October 8, 2009 – 8 pm

Jubilee Hall – Raffles Hotel

By invitation only

Singaporeans will be treated to a feast of Brazilian contemporary music when the Bachiana Brasileira Orchestra performs a programme featuring some of the country’s best-known composers, whose music though classical in style bears the unmistakable perfume of Brazil.

Presented by the Embassy of Brazil in Singapore, the concert – which celebrates different periods and styles of Brazilian Concert Music in the last 100 years – is being held to commemorate 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Brazilian Embassy in Singapore.

Compositions from famed composers such as Heitor Villa-Lobos, Dimitri Cervo, Breno Blauth, Henrique de Curitiba, Antonio Carlos Gomes and César Guerra-Peixe, who covered a vast range of music genres such as orchestral, chamber music and opera are on the programme.

The highlight of the programme is a tribute to arguably the most famous Brazilian composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos, including two pieces from his famed set of nine suites of Bach-inspired infused with Brazilian folk music, Bachianas Brasileiras. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Villa-Lobos.

The oldest piece on the programme is the 1894 composition O Burrico de Pau from Antonio Carlos Gomes, a composer best known for his operas. Gomes’ Il Guarany was produced at La Scala, Milan in 1870 and has recently been performed and recorded by Placido Domingo. Another item is minimalist composer Dimitri Cervo’s Pattapiana, named after the Brazilian flute icon Pattapio Silva who died tragically young.

The programme will be performed by the Bachiana Brasileira Orchestra, that is part of the artistic arm of the Sociedade Musical Bachiana Brasileira (SMBB), the Companhia (Cia.) Bachiana Brasileira, set up in Rio de Janeiro in 1999.

Today, the Cia. Bachiana Brasileira occupies a unique position in the Brazilian musical scene due to the high standard of quality with which it performs, be it Brazilian colonial and European baroque or contemporary music. The Brazilian newspaper O Globo nominated Cia. Bachiana Brasileira’s concerts as being among the best in 2007 and 2008.

The ensemble will be conducted by Ricardo Rocha, the head of the Cia. Bachiana Brasileira, who studied piano under Werther Napolitano at the Villa-Lobos College of Music and Orchestra Conducting under Roberto Duarte at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and holds the title Kapellmeister from Germany.

This concert is by invitation only.

Cia Bachiana Brasileira perform at their Bach Festival

At the head of Cia. Bachiana Brasileira, Ricardo Rocha has marked the musical calendar of Rio de Janeiro with great concerts, much acclaimed by both public as well as critics.

One example is Selo Musical (Musical Stamp), an annual series dedicated to Brazilian Concert Music, which he created for the Brazilian Postal Service Cultural Center and directed between 2002 and 2006, featuring concerts representative of Brazilian musical output from the 18th century to the present day.

He has recorded more than 15 concerts for television and radio, as well as eight CDs.

Rocha has also been conducting in Germany since 1989, especially the Bamberg Symphonic, which he conducted in Munich, Bamberg and Erlangen, recording for Radio Bavaria, and the Thuringian Philharmonic, Baden-Baden and Südwestfalen Orchestras, with which he recorded a CD.

In Brazil, he has been guest conductor of several orchestras including the Brazilian Symphonic, São Paulo Municipal Theater Symphonic, Minas Gerais Symphonic, Petrobras Symphonic and National Symphonic.

In March 2009, he directed a symphonic concert dedicated to Villa-Lobos at the end of the II Latin-American Music week in Mendoza, Argentina, conducting the Cuyo National Symphonic Orchestra.

Rocha is also a professor of Conducting, a lecturer and the author of the book “Regência, uma arte complexa” (Conducting, a complex art, 2004) adopted as a text in Brazilian music schools, as well as articles published in Portuguese and German.

He holds the degrees of Kapellmeister, the highest in Conducting in Germany, of Master in Conducting from the Rio de Janeiro Federal University, and in Piano, from the Villa-Lobos Music School.

Cia Bachiana Brasileira – Orchestra and Choir perform live

Brazilian composer and conductor, Villa-Lobos is one of the biggest names in music in the twentieth century, with a vast and revolutionary artistic production (about 1500 works).

Born in Rio de Janeiro, he learned piano and clarinet early. At age 12, he began playing cello and guitar and also learned from  the chorões (folk musicians who performed choros), which, with its street songs, were his first teachers.

His training was completed self-taught: reading and studying the works of great masters. But the forces that drove the writing was his instinct and genius peculiar to the great masters along with his great admiration for Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750).

Knowledge of national folklore, the fruit of his travels to the interior of Brazil, would also be of vital importance to the creation of his monumental works.

In 1923, he traveled to Paris, where he composed an extraordinary series of choros. During his stay in France, Europeans were exposed to the  sophisticated and intrigued, artistic, irrational and sensual works of  this new composer. The performances of the choros in Paris revealed a new form of musical composition, which comprised various Brazilian musical genres.

His intense admiration for Bach is manifested in its fullness in his most famous work of the years 1930-45, the Bachianas Brasileiras for several orchestras.

In this series of nine works, Villa-Lobos, inspired by predominantly Brazilian music which is adapted to the Baroque forms, classical and contrapuntal.

In 1945, he founded the Brazilian Academy of Music, whose first 50 members he appointed.

Between 1948 and 1959, he traveled regularly to France and the United States, countries where his music has found great success and where he conducted major orchestras, performing his own compositions.

Maestro Rocha in an interview with Argentine newspaper DIARIA UNO on March 28, 2009

Excerpts:

What can you tell from the works of Villa-Lobos today? Some are quite demanding for the musicians …

The works form a mosaic of the most important output of Villa-Lobos … it is even said that it is sometimes difficult because he was more prolific than Mozart (laughs). In this mosaic is included Bachianas No. 2, 1930, the Choros No. 6 and Nonetto. The latter I call “a musical Guernica, but with humor,” because the truth is as the composer subtitled: “a quick impression of the whole country”. Finally we will play the Fantasia for cello and orchestra, a work composed for his favourite instrument, and it includes Matias Villafañe.

As for its difficulty, it is true: they are works in which the musicians of the orchestra should be nearly soloists. The truth is a work requiring many tests … More than we’ve been having! (laughs).

What is the current rating of the music of Villa-Lobos in the world?

It is without doubt as the greatest Brazilian composer and his music is played worldwide, and has already been recorded. It was from him that Brazil found its aesthetic identity.

Other composers had tried previously, but the road was first opened by Alberto Nepomuceno (an idol of Villa-Lobos) and then he went on to find true expression in Brazil.

But really does Villa-Lobos get to be played and interpreted like other classics?

I love that these days artistes such as Mendoza are dedicated to him. But with regard to the question, I believe that today we are in favourable position to promote the concerts of this music.

The orchestras of today, from Tokyo to New York, let alone those of Europe, are playing many works that are worn. But I have noticed all of their interest in the works of South America, and I think if the right policies to promote and to spread awareness for these works are implemented, that music can enrich the repertoires of orchestras the world over.

Will they hear and listen to the music of South America?

I think our music can experience the same kind of boom like the one our literature had. And besides that, it will also help improve the image of our countries in the world.

Latin Grammy Award nominee and pioneers of the nu bossa scene in Brazil, BossaCucaNova promise to put Singapore audiences in a Brazil state of mind with their lush fusion of bossa nova with beats at their debut concert here.

Come and soak up the Brazilian feeling, the Brasilidade (Bra-ZILI-dazhe, meaning Brazilitude or Brazilianness) that this exuberant group have in abundance.

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Dubbed “One of Rio’s coolest bands,” BossaCucaNova or “bossa with a new mind” remains unique, partly because the trio’s approach continues to treat bossa nova as the main dish and the embellishments as garnishes, rather than the other way around.

It is a perfect illustration of the way Brazilian musicians incorporate outside influences and of the way they can turn those elements into music that is both freshly modern and deeply, traditionally Brazilian — not to mention arm-wavingly, butt-swingingly, irresistibly danceable.

Bassist Márcio Menescal – son of first generation bossanovista Roberto Menescal – joined his friends DJ Marcelinho DaLua and keyboardist Alexandre Moreira burst onto the international music scene in 1999 with their milestone debut Revisited Classics (Six Degrees), a collection of classic bossa nova songs given new vigor through the skilfull and adventurous application of funky beats.

Their music has taken them around the world to share stages with the likes of everyone from DJ Cheb I Sabbah to Carlos Santana and their songs have become the soundtrack for everything from Woman on Top (starring Penelope Cruz) to a Spanish telephone company’s commercial. In fact, the band were invited to be part of the famed concert on Rio’s Ipanema beach in March 2008 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of bossa nova, starring pioneers of the style and which attracted 80,000 fans.

In Singapore, the threesome will be joined by flame-haired husky voiced regular BossaCucaNova singer Cris Delanno, Flavio Mendes on guitar and Dado Brother on percussion.

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DJ Marcelinho DaLua, bassist Márcio Menescal and keyboardist Alexandre Moreira started their BossaCucaNova project in 1999 with their milestone debut Revisited Classics (Six Degrees), a collection of classic bossa nova songs given new vigor through the application of funky breakbeats, skillful turntablism, electronic manipulation and adventurous mixology.

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Arguably the first electronic take on bossa nova to come out of Brazil, it also happened to be the first release from the Beco Dranoff (Red Hot)/Crammed collaboration Ziriguiboom, laterto become the home of Brazilian songstresses Bebel Gilberto and Cibelle.

It all started at the Albatroz studios, where the trio were studio technicians in charge of recording sessions for remarkable bossa artists such as Carlos Lyra, Wanda Sá and Roberto Menescal (Marcio’s dad). “We loved those songs, but we were also listening to funk, hip hop and acid jazz”, says Márcio.

The idea of fusing the smooth sounds of well-bred classic bossa nova recordings with up-to-the-minute electronic elements wasn’t exactly new — Brazilian musicians had been combining Brazilian music with modern influences for years, and European DJs had already figured out that bossa nova’s laid-back, free-flowing rhythm could add a crowd-pleasing spice to their own material. Regardless of their good intentions, however, many of them incorporated Brazilian elements in simply decorative forms.

Their sophomore effort Brasilidade on which they paired up with first generation bossanovista Roberto Menescal was nominated for a Latin Grammy award in 2002 for Best Brazilian Contemporary Pop Album. Next up was Uma Batida Diferente (“A Different Beat”), which like their predecessors is full of party-ready gems as well as gentle jazz.

Their most recent CD/DVD combo “Ao Vivo” (January 2009), comprising tracks recorded live at Rio’s Canecão concert hall as well as songs from a series of acoustic sessions at Nara Leão’s apartment in Rio. It features the beat-heavy crackle folks have come to love from BossaCucaNova, but also includes some gentler, mellow and insightful moments.