Album: Marcelo Bratke, Heitor Villa-Lobos: Complete Solo Piano Works, Vol. 2 (Quartz)

Heitor Villa-Lobos's prolific output ranged from symphonies to movie scores to folkloric representations of the diverse culture of his native Brazil.

Indeed, all the suites featured here – the Ciclo Brasileiro, Saudades Das Selvas Brasileiras, etc – are nationalistic in nature. He was inspired by Bach, and Marcelo Bratke here brings out the full range of character in Villa-Lobos's Bachianas Brasileiras No 4, in which his native nationalist influence is most deftly intertwined with that of J S Bach. Its schematic, though far from mechanical, progressions are imbued throughout with an undertow of reflective melancholy, spiced with unexpected rhythmic dislocations.

DOWNLOAD THIS Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4; Ciclo Brasileiro; Saudades Das Selvas Brasileiras