1985 Carlos Barbosa-Lima Impressions Classical Guitar Vinyl LP Record VG+

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1985 Carlos Barbosa-Lima Impressions Classical Guitar Flamenco Vinyl LP Record VG+
Record Grade per Goldmine Standard: VG+
CARLOS BARBOSA-LIMA guitar Carlos Barbosa-Lima plays a Thomas Humphrey guitar. All compositions arranged by Carlos Barbosa-Lima, SIDE ONE Gabriel FAURE SICILIENNE (From “Pelleas et Melisandc”) (3:41) Erik SATIE GYMNOPED1E NO. 3(L57) Claude DEBUSSY PRELUDE NO. 8. VOL. 1 (2:09) La Fille Aux Cheveux de Lin (The Girl With The Flaxen Hair) THREE PIECES FROM “CHILDREN’S CORNER” Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum (2:19) The Little Shepherd (2:13) Golliwogg’s Cake-walk (2:30) Maurice RAVEL PAVANE POUR UNE ENFANTE DEFUNTE (Pavane for a Dead Princess) (5:53) SIDE TWO Enrique UBIETA NEW YORK RUSH (Theme from the film “El Super”) (4:54) Robert W. SCOTT THE LOST CHILD (2:10) KERRY MORN (2:00) Heitor VILLA-LOBOS PRELUDE-INTRODUCTION (from “Bachiana Brasileiras No. 4") (3:26) MODINHA (Seresta No. 5) (1:44) SENTIMENTAL MELODY (from “The Forest of Amazons.” theme of the film “Green Mansions”) (3:19) Laurindo ALMEIDA-Bante VARELA BAA-TOO-KEE (2:08) © 1985 CONCORD CONCERTO A Div. of Concord Jazz, Inc. Marca Registrada Theguitar is one instrument which demands its own compositions. It is so independent, its needsand personality so individualized that even pre-existing pieces transcribed for it become new and quite different works of music from the originals. Moreover, each guitarist, whether or not the actual creator of the pieces or transcriptions, is in a real sense, a com- poser. That is in the very nature of the guitar and its art. So it is that the famous and familiar French compositions performed by Carlos Barbosa-Lima acquire a fresh and singular identity on this record. They are in effect re-orchestrated, theguitar like a tiny chamber orchestra producing a variety of timbres. That aspect would likely have pleased Maurice Ravel with his love of miniaturism, of exquisite articula- tion and differentiation of tone. As it happens, each of these French works exist in two or more forms. The original has been re-arranged and orchestrated by the composer or by others with the composer’s approval. Clearly, transcriptions as such, if well made can serve the music faithfully and Barbosa-Lima is very ex- pert and skillful in his transcriptions. The original version of Gabriel Faures “Pelleaset Melisande” (1898), incidental music commissioned for the English translation of Maurice Maeterlinck’s play, was orchestrated by Faures pupil, Charles Koechlin. The Sicilienne from it, performed on this record, was actually an earlier composition of 1893 for cello and piano, Op. 78. Faure reworked itfor inclusion in the "Pelleas” music, Op. 80. The third of Erik Satie’s “Trois Gymnopedies” for piano (1888) which Barbosa-Lima plays here, was orchestrated by Claude Debussy along with No. 1 in 1897. It was in their orchestral form that the “Gymnopedies” were to become famous, including use as music for ballets. Debussy’s La Fille Aux Cheveux de Lin (The Girl With The Flaxen Hair) or Prelude No. 8 from Douze preludes, first book, (1910) has been arranged for most every conceivable melody instrument. Ravel first wrote his Pavane Pour Une Enfante Defunte (Pavane for a Dead Princess, 1899) for piano solo. Later he orchestrated it in the form that brought it even greater popularity'. A work of his youth, the “Pavane” immediately became a piano favorite, a success that made his name. In the late 1930’s, when tin pan alley was mining the classics, the piece enjoyed a second vogue, achieving more widespread but shorter-lived attention as a popular song with lyrics, “The Lamp Is Low." Besides the fact that Barbosa-Lima’s French selections are all from the immediate pre-World War 1 generation and were composed within a 20 year span, theirfour composers were fairlyclose, personally and in musical spirit. Their styles shared certain qualities which attracted them to each other’s music and which have proved enduringly appealing. Faures Sicilienne has a purity and fineness of melodic line which, coupled to a harmonic design of transparency was the hallmark of his genius. Debussy, in his sometime yet distinguished career as a music critic, wrote a whimsical but telling observation about another Faure work, the Ballade for piano and orchestra which could have been as readily applied to this Sicilienne: “The play of fleeting curves that is the essence of Faures music can be compared to the movementsofa beautiful woman without either suf- fering from the comparison.” The little Sicilienne with the gentle, lilting manner, also draws inspira- tion in its dance origin and modal inflections from French music of the Baroque period. Ravel also referred to the music of that period in the “Pavane” on this record. The eccentric Erik Satie exerted an influence on important contem- poraries that was remarkable in view of the narrow scope of his works. His younger admirers included Francis Poulenc and Darius Milhaud, a lifelong admirer, but his greatest friend was Debussy of whom Satie once wrote, “If I didn’t have Debussy. . . I don’t know what I’d do to express my wretched thoughts—if I am still able to express them.” Debussy in turn, wrote in a book of poetry by Baudelaire the dedication: “For Erik Satie, thesweet medieval musician who has strayed into th is century'for the joy of his very friendly Claude Debussy.” On the other hand this was a stormy friendship because of both their temperaments. When Debussy conducted his orchestrations of Satie’s “Gymnopedies” for the first time, he was surprised and more thana little jealous of the success they achieved. With the adjective “medieval,” Debussy described his generation’s perception of the severe clarity and sparseness of Satie’s harmony. (Satie early espoused a kind of medievalism through his active membership in the Rosicrucian sect and his studies of plain chant). The Gymnopedie No. 3 (the term gymnopedies means athletic exercises of Greek youth) embodies the Satie characteristics of detachment, that is, non- sentimental, and great restraint. Ithasa melody sosimpleover harmonies so spare that the music gives the impression of being almost incomplete, a sketch which the listener fills in. It is not quite static but the motion is poised in one place, like a mobile moving slowly and evenly. In common with the Satie, Debussy’s The Girl With The Flaxen Hair has subdued and simple harmonic design. The melody which outlines those chords is consciously warmer, more rhapsodic, and utterly distinc- tive, and it reveals a debt to Faure. Much earlier, Debussy had written a setting of a poem with this title, for voice and piano. Debussy composed his Children’s Corner suite of six piano pieces in 1907 for his five year-old daughter Claude-Emma (“Chouchou”), the dedication concluding, “with her father’s apologies for what is to follow.” Two of the three pieces played by Barbosa-Lima show Debussy at sarcastic play and caricature. Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum pokes fun at a child pianist’s bored course through scales and other exercises, suddenly pro- pulsive at the ending. The Golliwogg’s Cake-walk takes initial inspiration from jazz and Debussy’s new-formed impression of black dancing; Golliwogg was the name of Chouchou’s Negro doll. In the middle section of the piece, Debussy took a naughty swipe at Wagner as he repeatedly quoted the Preludeof "Tristan,” the sforzandi unmistakably suggesting laughter. In his famous Debussy biography, Edward Lockspeiser cited Leon Oleginni’s intriguing interpretation that “Debussy intends to convey that the child has glimpsed some of rhe artificiality and pretentiousness of real life.” In any case, this performance on theguitar with the specially biting ef- fect and sharp color Barbosa-Lima gives it affords a much keener edge to the caricature than is possible on the piano. The Little Shepherd, a charming piece also transcribed for various woodwind instruments, was named for a cardboard shepherd in Claude- Emma’s toy box .. In French music of this period, titles were not always what they appeared to be. This was the case for the Pavane Pour Une Enfante Defunte as Ravel later explained, remarking: “I let myself be led into writing that title because of the pleasure I got from the assonance of the words.” Never- theless, there is little doubt but that Ravel intended the title to evoke the spirit of an antique and solemn dance. In its elevated serenity, rhe piece evokes something like the Satie but the amazingly long-breathed melody which the performer floats, and thepin-prickdissonanceofthe harmonization are distinctively Ravel. On Side Two, Barbosa-Lima addresses newer works, three by composers in the Larin-American tradition. Enrique Ubieta’sNew York Rush was originally the main theme of the prize-winning film “El Super," (the 1979 Mannheim and Venetian Critics awards and the 1980 Biarritz award). Ubieta himself transcribed the piece for Barbosa-Lima, leaving to rhe distinguished guitarist, theselection of timbres, harmonics, and perform- ing style. New York Rush follows minimalist and mood procedures, being built on a single chord over which hovers a type of blues melody in contrast with a Latin (rhumba) rhythm. That contrast reflected the dramatic plot of the film, the musical effect is hypnotic. Robert W. Scott describes his The Lost Child with the picture of an infant separated from his parents in a store or other public place. He pro- jects this "tragic” situation into the adult condition of finding ourselves also as "lost.” “In lieu of finding ourselves—and our parents—we reflect upon the memory of what we were before we lost our way. And in that memory is something, only upon reflection, that we see as valuable.” The piece itself is a gentle song, a melancholy waltz related in spirit to Satie’s Gymnopedie. Scott’s Kerry Morn which the composer envisaged as the waking of asmall community in the west of Ireland, readily evokes the country with a characteristic jiggling rhythm—‘the sound of a people proud of their simplicity and directness, as well as their intuitive sense of the dance,” Scott writes. In addition, sonorous chords near the beginning evoke the church bells announcing morning mass. A native of Sao Paulo, Barbosa-Lima pays tribute to Brazil’s great Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) with three of his compositions. Villa-Lobos’ mastery of the cello brought an extraordinary sense of line to his com- positions. In his monumental series of the nine “Bachianas Brasileiras” suites for ensemble groups, he sought to bring together two traditions, the Brazilian folk music and the western, classical music, specifically of Bach. This is heard in the Prelude-Introduction from the "Bachiana Brasileiras No. 4” in a transcription for guitar. Beginning in the introduc- tory narrative vein, the work becomes meditative in a long cantilena man- ner, romantic in its insistent phrase repetitions. Villa-Lobos’ Modinha from “Seresta No. 5” is a Brazilian type of lullaby modinha used here in a romantic serenade seresta. The fast sections are for the accompanying instrument, the slow choruses are for rhe singer (here of course also playedon the guitar). The Sentimental Melody from “The Forest of Amazons” theme of the MGM film “Green Mansions” is a song with a distinctive, broad-ranging profile and richly harmo- nized accompaniment in lively rhythmic patterns. Barbosa-Lima compliments his senior colleague and countryman, the...




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