Alberto Nepomuceno: “O Garatuja”—Prelude; Série Brasileira
(Brazilian Suite); Symphony in G Minor. Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by
Fabio Mechetti. Naxos. $12.99.
The rediscovery of generally forgotten
Romantic-era composers continues apace, but even within that rediscovery, some
composers are less likely to be “found again” than others. This is not
necessarily because their music is inferior to other music being written at the
same time, but it can be because they have – by design – more of a regional
focus than an international one. Thus, Alberto Nepomuceno (1864-1920), although
unfamiliar to most classical-music listeners, is not entirely unknown in his
native Brazil, where he was important not only culturally but also politically:
he was heavily involved in the unrest that eventually led to the creation in
1889 of the First Brazilian Republic.
Furthermore, Nepomuceno was scarcely unrecognized
in his own time: he lived for a while with Grieg, whose friendship encouraged
Nepomuceno to go further on the road he was already traveling toward
nationalism in music. He was well-thought-of by Mahler, who at one point
invited Nepomuceno – a conductor as well as a composer – to conduct at the
Vienna Opera, although illness prevented Nepomuceno from doing so. Nepomuceno
was good friends with Debussy as well as Grieg, and one of Nepomuceno’s
students was Heitor Villa-Lobos.
Yet because of his staunch devotion to Romantic
forms and approaches at a time when musical tastes were changing rapidly, plus
his focus on the “Brazilian-ization” of music wherever possible, Nepomuceno
never became an internationally prominent composer, and his works are very
rarely heard today. And this makes a new Naxos CD featuring the Minas Gerais
Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Fabio Mechetti all the more welcome,
providing as it does the chance to hear more than an hour of some of
Nepomuceno’s large-scale compositions: to the extent that he is known at all
nowadays, it is primarily for chamber music, notably his String Quartet No. 3
(1890). The works conducted by Mechetti are from around the same time as that quartet:
Série Brasileira dates to 1891,
Nepomuceno’s sole symphony to 1893, and the prelude to his unfinished opera O Garatuja to 1904.
There is little stylistic progress during
the decade-plus in which these pieces were written; indeed, all of them are
distinctly Brahmsian in sound, scoring, thematic approaches and harmony. Nepomuceno,
though, occasionally shows a considerable melodic gift: notably, the second
movement of Série Brasileira, called Intermédio (Intermezzo), opens and
closes with a theme so catchy that it is difficult not to continue humming it
as the four-movement suite continues. The suite’s concluding movement, the
ebullient Batuque, is also
impressive, but the other two movements are more ordinary: the first and
longest, Alvorada na serra (“Dawn at
the Mountains”), features distinctly Grieg-like tone painting but goes on much
too long, while the third, Sesta na rede
(“Napping in a Hammock”), is pleasant enough but not particularly
distinguished.
Nepomuceno’s symphony also has high points
and middling ones. In the traditional Brahmsian four movements, it opens boldly
and effectively, then has a moderately engaging but not particularly
emotionally gripping sort-of-slow second movement, marked Andante quasi adagio. The third movement is the best and most
innovative, opening and closing in fine late-19th-century Scherzo style and containing in the
middle an extended episode marked Intermezzo
that goes beyond the traditional Trio and expands the movement’s emotional
palette. Unfortunately, the finale, after all this, is disappointing and almost
trivial in sound, marked Con fuoco
but possessing little forcefulness thematically or expressively. Still, the
symphony, like Série Brasileira,
shows that Nepomuceno had considerable skill in orchestration, with occasional
highlighting of woodwinds (flute, bassoon and others) being a hallmark of his
approach to the orchestra.
The O
Garatuja prelude, designed for what was to be a lyric comedy, comes across
as something along the lines of a compressed version of the symphony and suite:
Nepomuceno creates themes of various types and in various tempos (presumably
taken or intended to be taken from the finished opera), weaves them together
skillfully, and creates a well-balanced, generally upbeat and altogether
pleasant listening experience. The prelude is not substantial, but presumably
the opera was not intended to be, either, and certainly Mechetti’s conducting
and the orchestra’s playing – here and throughout the disc – show idiomatic
appreciation of Nepomuceno’s compositional style. Indeed, the performers do a
fine job of propelling this music along effectively and giving listeners plenty
of opportunities to enjoy being introduced to a composer who, if scarcely
innovative in any way except for the inclusion of some Brazilian material in
his works, was a fine craftsman who does not deserve the near-total obscurity
to which he has been relegated for a full century.
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