Parabéns, Heitor Villa-Lobos!
An undated picture taken in Paris of composer and conductor Heitor Villa Lobos.
An undated picture taken in Paris of composer and conductor Heitor Villa Lobos.
STR/AFP/Getty Images
This is the Doodle on Google Brazil today.
Today marks the 125th anniversary of Brazilian composer and conductor Heitor Villa-Lobos' birth. And we're not the only ones celebrating — check out the Google Doodle that's currently greeting web surfers in Brazil.
Meanwhile, here in the States, we're listening to some of his music, from his most famous to the forgotten.
Parabéns, Heitor Villa-Lobos!
Bachiana Brasileira No. 5
- Artist: Bidu Sayao
- Album: Arias & Brazilian Folksongs
- Song:
This 1945 recording of the sinuously beautiful fifth piece in Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras series features Brazilian soprano Bidú Sayão, with the composer conducting — and it may well be the most perfect version ever made.
'Magdalena'
- Artist: Various
- Album: Heitor Villa-Lobos: Magdalena
- Song:
And now for a rarity: Did you know that Villa-Lobos wrote a Broadway musical in 1948? It disappeared after 11 weeks; said Time Magazine of its original run, "The only thing more incomprehensible than the plot is the notion that any one could follow it." (And the New York Times called a 1987 revival a "lost cause.") Undaunted, Paris' Théâtre du Châtelet mounted a sumptuously staged revival in 2010.
Julian Bream Plays Villa-Lobos
- Artist: Julian Bream
- Album: Popular Classics for Spanish Guitar
- Song:
In footage from the early 1960s, the guitarist plays Villa-Lobos' Preludes Nos. 3 (titled "Homage to Bach") & 4 ("Homage to the Brazilian Indian"), written in 1940.
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