The concertos and chamber works on this album show Villa-Lobos’s unceasing enthusiasm for new colours and sonorities in his music. The Concerto for Guitar and Small Orchestra was his last work for the instrument and written for Segovia. A cornerstone of the repertoire, it contains soaring melodies and rhythmic vitality couched in virtuosic writing. Exploring the instrument’s full harmonic and chromatic possibilities, the Concerto for Harmonica is also deftly orchestrated. New and daring sonic combinations are to be heard in the two chamber works demonstrating the composer’s extraordinary gift for seductive lyricism.

This recording of Heitor Villa-Lobos’s concertos for guitar and harmonica, as well as a couple of chamber works, is the latest release in our brand new ‘Music of Brazil’ series, co-produced with the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to promote music by Brazilian composers dating back to the 18th century. The most recent release features sonatas for violin and piano by Leopoldo Miguez and Glauco Velásquez (8574118), performed by violinist Emmanuele Baldini (concertmaster of the OSESP) and pianist Karin Fernandes.

The initial release in the series, Alberto Nepomuceno’s Symphony in G minor, Série brasileira and Prelude to O Garatuja (8574067), recorded by the Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra and Fabio Mechetti, was a Gramophone Choice: ‘The entire programme is played with panache by the Minas Gerais Philharmonic… we have a lot to look forward to. Urgently recommended.’

The São Paulo Symphony Orchestra’s Naxos discography includes the complete symphonies by Villa-Lobos under Isaac Karabtchevsky. Their performances of Symphonies nos. 1 and 2 (8573829) was described by Fanfare as ‘spectacularly smooth’, while the Symphony no.10 ‘Amerindia’ disc (8573243) was positively received by The New York Times: ‘This fine recording makes the most of the drama and simmering energy of Villa-Lobos’ dense score, but the work remains a perplexing, heavy heap of good intentions.’