Camargo Guarnieri - Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6; Villa Rica Suite (John Neschling)

Information

Composer: Camargo Guarnieri

• (01) Symphony No. 5, for orchestra and choir
• (04) Suíte Vila Rica
• (14) Symphony No. 6

São Paulo Symphony Choir & Orchestra
John Neschling, conductor

Date: 2004
Label: BIS
http://bis.se/conductors/neschling-john/guarnieri-symphonies-nos5-6

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

The best issue yet in BIS’s fine, if mixed, Guarnieri symphony cycle

The first volume of this Guarnieri symphony cycle (Nos 2 and 3, 12/02) was excellent, the second – with the First coupled with the rather empty Fourth (2/04) – somewhat less engaging. However, from the (slightly Bartókian) outset of the Fifth (1977) the music compels attention. Guarnieri’s style remained close to that of North America: the language sounds much closer to that of, say, Peter Mennin than to his compatriot Villa-Lobos. There is a good deal of Hindemith in the scoring as well as the melodic writing, though Guarnieri’s harmonic and structural processes are not those of the German master. The wistful Lento nostalgico is equally impressive but the music enters a new dimension with the primitivistic choral-orchestral finale setting a short poem in praise of the ‘stubborn’ river of Guarnieri’s home town.

The Sixth Symphony (1981) is another compact three-movement design, this time in the Walter Piston mould, with a brief preludial Allegro succeeded by a longer, haunting slow movement and short, rapid finale. The symphony’s heart – like so many of the American’s – lies in the Triste central span. Yet it is middle-period Stravinsky that bubbles to the surface in the vivid opening Energico e ritmado.

Separating the symphonies – and quite different from them in expressive intent – is a 10-movement suite from music written for the film Vila Rica in 1957. There are several splendid movements that would make this a welcome concert item, not least the Gingando finale. The São Paulo Symphony Orchestra play marvellously and John Neschling directs with great understanding. Excellent sound.

-- Guy Rickards, Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 10
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Jan05/guarnieri_neschling.htm
https://www.allmusic.com/album/camargo-guarnieri-symphonies-nos-5-6-vila-rica-suite-mw0001372122
https://www.amazon.com/Guarnieri-Symphonies-Nos-5-6/dp/B00ICGG0SK

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mozart Camargo Guarnieri (February 1, 1907 – January 13, 1993) was a Brazilian composer. Guarnieri studied at the São Paulo Conservatório, and subsequently worked with Charles Koechlin in Paris. A distinguished figure of the Brazilian national school, he served in several capacities; conductor of the São Paulo Orchestra, member of the Academia Brasileira de Música, and Director of the São Paulo Conservatório, where he taught composition and orchestral conducting. His œuvre comprises symphonies, concertos, cantatas, two operas, chamber music, many piano pieces, and over fifty canções.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camargo_Guarnieri

***

John Neschling (born May 13, 1947 in Rio de Janeiro) is a Brazilian orchestral and operatic conductor. He studied conducting under Hans Swarowsky and Reinhold Schmid in Vienna and under Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa in Tanglewood. Later, he won several international conducting competitions. Neschling was music director and chief conductor of the São Paulo State Symphony from 1997 to 2008. During the twelve years under his leadership, the OSESP became a first rate international orchestra, and recorded a series of CDs, winning 5 Diapason d'Or and one Latin Grammy. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Neschling

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!