In his booklet-note, the commentator here calls Choros No. 10 the masterpiece of that quintessentially Brazilian series. It is certainly the most ambitious, with very large orchestral and choral forces in a complex melange of urban street song (a popular schottisch by Medeiros), chattering native Indian chants and bird-song twitterings, of mysterious jungle atmosphere, compulsive ostinato rhythms and virtuoso orchestral effects. The present excellent performance is the more to be welcomed since there is only one other modern recording currently available, that under Eduardo Mata (Dorian, 4/93) – the composer’s own 1957 version being really of only historical interest. But the couplings here on this generously filled disc are more illuminating, consisting as they do of more Villa-Lobos – four of his highly individual tributes to Bach’s influence.
By far the best known of the Bachianas Brasileiras is, of course, No. 5, whose Aria demonstrates the composer’s ability to spin a haunting long-flowing melody. Renee Fleming is the sweet-toned soloist with the cello section of this accomplished orchestra of young graduates from American conservatoires: warmly lyrical as she is, however, and brilliantly exact in the dartings of the Dansa, her words are not very distinct even in the slow-moving Aria; and RCA offer no help, providing no printed text or translation. By his deeply expressive shaping of No. 4’s Preludio Tilson Thomas avoids any satiety with its extreme monothematicism, and in the second movement (“Canto do sertao”) secures coherent continuity despite the (rather loud) insistent interventions of the araponga bird’s repeated note. He produces a beautifully poetic tranquillity in the brief Prelude of No. 9 and complete lucidity and rhythmic buoyancy in its Fugue (played in the version for strings only, disregarding the commentator’s claim). If that is the most Bachian of the series, the much more substantial No. 7 – in which there has been some tinkering with the scoring – also has its moments of homage: its first movement (whose exuberant scoring is skilfully held in check) has a fine breadth, and its finale is an impressive and serious-minded large-scale fugue that begins quietly and culminates in a grandiose blaze of sound; but the busy Toccata is characteristically and challengingly Brazilian, and the first part of its Giga (before it goes all Hollywood) is delightfully fresh in this invigorating performance. Altogether a very recommendable disc.'