ORCHESTRAL, VOCAL AND CHAMBER WORKS
In Memoriam • Mosaico • Convergências • Biosfera • O Canto Multiplicado • Ukrinmakrinkrin • Rhythmetron • Divertimento • Concerto Breve • Variações Ritmicas • Sonâncias I & III
Marlos Nobre conductor & piano
Maria Lucia Godoy & Amália Bazán soprano
Musica Nova Philharmonia
Musica Nova Ensemble
Luiz de Moura Castro piano
Ensemble à percussion de Genève
Ensemble Bartok
FANFARE
The Magazine for Serious Record Collectors (USA)
«This is a significant release. Marlos Nobre is the best-known living Brazilian composer, many deem him to be the heir to Villa-Lobos. This two-CD set surveys a wide range of his music from 1963-80, Nobre not only as composer, but as conductor and pianist... Nobre is first of all a modernist. Growing up as a composer in the 1960s, he was inevitably attracted to the experiments of the avant-garde, especially the techniques for manipulating timbre and texture of the Polish school. Works such as Mosaico and Concerto Breve show his interest in this new sound world... Like most composers of the time, Nobre was attracted to serialism, but he apparently never adopted it ina doctrinaire manner. The Variacões Ritmicas for piano and percussion is an excellent illustration of his approach ‹ steely atonal lines in the piano surrounded by compelling motoric rhythms and bright colors in the percussion, a successful blend of a modernist technique with more folkloristic materials.
Indeed, Nobre fortunately never succumbed to the sort of faceless internationalism that dominated the 60s European avant-garde. He remained open to Brazilian musical influences, which are evident in his attraction to: pulsating rhythms (Rhythmetron for percussion ensemble, written for a dance company); evocative,'nocturnal' textures (as in the slow section of Concerto Breve); and simple, linear, carefully shaped melodic lines (as in the vocal works O Canto Multiplicado and Ukrinmakrinkrin). All these works confirm that Nobre was a prodigiously talented and precocious composer. A driving passion and energy informs all his music... in the 70s (...) one begins to encounter works which indicate the composer is reaching a natural synthesis in his work. Biosfera (1970) for string orchestra is an anguished rhapsody, but one with real lyricism and counterpoint, elements which give it both a structural integrity and expressive intensity. In Memoriam (1976) for orchestra is a memorial to the composer's father, develops with a Sibelian continuity, and is haunted by a repeated open-string arpeggiation on acoustic guitar, a sound from which the entire piece seems to emerge. And finally, Sonancias III (1980) for two pianos and percussion is the most fully formed and exciting work of the entire set, combining rhythm, harmony and color into a seamless synthesis. It sounds rooted in the culture and original at the same time. It comes closest to the mixing of popular and advanced art that Nobre admires in Bartók. Nobre shows himself to be an excellent pianist, and his interpretations as a conductor seem definitive. The other soloists (Godoy, Bazan, and de Moura Castro) sing and play with assurance and warmth... a very handsomely produced set... a fascinating portrait of the emergence of a major talent»
AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE
«... Orchestral, vocal and chamber works by Brazil's leading composer, Marlos Nobre (1929)... Rhythmic vitality and vigor, melodic roots in Brazilian folklore and nature, striking sound combinations, and spontaneity, mark the multifaceted music of this composer who lists Debussy, Bartok and Lutoslawski as major influences. The folk elements recall Villa-Lobos. Nobre's music is tonal to freely-tonal, chromatic, dissonant at times, and makes use of serial and sonoristic techniques but with references to tonal centers. Nobre also knows how to turn a beautiful, lyrical phrase, in sweeping, string-dominated passages and delicate woodwind phrases. There is no denying that Nobre is a master composer who has inherited Villa-Lobos' mantle... Nobre's involvement in these recordings guarantees authenticity, and the performances are excellent... There is something for everyone in this wide variety of works by a Brazilian master composer. Recommended with Brazilian passion!»a