Heitor Villa-Lobos 1 Uirapurú, Symphonic Poem & Ballet for 14:09 Orchestra Heitor Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1 2 II. Modinha (Prelude) 08:04 Sergei Prokofiev, arr. by Leopold Stokowski Cinderella, Suite from the ballet with excerpts from Opp. 87, 107 & 108 3 I. Fairy of Spring - Fairy of Summer 03:41 4 II. Cinderella Goes to the Ball 01:05 5 III. Cinderella in the Castle 07:01 6 IV. Cinderella and the Prince 04:09 7 V. Cinderella's Waltz - Midnight 04:04 8 VI. Apotheosis - Finale 03:36 Stadium Symphony Orchestra of New York / Leopold Stokowski, Conductor VILLA-LOBOS: Uirapurú There is an interesting parallel between is witnessed by all the members of the noc- Heitor Villa-Lobos’ symphonic poem turnal animal and insect kingdoms – glow Modinha from Bachianas Brasileiras Uirapurú and Stravinsky’s Firebird. Both worms, crickets, owls, enchanted birds, bats, No. 1 are musical portrayals of an enchanted bird and crawling things. which is transformed into a human being, PROKOFIEV: Cinderella – Ballet Suite and both were written during earlier periods “A beautiful maiden appears, also lured by of their composers’ careers, pointing the way the sweet song of Uirapurú. Armed with Leopold Stokowski conducting the their music would follow in later years. bow and arrow, she catches up with the Stadium Symphony Orchestra of Enchanted Bird, piercing its heart, where- New York Urapurú was composed in 1917. It was one upon the Singing Bird is immediately trans- of the first successful symphonic works in formed into a handsome youth. which Villa-Lobos made use of folk mate- rial he had been gathering from the interior “The Happy Huntress, who has thoroughly regions of his native Brazil. captivated the handsome youth, followed by the amazed natives, is about to leave the The instrumentation of Uirapurú is exten- forest when they are halted by the shrill, sive and unusual. Besides the conventional unpleasant notes of a distant nose-flute. orchestral instruments, it includes the Suspecting the arrival of the ugly Indian, violinophone (a violin with a horn attached) seeking revenge for the merciless beating and such Latin American noisemakers as the they had administered, the natives hide in cóco, tamborim, tambur surdo and réco- the dense woods. The unsuspecting youth réco. boldly confronts the ugly Indian, who slays him with a perfectly played arrow. As the On the score of Uirapurú Villa-Lobos has Indian maidens tenderly carry the body to a printed the following story, upon which the nearby fountain, it is suddenly transformed symphonic poem is based. It is an original into a beautiful bird, which flies, its sweet tale, which the composer concocted from song diminishing into the silence of the several different Brazilian folk legends. forest.” “This is the story of Uirapurú – a legendary Enchanted Bird. Fetish worshipers consid- Modinha from Bachianas Brasileiras ered it the King of Love. Its nightly song lured No. 1 the Indians into the woods in search of the enchanting singer. In his series of nine Bachianas Brasileiras, which are written for various combinations “In such a search, a gay group of young of instruments and voices, Villa-Lobos has natives comes upon an ancient and ugly attempted to fuse spirit and technique of Indian seated in the forest, playing upon his his idol, Bach, with the melodic contours of nose-flute. Resenting the invasion of their the Brazilian folk idiom. The first of these forest by this unsightly old man, the natives immensely attractive little suites dates beat him mercilessly and drive him out. from 1930. It is scored for an orchestra of Continued search for the elusive Uirapurú ‘cellos, and is in three movements: Embolada (Introduction), Modinha (Prelude) and Neither of these suites follows the sequence Conversa (Fugue). Emolada implies “expan- of the ballet; each is arranged for musical sion:” Modinha is a form of Brazilian song, balance and variety rather than for chrono- and is here treated in the manner of a Bach logical exactitude. In arranging the present aria; Conversa, as its name implies, is a sort six-movement suite, Leopold Stokowski has of conversation. The lyrical Modinha is fre- attempted to combine both elements, adher- quently performed out of context, and it is as ing to the order of the ballet and, at the same a separate movement that it is heard on this time, achieving musical variety. In so doing, record. he has drawn two movements from each suite and has added two movements - Cinderella and the Prince and Apotheosis – Finale – from Prokofiev: Cinderella – Ballet Suite the body of the ballet score. The movements as recorded here are: 1. Fairy of Spring Cinderella was Sergei Prokoviev’s next to last and Fairy of Summer (Suite II, No. 3); 2. ballet. Begun in 1941, it was interrupted by Cinderella Goes to the Ball (I, 6) 3. Cinderella the German invasion of Russia, and was not at the Castle (II, 6); 4. Cinderella and the completed until 1944. It was first presented Prince; 5. Cinderella’s Waltz – Midnight (I, 7); as the first new post-war work at the Bolshoi 6. Apotheosis – Finale. Theatre in Moscow at the end of 1945. The libretto was by Nicolai Volkov, choreog- Notes by PAUL AFFELDER raphy by Rostislav Zakharov, sets by Peter Williams, and Galina Ulanova danced the title role. This version differs somewhat from the one familiar to American audiences, as offered here on tour and on television by the Royal Ballet. The latter boasts choreography by Frederick Ashton and sets by Jean-Danis Malclés. It was first seen at London’s Covent Garden in December, 1948, with Moira Shearer, substituting as Cinderella for the indisposed Margot Fonteyn, who was later the principal interpreter of the part. With the exception of minor departures, both versions follow the familiar fairy tale by Perrault. For Cinderella Prokofiev wrote some of his most ingratiating music, a combination of his best efforts as a composer of fairy-tale music and music for the ballet. Some time after completing Cinderella, he extracted two concert suites from the score, which were published as his Op. 107 and Op. 108. Some notes on the history of Everest …from the original LP release: system, but naturally will be most appreci- Records and the digital remastering ated by the audiophile with the very finest hi-fi “This Everest Recording is a Product of Belock equipment. When EVEREST recordings are When Everest Records was founded by Recording, a division of the Belock Instrument played in the Belock studio through top quality Harry Belock in 1958 as a division of Belock Corp. An EVEREST recording represents a hi-fi equipment similar to that found in home Instrument Corp., the aim was to produce a new peak of achievement in the recording art. use, the resulting sound is indistinguishable catalogue of stereo recordings of the highest As a product of Belock Instrument Corp. this from the master tape. Since Belock Recording possible technical standard, with interesting recording enjoys unique advantages shared unconditionally guarantees that their tapes and and innovative classical repertoire played by by few, if any other record company. The par- stereo disks are genuine stereophonic record- some of the best artists and orchestras. ent company is considered one of the world’s ings, they are designated as CERTIFIED finest precision electronic facilities and is STEREO-MASTER RECORDINGS. The fre- For the first Everest recording sessions in engaged chiefly in the development and pro- quency range of EVEREST recordings is 1958, an Ampex 300-3 half-inch three-chan- duction of ultra-secret military devices. The 20 to 20,000 cycles. It is important to note, nel recorder was used. Later on the label company was one of the earliest involved in that many companies specify wide frequency moved to use a Westrex 35mm 3-track mag- the electronics aspects of ballistic missiles response, and while this is an important part netic film recorder, which had a wider possible and is pre-eminent in the fields of radar, and of hi-fi recording, the distortion content of the dynamic range, less print-through, less tape fire-power computers and stabilization sys- recording is, if anything, even more important. stretch and less ‘wow and flutter’, and which tems. Harry Belock, founder of the company, All EVEREST recordings are free of audible was the basis for the highly acclaimed typical is an international authority on sound, and distortion throughout the entire frequency “Everest-sound”. has designed magnetic film recorders which range. Carefully wipe surface with soft damp are in use throughout the world. To EVEREST cloth. Return to wrapper after each play.” For the process of digital remastering of the 35 he brings all his talents and the vast techni- mm master tapes a modified Albrecht MB 51 cal resources of his company. This recording machine was used for analog playback. The was made in the new Belock Recording studio, MB 51 was equipped with a specially designed which is constructed along the most advanced Executive Producer: Mark Jenkins for Countdown Laser Shrinkage Detector (L.S.D.) which ideas in acoustics for recording. The very latest Media/Everest • Project Coordinator: Helge Jürgens allows optimal playback of shrunk magnetic Telefunken, AKG and Neumann microphones for Countdown Media • Digital Transfers and film. The output was captured in highest digital were utilized, feeding into the new Ampex 300 Remastering: Lutz Rippe at Countdown Media using resolution of 192 kHz sampling rate and 24 bit self-sync stereo recorders on half inch tape. the original master tapes • Artwork preparation: word length using state-of-the-art converters. A specially-designed Ampex with low-noise Eckhard Volk at Countdown Media • Digital Booklet: In the digital domain the recording was care- amplifiers is used to produce the dubbing mas- böing gestaltung • Original Producer: Bert Whyte for Everest Records • Original Recording Engineer: fully restored and remastered using top-quality ter.