Discover Heitor Villa-Lobos
National Classical Music Day this year honored the birth of conductor and composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, considered the greatest exponent of the genre in Brazil.
Composer of around a thousand pieces and founder of the Brazilian Academy of Music, Villa-Lobos was one of the main figures responsible for bringing Brazilian music to the most prestigious stages in Europe in the early 1900s.
Born on March 5, 1887, in Rio de Janeiro, Heitor Villa-Lobos began his musical training at the age of six with his father, Raul Villa-Lobos, dedicating himself to the cello and clarinet. Later, he joined the National Institute of Music, where he studied cello and harmony.
During his youth, he was exposed to Brazilian popular music, especially through the chorões of Rio de Janeiro (serenades that played choro).
The composer’s legacy is preserved by the Villa-Lobos Museum in Rio de Janeiro. The space has a collection of over 53,000 items composed of scores, correspondence, newspaper clippings, records, films, books, ornaments, musical instruments, and personal objects.
Source: www.brazil.gov.br
The Conductor Isaac Karabtchevsky
Isaac Karabtchevsky was born in São Paulo on December 27, 1934, and is a renowned conductor. He began his career as the conductor of the Madrigal Renascentista in Belo Horizonte.
He was the artistic director of the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, La Fenice Theatre in Venice, Tonkünstler Orchestra in Vienna, the Porto Alegre Symphony Orchestra, and is the artistic director and principal conductor of the Petrobrás Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, he was the musical director of the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire. He is also the artistic director of the Baccarelli Institute in São Paulo, a social project in the Heliópolis Community, which brings together 1,500 students distributed among symphonic orchestras and choirs. Besides international composers, Karabtchevsky includes Brazilian authors in the repertoire of his performances abroad, such as Villa-Lobos, Marlos Nobre, Guerra-Peixe, Carlos Gomes, and Alberto Nepomuceno.
Taking advantage of the repertoire and recording studios in Europe and the USA, he recorded several albums of Brazilian music during his tours. In Europe, he also recorded Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana and soloist Bruno Leonardo Gelber, and, leading the Orchestre National des Pays de La Loire, an album dedicated to Ravel and another to Shostakovich.
In 2011, he began the complete recording of Villa-Lobos’ symphonies, a project associated with the restoration of the scores and the rescue of this lesser-known part of the composer’s work.
Source: enciclopedia.itaucultural.org.br
The Great João Carlos Martins
Pianist and conductor João Carlos Martins was born in São Paulo on June 25, 1940. Son of a pianist, at the age of 8, he won the Bach Society competition in São Paulo with distinction.
At the height of his fame, while playing soccer, he fell on his own arm. The accident, which deprived him of hand movement, was a total disaster for him. He underwent surgeries, physical therapy, and injections in the palm of his hand. He recovered and returned to the piano. His persistence would be tested again years later when he was robbed in Bulgaria and violently assaulted. As a consequence, the movement of both hands was affected. He returned to the operating room and physical therapy. He managed to play the piano once more, but the aftermath of the injuries prevailed, and paralysis ultimately dominated both of his hands.
It was the end of the pianist.
He stepped away from the piano but not from music. At 63 years old, he went to study conducting, and two years later, he was conducting the English Chamber Orchestra in London. In a concert in São Paulo, João Carlos surprised once again: he conducted Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony entirely from memory. He memorized all the notes of the work because he was unable to turn the pages of the score. And he still had one more surprise for the audience: he asked for a piano and, with only the three fingers that still had movement, he played a piece by Bach. Martins played the piano with just three fingers the Air from the Fourth Cello Suite, originally written for violin. And, although it was not his intention, the impression left was that everyone present felt very small in the face of the greatness and willpower of João Carlos Martins.
Source: www.fritzdobbert.com.br