The Portuguese word choro means cry or lament. While composer Mozart Camargo Guarnieri (his brothers were named Verdi, Belline, and Rossine) indicates that he uses the genre name interchangeably with "concerto," something of the original sense of the word survives in the three pieces of this type performed here by the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, or OSESP) under the fearless octogenarian Isaac Karabtchevsky. Camargo Guarnieri separates out the strands of the choros composed ...
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The Portuguese word choro means cry or lament. While composer Mozart Camargo Guarnieri (his brothers were named Verdi, Belline, and Rossine) indicates that he uses the genre name interchangeably with "concerto," something of the original sense of the word survives in the three pieces of this type performed here by the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, or OSESP) under the fearless octogenarian Isaac Karabtchevsky. Camargo Guarnieri separates out the strands of the choros composed by Heitor Villa-Lobos. He often introduces vigorous percussion elements in the main body of a movement but deploys a soloist in lyrical, gentle melancholy, and in rhythmically freer episodes. Camargo Guarnieri expands the tonality of Villa-Lobos but does not abandon tonality, and indeed, he attacked in print those who did (the booklet for this release provides a good detailed account of his place in the Brazilian scene of the middle-20th century). In his leisurely use of the...
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