Radamés Gnattali (1906-1988)
Piano Music
Martin Jones (piano)
rec. 2022/23, Wyastone Concert Hall, Monmouth, UK
Nimbus Records NI8114 [67]
In the second of his Brazilian composers series – the first was music by Francesco Mignone (Nimbus Records NI8113) – Martin Jones turns to Radamés Gnattali, a musician who did much to popularise Brazilian music of all genres and whose musical partnerships were as widespread as Heitor Villa-Lobos and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Gnattali was classically trained and as a pianist studied with Guilherme Fontainha, a grand-pupil of Franz Liszt via Portuguese pianist José Viana da Motta (1868-1948). Despite giving a few recitals this side of his career never took off and he turned to radio to make ends meet; it may not be the career he envisaged or even necessarily wanted when he looked back on it but it seems to have been highly successful one and he wrote and arranged many works; he conducted his own arrangement on the first recording of Ary Barroso’s Aquarela do Brazil, a song the booklet accurately describes as the unofficial anthem of Brazil.
Several of the works here were probably written in that creative environment; music was needed to fill the airways and Gnattali would fill it with valsas and choros, taodas and sambas and other music. Choros, despite their title, little cry or lament, are generally up tempo pieces and Negaceando, Canhoto and Manhosamente – denying, left–handed and slyly respectively – fit the bill, full of syncopated rhythms, elegant harmonic shifts and a subtle blend of jazz and Brazilian flavour. Dance runs right through the heart of his music and his valsas are similarly engaging, seductive and volatile; his three Vaidoso of which Jones plays the first two, are sultry, slow waltzes successfully striding a fine line between works of Satie and Debussy and jazz pianists such as Bill Evans. From 1945 come the Valsas para piano a prélude followed by ten short waltzes. I have heard some of these performed separately but hearing them as a whole puts me in mind of Ravel’s valse nobles et sentimentales written in homage to Schubert and his collections of short dances; Gnattali’s valsas are a similar mix of improvisatory, fragmentary, vertiginous, suave and quixotic moods. His short perfumosa, fragrant, was written at around the same time and could easily be placed in their company with its languid mood; like the Vaidoso waltzes it has a playful, faster middle section. The wonderfully sentimental Alma Brasileira sounds like it should be from the same period but actually dates from 1930, a year before his move to Rio, though in a way it acts as a signpost for the more popular direction his career was to take in the 1930s, his work for radio and writing orchestral arrangements for RCA Victor. In that task he was joining Pixinguinha, the alias of composer Alfredo da Rocha Viana Filho (1897-1973) who had been writing arrangements for RCA since the 1920s and it was for Pixinguinha that Gnattali later wrote his Uma rosa para Pixinguinha; Jones plays the piano version of this deliciously nostalgic slow waltz.
Two préludes, prélude paisagem – landscape – and prélude amolacado lean more toward Gnattali’s classical side. The first is broad and languid with something of the dance elements of Debussy’s La soirée dans Grenade but none of the bustle of nightlife while the jaunty rhythms of the second lead nicely into his four Exercicios para piano in which he explores Brazilian rhythms in four brief studies, contrapuntal and playful throughout. In the Tocata Gnattali takes the ideas of the exercises and incorporates them making for an exciting piece, a moto perpetuo contrasted with a more melodic section that has something of the soundworld of Ravel’s gaspard de la nuit.Thethree sections of Ponteio, roda e baile – point, circle and dance – each have their own motif; the atmospheric Ponteio is in the woods of São Miguel, roda comprises the canoe turns and Therezinho de Jesus whilst baile is I listen to a poet and Panera Hawk. The booklet describes the work’s muscular keyboard virtuosity but is silent on where these motifs originate – I assume they are Brazilian folksongs. Gnattali certainly makes full use of the keyboard with flashing whole tone writing in the scherzo-like roda and boisterous writing in baile. It would be interesting hearing it alongside Debussy or Ravel in a recital. The muscular virtuosity continues in the more accessible Rapsodia Brasileira, written in the same year as the sumptuous Alma Brasileira. It harks back to the spirit of Liszt’s Spanish rhapsodie with its larger than life energy and integration of folk melodies and dances. There is something Lisztian about the writing too; just listen to the sparkling decoration adorning the relatively simple first melody O meu boi morreu – my ox died. The other parts, based on Viuvinha bota luto – the widow mourns – and Anda roda, desanda roda – go round and round – continue in this fashion, joined and interwoven with an original theme that announces itself in the vivid introduction. The booklet mentions an almost Gottschalkian pomp and this is certainly present, especially in the final section. Jones captures this even if he is not quite so flamboyant as Roberto Szidon on his LP of Gnattali’s piano works – not yet on CD as far as I can tell.
I was really impressed by Jones on his Mignone disc and he is no less impressive here. He matches Gnattali’s energy and passion in the more extrovert works and responds magnificently to the subtlety of his melodies and rhythms in works such as negaceando or the Vaidoso waltzes. This is a fabulous collection of piano music by this composer who was Brazilian from his head to the very tips of his toes but who remains relatively unknown outside his homeland.
Rob Challinor
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Contents
Negaceando. Chôro (1940s)
Perfumosa. Valsa (1940s)
Preludio amolecado (1940s)
Preludio 2. Paisagem (1930)
Valsas para piano (1945)
Exercicios para piano (1965)
Tocata (1944)
Manhosamente, Sly. Chôro (1947)
Uma rosa para Pixinguinha (1964)
Ponteio, roda e baile (1931)
Canhoto left handed Chôro (1947)
Vaidoso No.2 Valsa (1963)
Alma Brasileira (1930)
Rapsodia Brasileira (1930)
Vaidoso Vain Valsa (1940s)
