have been made?
 
Byzantion

see also review by Dan Morgan


Collected reviews and contact at artmusicreviews.co.uk
Support us financially by purchasing this disc from:


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Pat and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.