NAZARETH: Tangos, Waltzes and Polkas
Total playing time: 01:03:25
$8.99
(CD)
In Stock - Usually ships within 24 hours.
Just copy this code and paste it where you want the link on your website:
Ernesto Nazareth ( 1863-1934) Tangos, Waltzes and Polkas Even until a few years ago, only very few pianists of serious intentions dared to include music by...
Ernesto Nazareth ( 1863-1934)
Tangos, Waltzes and Polkas
Even until a few years ago, only very few pianists of
serious intentions dared to include music by Ernesto
Nazareth in their repertoire, since he was not held to be
truly a so-called 'classical' composer. His works
suffered from a certain amount of prejudice and were
not among those played in schools of music or in
classical piano competitions, yet I cannot remember
having met anyone who did not like his music. The
charisma of Nazareth's works was, even then, more
powerful than all of the discussions as to which
particular genre his music belongs.
During Nazareth's own lifetime, musical and
cultural tastes were based on those prevalent in Europe.
This subordination to European culture did not, for a
long period, allow genuinely Brazilian classical music
fully to blossom. The trendsetters were from the old
continent. On one occasion, the attempt to include four
of Nazareth's works in the concert programme of the
National School of Music in Rio de Janeiro led to such
protests that the police had to be called in to intervene.
Nazareth's dances aim to please a discerning
concert audience and are surely successful in doing so.
These works are, first and foremost, original, and are
expressions of the Brazilian soul. With them, the
composer certainly wrote musical history and laid the
foundations for an authentically Brazilian style of
classical music.
Nazareth's output is made up predominantly of
Brazilian tangos, over eighty in all, and more than forty
waltzes, and it is particularly in the latter that the rather
intriguing influence of Chopin on his work can
undoubtedly be felt. Nazareth studied the Polish
composer's scores in order to teach himself how to
improve his method of composition, and he also often
performed Chopin's works on the piano. Like Chopin
himself, he devoted a large part of his creative energies
to writing for the piano, the instrument of which he
himself was a master.
The first Brazilian tango appeared in the year 1871,
nine years before its melancholy Argentinian brother.
The term tango was used for the first time in Brazil to
designate certain characteristic pieces which were very
similar in style to the habanera, the latter having arrived
from Cuba in 1866, soon to become very popular. It was
through his tangos that Nazareth achieved the greatest
degree of originality.
Ernesto Nazareth was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1863
and witnessed both the emancipation of the slaves and
the establishment of the republic. In his youth he was
engaged by music publishers and paid to play in their
establishments, thus encouraging people to buy the
music he played, which included his own. Later, after
the invention of the silent film, he was given a contract
at the Odeon cinema, where he enlivened the films with
his accompaniment or entertained the public in the
entrance lobby. Audiences were enchanted by the
originality of his compositions. One famous name
among those who heard him was Villa-Lobos, who
considered the music of Nazareth to be the very
embodiment of the soul of Brazil.
Nazareth's life was marked by a series of emotional
crises culminating in permanent and incurable mental
illness, which led, in 1933, to his being committed to a
psychiatric clinic from which he escaped in the
following year only to drown in a reservoir. His burial
took place during the Carnival, a festival that dominates
both heart and soul in Brazil, and thus his death passed
almost unnoticed. The story has it that, when Nazareth's
lifeless body was found, his arms were bent, as if he
were playing the piano.
The titles of his works are often very humorous or
refer to everyday situations in Brazil, especially to the
life of the cariocas, or inhabitants of the city of Rio de
Janeiro. Sometimes the titles suggest the instruments
which are imitated in the piece. Of the works I have
chosen to record the boisterous Espalhafatoso is
followed by a mischievous Brejeiro and the melancholy
waltz Confidências. Escovado, well dressed or cunning,
is followed by Nenê, baby, a child or loved one, a work
used by the composer Catullo da Paixão Cearence as the
basis for his song Sertaneja. The polka Ameno Reseda
bears the name of an old Carnival group from Rio. The
left hand imitates the cavaquinho, a small guitar used by
popular musicians in Brazil. This is succeeded by the
waltz Turbilhão de Beijos, whirlwind of kisses, and
Gaúcho, the Brazilian cowboy, and also the name given
to the inhabitants of the southernmost state in Brazil, the
Rio Grande do Sul, to whom Nazareth dedicated this
piece after a visit in 1932. Plangente, in lamentation, is
a tango written in the style most nearly approximating to
the habanera, and Topazio Liquido, liquid topaz, refers
in its title to topaz-coloured beer, and was dedicated by
the composer to an old brewery. Ouro Sobre Azul, gold
on blue, refers to something very beautiful or becoming,
and Sarambeque is a suggestive dance of African origin,
which was also danced in wealthy white households in
the eighteenth century. The romantic waltz Epônina has
a girl's name as its title, while the ambiguously named
Escorregando, suggests sliding, going down well (as a
delicious meal goes down) or telling a tall story. In
Tenebroso, gloomy, Nazareth instructs the player to
imitate a guitar in the lower register, and in Odeon, an
old cinema in Rio showing silent films in which
Nazareth worked as a musician, the left hand also
imitates a guitar. Apanhei-te Cavaquinho (I have
grabbed you, cavaquinho!) has the left hand imitating
the cavaquinho in this choro, while the right hand takes
on the rôle of a flute. This combination of instruments is
much loved in Brazilian popular music.
Iara Behs (www.iarabehs.com)
English translation by Alan Metcalfe
Espalhafatoso (Boisterous) (more info)
-
Espalhafatoso (Boisterous) - 2:30
Brejeiro (Mischievous) (more info)
-
Brejeiro (Mischievous) - 1:57
Confidencias (Confidences) (more info)
-
Confidencias (Confidences) - 7:05
Escovado (Cunning) (more info)
-
Escovado (Cunning) - 4:11
Nene (Baby) (more info)
-
Nene (Baby) - 3:20
Ameno Reseda (more info)
-
Ameno Reseda - 2:35
Turbilhao de Beijos (Whirlwind of Kisses) (more info)
-
Turbilhao de Beijos (Whirlwind of Kisses) - 6:54
Gaucho (more info)
-
Gaucho - 2:45
Plangente (Lamenting) (more info)
-
Plangente (Lamenting) - 5:12
Topazio Liquido (Liquid Topaz) (more info)
-
Topazio Liquido (Liquid Topaz) - 3:16
Ouro Sobre Azul (Gold on Blue) (more info)
-
Ouro Sobre Azul (Gold on Blue) - 3:16
Sarambeque (more info)
-
Sarambeque - 2:59
Eponina (more info)
-
Eponina - 5:47
Escorregando (Going Down Well) (more info)
-
Escorregando (Going Down Well) - 2:37
Tenebroso (Gloomy) (more info)
-
Tenebroso (Gloomy) - 3:19
Odeon (more info)
-
Odeon - 3:09
Apanhei-te Cavaquinho (I Have Grabbed You, Cavaquinho!) (more info)
-
Apanhei-te Cavaquinho (I Have Grabbed You, Cavaquinho!) - 2:33