Credits:

Neil Thomson, São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, São Paulo Symphony Chorus, Clarissa Cabral, Sava Teyshayra

Description:

Brasil em Concerto, a project led by the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is an unprecedented large-scale project in which a Brazilian orchestra will perform and record approximately 100 works composed in the 19th and 20th centuries. Almeida Prado, the composer featured on this album, was active in Brazil in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. After studying music with Camargo Guarnieri, Prado eventually became interested in the works of Stockhausen, Boulez, and Ligeti, and received a scholarship to study in Paris. He studied under Nadia Boulanger and was also influenced by the mysticism of Messiaen. He combined the essence of these influences with the Brazilian music of his own country and established his own style, which can be seen in his piano collection "Cartas Celestes = Celestial Charts" and other compositions. The two works on this album, composed almost 20 years apart in date, reflect his different styles. The early work, "A Little Funeral Song to the Poet Carlos Maria di Araujo," is a lament for the poet who lost his life at a young age. It is a work for orchestra with effective use of chorus and percussion.In contrast, the "Symphony of the Orishas," written for the 10th anniversary of the Campinas Municipal Symphony Orchestra, is a work that is a celebration of traditional Brazilian religion and rituals and of the great outdoors, and stands out for its precise orchestration and booming rhythmic use. With mystical tones reminiscent of deep forests and bursts of primitive and pagan rhythms and sounds, it could be called a Brazilian version of "The Rite of Spring. The domestic edition comes with a Japanese translation by Yusuke Kimoto (President of the Villa-Lobos Society of Japan). Naxos Japan