Your guide to classical music online

Bachianas Brasileiras Complete IRIS C

David Hurwitz

Artistic Quality:

Sound Quality:

We badly need an excellent new recording of the complete Bachianas Brasileiras. This very mediocre, dimly recorded local production has been bouncing around on various labels long enough for most of the composer’s admirers to know to avoid it. It has one high spot: Nelson Freire’s piano playing in No. 3. Otherwise, aside from No. 6 for solo flute and bassoon, the music just dies in the rhythmically challenged hands of conductor Isaac Karabtchewsky and his second-rate orchestra. Listen to the dingy and stressful mess they make of the finale to No. 4, or the lack of sparkle in No. 2’s locomotive finale. It’s all very earnest, grim if not truly terrible, and often boring. If you can find it, Batiz on EMI is still the way to go for the complete set; but as I said, we could use something new and (hopefully) better.

« Back to Search Results


Recording Details:

Reference Recording: None

HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS - Bachianas Brasileiras (complete)

Search Music Reviews

Search Sponsor

  • Insider Reviews only
  • Click here for Search Tips

Visit Our Merchandise Store

Visit Store
  • Ideally Cast Met Revival of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette
    Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, NY; March 19, 2024—The Met has revived Bartlett Sher’s 1967 production of Gounod’s R&J hot on the heels of its
  • An Ozawa Story, November, 1969
    Much has justifiably been written regarding Seiji Ozawa’s extraordinary abilities and achievements as a conductor, and similarly about his generosity, graciousness, and sense of humor
  • Arvo Pärt’s Passio At St. John The Divine
    Cathedral of St John the Divine, New York, NY; January 26, 2024—When one thinks of musical settings of Christ’s Passion, one normally thinks of the