A fascinating project on May 16 saw singers from FCMG take part in a multi-media performance celebrating the music of Heitor Villa-Lobos, and in particular his works inspired by youth and nature. In 1932 the Brazilian composer was effectively placed in charge of his country’s music education, as part of which he published Guia prático, a set of 137 traditional folk songs for children’s chorus based on melodies from across the country’s diverse regions. FCMG singers performed a selection of 15 of these songs. Remarkably, the concert was the first time songs from the Guia prático have been performed in Portuguese by an English-language choir in the UK.
The concert – which was attended by the Ambassador of Brazil to the UK, Antonio Patriota – was organised by pianist Marcelo Bratke, whose career-long advocacy of the composer has included recording his complete works for solo piano, and who performed throughout the evening.
‘These songs’, says Bratke, ‘became a map of Brazil. If you want to understand Brazil, you go through all the songs and you make a promenade across the whole of Brazil, from the south to the north and the Amazon forest.’ The Guia prático was just one part of Villa-Lobos’s attempt to transform Brazilian musical education, which also included making music an obligatory subject in all schools in Brazil, as well as creating training exercises for students and a method of teaching children to sing. ‘His dream was to make the entire country of Brazil sing together, to make society better through music,’ added Bratke.
The concert also included the final movement of Bachianas Brasileiras No 2 ,‘O Trenzinho do Caipira, which colourfully captures a train passing through Brazil, and Four Songs of the Amazon Forest for which they were joined by Brazilian soprano Camila Provenzalle. A further dimension was added by Brazilian artist Mariannita Luzzati, who created projections based on her drawings and paintings inspired by nature and children.
You can read more about the concert and Villa-Lobos’s music for children, in an article by Gramophone.
FCMG rehearsing with Marcelo Bratke at LSO St Luke’s (rehearsal photos by Phil Rowland)
