At home in Brazil,
Camargo Guarnieri
has been proposed as the country's greatest composer after
Villa-Lobos
, but abroad his music has rarely been heard. This release by pianist
Martin Jones
, whose series devoted to Latin American composers is often worthwhile, will be useful in filling in the gap. The composer was born
Mozart Camargo Guarnieri
(his brothers were Verdi, Bellini, and Rossini), but discarded the first name as over the top. He wrote many works in larger forms, including six each of symphonies and piano concertos, but this album of short piano pieces may offer an ideal way into his style. The waltzes and chôros and Afro-Brazilian-influenced dances of the Brazilian tradition are all here, but all were pushed in modern directions by the composer's studies with
Charles Koechlin
in Paris, and the dance influences are muted rather than coming to the surface. Thus, one gets a
Chôro Torturado
, more humorous than tortured, and an "Homenajem à Scriabin," from the
Ponteios, Book V, No. 49
. These
Ponteios
("
Bridges
") are inventively structured. Some versions of this album online mysteriously show a "Ponteios, IV, No. 37," on the cover, but this was not part of the original graphics. There are three Sonatinas, the longest just over 11 minutes.
's fortunes in Brazil waxed and waned, and his works weren't always published when they were written, but one can hear him experimenting throughout with the logic of incorporating greater dissonance into traditional forms. He does not, at least not here, sound much like
, although he must have heard a lot of his music. No information on current publication data for these works is given, but nearly any of them might make good, colorful material for piano students.
Nimbus
' sound from the Wyastone Estate in Hertfordshire is ideal. ~ James Manheim