Of Villa-Lobos enormous output I basically have only the Bachianas (the
complete set on EMI), the string quartets (all the MarcoPolo isuues) and
the guitar concerto (included in the EMI set).  The quartets I like a lot
but the orchestral music did not convince me too much.  Its nicely crafted,
sometimes very virtuos but it somehow did not grab me.  I listened to the
piano concertoes and the cello concertoes briefly, but again I had the
impression that these are nothing special and left the CDs in the shop.
Now I gave Villa-Lobos another chance and picked up the new recording of
Choros no.  11 for piano and large orchestra (Ondine, Finish RPO).  This is
a huge (60 minutes) work in three sets (played without pause) V-L composed
during his stay in Paris around 1928 as part of a cycle of 14 other works
called choros (apparently only the score of nos.  1-12 still exist).  What
an impressive work!  A kind of large late-romantic-impressionist-modernist
piano concerto with a lot of Brasil inside.  In another thread we were
looking for Mahlers piano concerto...well if Mahler would have been
Brasilian...here it is!  I do not know if this work is V-Ls best work - as
its claimed in the booklet - but its certainly a great one - I was truely
impressed!  The soloist is Ralf Gothoni (some might remember his recording
with the Rautavara piano concertos) and the conductor Sakari Oramo, now
principal conductor in Birmingham.  Highly recommended!

Achim Breiling