Tuesday, June 17, 2014

OSESP a Prêmio da Música Brasileira winner

The 25th Annual Prêmio da Música Brasileira (Brazilian Music Awards) were held recently in Rio de Janeiro's Theatro Municipal. Winner of the Classical Album award was the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP), for their Naxos disc of the Villa-Lobos Symphonies no. 6 & 7.  Excellent choice!


Thursday, June 12, 2014

World Cup

"Villa-Lobos found that his concerts were often poorly attended because of the public's preference for soccer, this led him to denounce the sport violently. One of his phrases became famous: 'Soccer causes human intelligence to detour from the head to the feet!' The Brazilian soccer fans responded vigorously to the challenge. In one town they bombarded the touring musicians with rotten eggs, and the threat of similar treatment caused the group to leave another town in the early morning hours."

David E. Vassberg, "Villa-Lobos as Pedagogue: Music in the Service of the State," Journal of Research in Music Education, Vol. 23, No. 3 (Autumn, 1975), p. 165

No matter what Villa-Lobos thought about the game, I'm cheering big for A Seleçao!