Catalogue

Summary:

“Paris is satiated by Parisian art” (Tarsila do Amaral). With these poignant words, the Brazilian painter described the Parisian musical scene during the first decades of the 20th Century: Paris, a city hungry for new cultural horizons and about to become the real first multicultural City of Europe. The mesmerizing effect that the French capital had on its artists is the starting point of Brazilian cellist Antonio Meneses’s fifth release on AVIE.

After four successful recordings – including a Gramophone Disc of the Month for a disc of Schubert and Schumann (AV 2112), an Editor’s Choice for Beethoven Sonatas with Menahem Pressler (AV 2103) and a Benchmark recording in the BBC Music magazine for the Bach Cello Suites (AV 0052), Antonio Meneses introduces a different partner on the keyboard, Brazilian pianist Celina Szrvinsk, to explore music from his native land and other forms of expression that Paris evoked in composers from different backgrounds and generations.

After years playing and investigating the works of Brazilian composers and their contemporaries, Antonio and Celina felt that rather than just explore the Brazilian link in Paris, they also wanted to explore the other cultures and styles that, in the 1920’s and later, made Paris the home of every artist with international interests – hence the title: Soirées Internationales. French and Parisian music were not the only forms of music in the French capital; Parisians were interested in the new arts and differing styles from Brazil to Russia, and the black rhythms of American jazz. With a mixture of Brazilian, French and Czech music, Antonio and Celina trace the colourful and expressive music of Brazil, represented here by Villa-Lobos and Camargo Guarnieri, to the Eastern European with Bohuslav Martinu and show how this music influenced a native French woman: the great composer, scholar and professor: Nadia Boulanger.

Tracklist:

Heitor VILLA-LOBOS (1887 – 1959)
1. Aria (cantilena) from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 (arr. William Primrose) (06:04)
2. O Canto do capadocio (7:07)
3. O Canto da Nossa Terra (5:26)
4. O Trenzinho do Caipira (4:10)

Mozart Camargo GUARNIERI (1907 – 1993)
Sonata No.1 for cello and piano (17:40)
5. I. Tristonho (8:49)
6. II. Apaixonadamente (5:04)
7. III. Selvagem (3:47)

Nadia BOULANGER (1887 – 1979)
Trois Pièces pour violoncelle et piano (7:18)
8. No. 1: Modéré (2:57)
9. No. 2: Sans vitesse et à l’aise (1:37)
10. No. 3: Vite et nerveusement rythmé (2:44)

Bohuslav MARTINŮ (1890 – 1959)
Sonata No. 2 for cello and piano (19:09)
11. I. Poco andante (7:51)
12. II. Andante (5:50)
13. III. Allegro (ma non Presto) (5:28)

VILLA-LOBOS
14. O Canto do Cisne Negro (3:01)

Total time: 70:30

Recorded 24 – 26 March 2008 at Potton Hall, Suffolk, England
Produced, engineered and edited by Simon Fox-Gál