{"id":5769,"date":"2016-12-21T10:51:07","date_gmt":"2016-12-21T18:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=5769"},"modified":"2021-07-20T12:44:14","modified_gmt":"2021-07-20T19:44:14","slug":"reviews-two-visions-of-villa-lobos-guitar-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/reviews-two-visions-of-villa-lobos-guitar-works\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEWS: Two Visions of Villa-Lobos\u2019 Guitar Works"},"content":{"rendered":"
From the Winter 2016 issue of Classical Guitar<\/em> | BY PAUL FOWLES<\/h6>\n

Julian Bream\u2019s 1978 release of all 12 of Heitor Villa-Lobos’\u00a0Etudes<\/em> is an event many recall. It had two precedents: Turibio Santos (1968\/9) and Narciso Yepes (1971). Santos\u2019 was a landmark recording, but not easy to get. Yepes\u2019 never caught on, possibly due to his trademark leaden sound combined with such eccentricities as the mezzo-<\/em>staccato<\/em> lower voice in No.5<\/em>. So Bream\u2019s became the one every guitarist owned and many endeavored to emulate. By that time, recordings of the Five Preludes<\/em> and Ch\u00f4ros No.1<\/em> were plentiful, and Suite Populaire Br\u00e9silienne<\/em> was gaining ground. Then came the post-millennium wave of Complete Works<\/em>, four of which I listened to again when these new contenders arrived.<\/p>\n

Portuguese guitarist Mickael Viegas names his sources as \u201cVilla-Lobos\u2019 manuscripts\u201d and the \u201cpiano transcriptions of Jos\u00e9 Brand\u00e3o,\u201d which presumably means Brand\u00e3o\u2019s settings of the Five Preludes<\/em>. Mention of the manuscripts takes us into what was once unknown terrain, with Etude No.1<\/em> shorn of its repeats, and Nos.10<\/em> and 11<\/em> containing material absent from the 1953 published scores. However, Viegas\u2019 chief innovation is to add \u201cmelodic and harmonic material… which the composer may have removed or altered because of the instrument\u2019s inherent limitations.\u201d This he does by the extensive use of overdubs, generating textures beyond the range of a single guitar, and kaleidoscopic flourishes sounding midway between a grand piano and a concert harp. Having established his credentials by citing the manuscripts and Brand\u00e3o, there can be little doubt Viegas also allowed himself free artistic rein. And so he should, because this astonishing studio creation offers Villa-Lobos as we never imagined it. It also establishes Mickael Viegas as a world-class guitarist. (Here’s a link to a nicely made promo piece about the making of Viegas’ CD<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Denmark\u2019s Thomas Lyng Poulsen thus has a tough act to follow. No notes are provided, but it soon emerges that Poulsen, in the Etudes<\/em> at least, has also made use of the manuscript versions, most likely by consulting material contained in the game-changing 2008 edition by Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Zigante. Unlike Viegas, Poulsen\u2019s program omits the Valse-Ch\u00f4ro<\/em>, a worthy reject that didn\u2019t make the cut for the original published edition of Suite Populaire Br\u00e9silienne<\/em>. Otherwise, all expected items are present, including Valsa Concerto No.2<\/em>. Unfortunately, not all is secure on the playing front, with a worrying number of occasions when Poulsen\u2019s technique appears at its limit. There\u2019s also the recurring issue of a sharp and \u201cnaily\u201d tone, most notably in Etude No.4<\/em>, parts of which can only be described as unduly harsh. On these grounds alone, I hesitate to recommend Poulsen\u2019s version.\b (Poulson’s versions of the Etudes<\/em> can be heard individually on YouTube; here’s an audio version of No.5<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nLetters to Posterity (Heitor Villa-Lobos\u2014The Solo Guitar Works)<\/em><\/strong>
\nThomas Lyng Poulsen
\n(CVM)<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n<\/a>The Complete Guitar Works of Heitor Villa-Lobos<\/em><\/strong>
\nMickael Viegas
\n(Paraty\/Harmonia Mundi)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Winter 2016 issue of Classical Guitar | BY PAUL FOWLES Julian Bream\u2019s 1978 release of all 12 of Heitor Villa-Lobos’\u00a0Etudes is an event many recall. It had two precedents: Turibio Santos (1968\/9) and Narciso Yepes (1971). Santos\u2019 was a landmark recording, but not easy to get. Yepes\u2019 never caught on, possibly due to his trademark leaden sound combined with such eccentricities as the mezzo-staccato lower voice in No.5. So Bream\u2019s became the one every guitarist owned and many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[109],"class_list":["post-5769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-stories","tag-villa-lobos"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Villa-Lobos-Mickael-Viegas-Thomas-Lyng-Poulsen.jpg?fit=2292%2C1222&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16579,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5769\/revisions\/16579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}