Villa-Lobos and the art of choral transcription.

Naxos Classical Spotlight

Raymond Bisha introduces a new album of choral transcriptions by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) that forms part of Naxos’ Music of Brazil series. The programme represents part of Villa-Lobos’ efforts to create a body of music education resources, following his invitation in 1932 to set up an ambitious programme in the public school system in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The result was an amazing body of music for the benefit of both students and teachers, with choral music playing a central role. These choral transcriptions of classical favourites by composers that include J. S. Bach, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Schubert and Mendelssohn enabled them to reach a far wider audience than in their original setting.