Francisco Mignone (1897-1986)
Fantasia Brasileira No.1 (1929)
Fantasia Brasileira No.2 (1931)
Fantasia Brasileira No.3 (1934)
Fantasia Brasileira No.4 (1936)
Burlesca e Toccata (1958)
Fabio Martino (piano)
São Paulo Symphony Orchestra/Giancarlo Guerrero
rec. 2023, Sala São Paulo Brazil
Naxos 8.574594 [58]
Another release in Naxos’ burgeoning “Music of Brazil” series and another palpable hit – really attractive yet unfamiliar repertoire very well performed and recorded. Although Francisco Mignone is described as “a leading figure in the Brazilian music scene after …. 1929”, to date his representation in this extensive series has been relatively limited. There has been a collection of his violin sonatas and another of some concertante works which I reviewed just over a year ago. This new disc is a very welcome addition as it features five exuberant works for piano and orchestra with the four Fantasias Brasileiras being written during Mignone’s explicitly Nationalist phase that dates immediately his return from European studies.
If you think Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies with a 20th Century Latin American voice you will not go far wrong. Apart from stating that “The fourth Fantasia is based on Brazilian themes of African origin”, the liner does not make clear whether the musical material here is of Mignone’s own invention albeit clearly inspired by the folk music and rhythms of his own country or he is using authentic Brazilian folk material. Ultimately this is a moot point as the music itself is instantly appealing and engaging. Béla Bartók’s handling of folk-derived material in some of his keyboard works also sprang to mind – there is a kind of muscular energy allied to edgy harmonies and compelling rhythms that is very engaging. Helped in no small part by the excellence of the performances. The skill and idiomatic playing of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra is now well-known and here they are joined by Brazilian pianist Fabio Martino. A quick search on YouTube will find you excellent concert videos featuring these same artists in there of the four Fantasias made at the time as these studio recordings. Martino has the ideal blend of technical authority and idiomatic style. Given the appealing nature of this music, no surprise that it has all been recorded before, although it would appear that this is the first time all these works have been collected together on a single disc for international release.
The four Fantasias were written between 1929 and 1936 and all are single movement compact works. No.2 is the shortest at 9:58 and No.4 the longest at 12:11. The Burlesca e Toccata was not written until 1958 but the liner suggests that the composer was revisiting the style of the earlier works after a period of exploring more atonal and contemporary idioms in the intervening decades. Interestingly, although the rhythms and melodic shapes are unmistakeably Latin American, Mignone does not deploy much percussion. The mood of the music is good natured, even light-hearted with agile and athletic sections alternating with lilting elegant melodies that are played with exactly the right blend of easy virtuosity and warmth – but not sentimentality – by Martino and the excellent São Paulo orchestra. As so often in this series, the engineering is very good too with a perfect balance between soloist and keyboard and the inner detail of Mignone’s appealing orchestration unfussily clear. In the second Fantasia the piano has more solo/cadenza-like passages which split the work up and make it feel more fragmentary and ultimately less satisfying than others in the set – a sense of momentary delights rather than a cohering whole.
I could imagine any of these works proving very successful in a ‘pops’ programme – they inhabit that slightly elusive world of being serious light music. The third Fantasias features more extended and dynamic passages for both orchestra and soloist combined with some busy timpani writing driving the music along – although interestingly still will a complete absence of what might be termed more ‘regional’ percussion. But then around 7:00 the music melts away into a gently sultry melody that Mignone seems to be able to summon at will. These sections are as beguiling as the up-tempo parts are exhilarating. Yes there are echoes of everyone from Gershwin to Rachmaninov and even Constant Lambert’s Rio Grande although you imagine the latter is purely coincidental. The liner makes the point that because Mignone was away from Brazil in the 1920’s he avoided being drawn into the often heated debate about Modernism in music which is probably why this music sounds so naturally and unaffectedly populist.
The very opening of the Fantasia No.4 is quite different from the preceding three starting as it does with a sonorously harmonised solo piano passage that sounds like a kind of Latin American Spiritual which is then taken up by the woodwind over piano passagework. Apart from some briefly energetic flurries the first half of the work is more lyrical and reflective. By the 6:00 the piano and piccolo lead into a toe-tapping jittery dance with – if my ears don’t deceive me – a guiro joining in evoking shades of Villa-Lobos’ Little Train of the Caipira. One last keyboard reverie leads into a final two minutes of dynamic dance briefly interrupted by the ‘big tune’ given to the full orchestra.
The Burlesca e Toccata was written a full twenty two years after the last Fantasia and while the characteristics of powerful solo writing with lean and clean orchestration remain this is clearly a less Nationalistic work. The liner states that the choice of the title “burlesque” implies that Mignone is parodying the seriousness of modern music. The themes are angular although I am not sure they are truly ‘atonal’ as the liner suggests. Certainly this is still much more accessible music than much that was being written in the late 1950’s. The music plays continuously so it is hard to know exactly when the Toccata starts although there is a clear shift in momentum around the 8:00 mark. After a resonantly euphonious brass chord the music seems to revisit stylistic elements of the earlier works although with a higher level of dissonance and deliberately quirky orchestration. Martino is kept busy with intricate keyboard writing which – as throughout – he plays with admirable clarity and articulation. The closing minute or so of the work revisits the spirit of the earlier works bringing the work – and the disc – to a good natured and suitably boisterous conclusion.
The benefit of this disc is in bringing these five related works together in performances that are wholly idiomatic and convincing – hard to imagine them being bettered. Conductor Giancarlo Guerrero sounds as authoritative as he did on the earlier Mignone disc I mentioned above as do all the performers. Given the degree of deliberate ‘sameness’ across all five works, this is a disc best enjoyed by dipping into. Overall another excellent addition to this revelatory series.
Nick Barnard
Buying this recording via a link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free
