Pernambuco: Sons de carrilhões (Sounds of the bells)

A fine collection of pieces with all the flavours and colours of Brazil. The CD includes music in the more familiar late classical style and also the dance orientated rhythms of the Bossa Nova. The duet of Montserrat Gascon and Xavier Coll was formed in 1989. They have toured throughout Europe and America. As well as being prolific recording artistes they both find time to teach at the Centre for Musical Arts in Barcelona.

The Latin American collection draws mainly from this vast heritage of Latin American song and dance. Of the composers represented, all are renowned as guitarists in their own right, or have worked closely with guitarists. The countries represented include Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela and of course Brazil.

The guitar has played a major part in the evolution of Brazilian music, especially during the twentieth century. On this recording the charm, beauty and sensuality of Brazilian guitar music can be heard in pieces as diverse as Marco Pereira’s Pixaim, a fast rhythmic dance originating from North-East Brazil, João Pernambuco’s cheeky Blackbird, the classic song Girl from Ipanema by Antonio Carlos Jobim, a founder of the Bossa Nova movement and, from Brazil’s most famous composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos, the hauntingly lyrical Sentimental Melody, written for the film Green Mansions in 1957.