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A1 VILLA-LOBOS Forest of the Amazon. • Alfred Heller, conductor; Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra; Renée Fleming, soprano; Chorus of the Moscow Physics & Engineering Institute. • CONSONANCE 81-0012 [DDD]; 72:54. (Distributed by Albany.) The score to the MGM film Green Mansions proved troublesome to its composer, and became an obsession of sorts for conductor/pianist Alfred Heller. The film, based on Henry Hudson's novel of the same name, starred Audrey Hepburn, Anthony Perkins, and Lee J. Cobb, and was directed by Mel Ferrer. Villa-Lobos was commissioned to produce the music. V-L was not a neophyte film composer, but his experience with the Vargas regime, which gave its showcase composer full control as far as artistic decisions were concerned, left him ill prepared for the exigencies of American film production. The first sign of trouble was when the management of MGM informed him that he was not to orchestrate his work. Although V-L was piqued, he set upon the task in December 1958. His then- twenty-seven-year-old amanuensis, Alfred Heller, witnessed the process and gained a workable knowledge of the score. Heller was at the Radio City Music Hall in New York for the film's premiere in March 1959 and saw that V-L's score had been bowdlerized beyond recognition—virtually recomposed, or, more to the point, decomposed by Bronsilau Kaper. When V-L finally saw the film, he was deeply angered. The film was, despite the efforts of its cast and director, a critical and financial failure. V-L added sections to his original score, enlarging it to a massive symphonic poem of over seventy minutes, and renamed it Forest of the Amazon. In the spring of 1959, United Artists recorded some forty-six minutes of it with V-L at the helm of the Symphony of the Air and with the then-retired Bidu Sayäo singing new lyrics written by Dora Vasconcellos for the four songs that constitute the crux of the work. Until 1991, the score remained under the control of MGM's publisher, Robbins Music. Heller reconstructed the performing edition found on this release. As mentioned at the top, the music of The Forest of the Amazon has apparently been an obsession of Heller's for some time. He has previously released his own woodwind arrangements of its four songs: “Cair da Tarde,“ “Cancao do Amor,“ “Veleiros,“ and “Melodia Sentimental,“ on Etcetera KTC 1144. Later, he released the same (in soprano/piano arrangements), with soprano Roberta Alexander, and with himself at the piano, on Etcetera KTC 1165. I found both discs rewarding. Finally, he presents us with the full score, performed by the likely Renée Fleming and the unlikely Chorus of the Moscow Physics and Engineering Institute and the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra. First, to dispose of the negatives: Consonance's recording is ultra-close up, often glaring, and for those listening to it on truly linear equipment, bass shy. This, coupled with Heller's high-energy and forthright conducting, sometimes engenders a feeling of claustrophobia. Comparing it with V-L's own 1959 United Artists production (UAS 8007) shows the earlier effort to be, its recessed-ness and dimness notwithstanding, more appealingly atmospheric and, in terms of recording art, more musical. My own copy of that recording has long disappeared from my collection. Fellow reviewer James Miller kindly provided me with a tape dub of his copy which was good enough for purposes of sonic evaluation. I was, subsequently, able to audition an excellent copy of the original vinyl, which merely verified my original impressions. One of the outstanding felicities of that original production was the integration of Bidú Sayäo's voice into the instrumental texture. She only half emerges, making her, the surrogate Rima, ethereal and otherworldly. In the case of Heller's offering, Renée Fleming is recorded in more traditional soloist/orchestra balances. The upside: Her ravishing vocal art is brought squarely to the fore. The downside: Some of the mystery and magic of V-L's original conception is lost. Heller, incidentally, is on firm historical grounds in choosing this path. In V-L's July 12, 1959 performance at the Empire State Music Festival in New York, he substituted the dramatic soprano Elinor Ross to sing Rima's four songs, then titled Songs of the Tropical Forest. And now for the positives: 1) Heller offers the full score (72:54 as opposed to United Artist's roughly 46:00), restoring the piece's connective episodes that were, of necessity, cut from its LP incarnation. 2) The orchestral performance, its occasional slight intonation lapses and patches of less than ideal articulation notwithstanding, is a fully committed one (a rarity in this day and age)—a piece of living, breathing music. 3) Renée Fleming is spectacular throughout. As an unrepentant fan of the Brazilian master, I refuse to entertain discussion as to whether Forest of the Amazon makes it or not as a stand-alone score, or, given its sprawling thematic and stylistic variety, whether or not it is a symphonic poem in the traditional sense of the term. Suffice it to say that it is a late major Villa-Lobos score, full of Technicolor sonorities, his inimitable brand of exoticism, and flights of musical invention that just won't quit. Here it is served with great authority, panache, and (dare I say it?) love that take one straight to the heart of the music— making this release an essential addition to V-L's discography. William Zagorski This article originally appeared in Issue 19:4 (Mar/Apr 1996) of Fanfare Magazine. Heitor VILLA-LOBOS (1887-1959) - MusicWeb Review Forest of the Amazon (1958) Renée Fleming (sop) Chorus of the Moscow Physics and Engineering Institute Moscow Radio SO/Alfred Heller rec Nov-Dec 1994, April 1995, Studio 5, State House for Broadcasting and Recording, Moscow. DDD DELOS DE 1037 [74.05] To 'prepare' myself for this work I played through the first disc of EMI's (now deleted) six CD set of Villa-Lobos conducting his own music (CZS 7 67229 2). This was recorded in Paris between 1954 and 1958. It still sounds surprisingly good with the composer's hand-picked team of singers (Victoria de los Angeles, Maria Kareska) and instrumentalists (Aline van Barentzen, Manoel Braune, Magda Tagliaferro, Felicia Blumental). The work I wanted to hear was another epic running 73.02 compared with the Forest's 74.05. I had only recently reviewed the Cyprès re-release of Choros XII and decided it was time to try out the so-called 'four suites' of music: Descrobrimento de Brasil (The Discovery of Brazil). This was written in 1937 for Humberto Mauro's 1937 film of the same name. The four suites play quite happily as a sequence. Despite predating The Forest of the Amazon by about twenty years much the same qualities light up the music: mystical particles mingle with street songs and dances, the majesty of the great sea journey across the South Atlantic and the awe-inducing Matto Grosso interact at so many levels, the rattle of gourds contrasts with gritty dancing rhythms and Hollywood-style tunes of generous expanse and plush depth. The Forest of the Amazon is a 20 canto musical poem based on W.H. Hudson's novel 'Green Mansions'. I recall seeing this book (was it not part of a tetralogy) in Paignton's Winner Street second-hand book-shops in the early 1970s. It is a deeply unfashionable book now, rather like the once colossal sellers by Axel Munthe, Howard Spring and Howard Fast. 'Green Mansions' tells the story of Rima, the child who can speak in the tongues of the animals. No twee 'Doolittling' here. This is much more mystical. The music catches tragedy and ecstatic relaxation and the solo voice plays an anchoring role. We need not trouble to note the plot. Suffice to say that it attracted MGM who commissioned the score from Villa-Lobos. The studio made the film with some leading stars of the day (Audrey Hepburn as Rima, Anthony Perkins, Lee J Cobb. Mel Ferrer directed). Critically speaking it did not do well. The composer was told not to orchestrate the music because the studio had their own orchestrators. He was having none of this and completed the score in full- staved version. However when the film was premiered in March 1959, Alfred Heller, who worked closely with the composer and whose research and patiently inspired direction made this disc possible, was appalled to find that little of Villa-Lobos's score had survived on the soundtrack. Instead there was a suits-friendly score by Bronislaw Kaper, some Villa-Lobos simulacra and a few ... a very few ... real Villa- Lobos sequences. The composer was angry. Fortunately for us he decided to create the present tone poem from the extensive music he had written for celluloid. This is the end result. The Overture rudely, restlessly and raucously bursts in with brass and rasping male chorus and an ever-mobile string underpinning. Much of the music is feral and strides effortlessly between The Firebird and The Rite of Spring. The work is coeval with Bohuslav Martinu's Epic of Gilgamesh and some of the enigmatic music - especially the percussion lines - recall the Czech's writing in that work. Playful interludes including brittle Waltonian liquorice and hustle intervene to break the mood (track 2 2.14, track 5) and then melt into a deep-striding lyrical expression that has more in common with Korngold (the second movement of the Sinfonietta) than with Stravinsky. Villa-Lobos was a gifted tune-smith and no doubt Hollywood realised this even if they treated his music with their usual ignorance.

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