Navigator of Silences exhibits the cadence and choreography of Brazilian Instrumental Music, a style that blends samba, choro and forró with classical music and inspiration from folk, indigenous and African traditions. Deep in the fertile borderlands where these traditions intersect, the album includes a new arrangement of a beloved 1970’s romantic song, a choro-influenced sonatina by 20th-century musical pioneer Radamès Gnattali, and a violin transcription of jazz composer André Mehmari’s gloss on Afro-Brazilian Carnival traditions, as well as character pieces that explore melancholy and dream-like states. In keeping with the practices of Brazilian Instrumental Music, we present our own unique arrangements and transcriptions of these works.
PROGRAM:
Yamandu Costa Samba pro Rapha
Radamès Gnattali Sonatina for Flute and Piano
Léa Freire Choro na chuva (Crying in the Rain) and Espiral (Spiral)
André Mehmari Sonata for viola and piano
Luca Raele Onde o Verso (where the verse…) and Quando inverso (when reversed…)
Toninho Horta Beijo Partido (Broken Kiss)
Bianca Gismonti and Salomão Soares Navegador de Silêncios (Navigator of Silences)
Bianca Gismonti Festa no Carmo (Party in Carmo)
Clarice Assad The Last Song
CREDITS:
Francesca Anderegg, violin, arrangements, and production
Erika Ribeiro, piano, arrangements, and production
Jeff O'Donnell, recording engineer
Ryan Streber, mixing and mastering engineer
Ali Haegele, designer
Released on Rezurrection Recordz / Bright Shiny Things
Funding provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board and St. Olaf College
PROGRAM NOTES
Yamandu Costa: (1980 - ): Samba pro Rapha
Yamandu Costa is an international touring artist and legendary player of the violão, the 7-string Brazilian guitar. He wrote Samba pro Rapha as a tribute to guitarist Rafael Rabello, who was credited with creating a new nationalistic style in the 1980’s. This sunny and propulsive work showcases the “samba swing,” a melodic anticipation that keeps the groove aloft.
Radamés Gnattali (1906–1988): Sonatina para flauta e piano
Radamés Gnattali was originally from Porto Alegre, a city in the south of Brazil, where he studied to be a concert pianist. He became instead a successful commercial musician in Rio: beginning in the 1930s, he conducted, played the piano, worked for radio stations, and wrote arrangements of popular music (all the while pursuing a side career as a classical composer). He composed in a style which blended neo-Romanticism, jazz and Brazilian popular music. The Sonatina for Flute and Piano shows the influence of Brazilian popular genres in the chôro-inflected rhythms in the first movement. The second movement features a mournful and dissonant melodic line in the violin over a low and heavy ostinato. The last movement, subtitled Lembrando Pixinguinha (‘Remembering Pixinguinha’), is a tribute to legendary Brazilian flautist/composer Alfredo da Rocha Viana Filho (‘Pixinguinha’), another important figure in the development of the nationalistic musical style in the early 20th century.
Léa Freire (b. 1957): Choro na chuva and Espiral
Léa Freire is a well-known contemporary jazz composer, flautist and bandleader of the group Vento em Madeira (‘Wind in the Woods’), for whom she has composed many pieces. Her bittersweet composition, Choro na chuva is rooted in chôro music, a popular 19th century instrumental form that originated in the seaside city of Rio. Chôro fuses dance forms like the polka, schottische, waltz, mazurka and habanera into a vibrant, syncopated style. The romantic and melancholy tune has a chôro-style accompaniment, and the swirl of notes in the middle section recall a torrential rainstorm.
André Mehmari (1977 - ): Sonata para viola e piano
André Mehmari is a Brazilian composer and pianist recognized in both the jazz and classical realms. His works draw from diverse musical currents (pop, folk music, bossa nova, jazz, and avant-garde classical). In this sonata, he was inspired by the maracatu tradition from northeastern Brazil: percussion patterns combine with an almost minimalist, Stravinskian influence in the first movement, as the gradual shifting of patterns builds energy throughout each phrase. The second movement borrows from the style of the rabeca (traditional fiddle), an important folk instrument in this region, while the third movement is a Brazilian waltz.
Luca Raele: Onde o verso and Quando Inverso
Luca Raele is an accomplished clarinetist and composer - a longtime member of many premiere classical and jazz ensembles in Brazil. In this album, we’ve recorded a pair of short pieces: “Onde o verso” and “Quando inverso,” which loosely translate to “where the verse…” and “when reversed…” Like many of the composers on this album, Raele’s compositional style aims to blend classical, jazz and folk influences. “Onde o verso” starts with atmospheric pizzicato gestures and gradually blossoms into melody. “Quando inverso” is a quirky and humorous sketch that riffs on contemporary jazz and avant-garde styles.
Bianca Gismonti (1982 - ): Navegador de Silêncios and Festa no Carmo
Bianca Gismonti, a pianist and composer, is the daughter of celebrated 20th-century composer and pianist Egberto Gismonti, a key figure in the Brazilian piano tradition. She composes and performs as part of her group “Duo Gisbranco”. Navegador de Silêncios was written as a collaboration with jazz pianist Salomão Soares. It is based on a dream Bianca had: in it, she sees her father appear on a beach, and calls to him, but she cannot reach him; he is silent. The melody inhabits a low and haunting register, while the rippling chords in the piano suggest flowing waves. Festa no Carmo is an example of forró, an enormous genre encompassing everything from folk to pop to electronic music. This piece showcases the constant 16th note subdivisions and syncopated accents typical of forró, as well as the Brazilian melodic anticipation (“swing”), and freewheeling virtuosic style.
Clarice Assad (1978 - ): The Last Song
Clarice Assad is a Grammy ™-nominated Brazilian-American composer. The daughter of famed Brazilian guitarist Sérgio Assad, Clarice has forged a career for herself as one of the most sought-after Brazilian composers of concert music. “The Last Song” is a spellbinding meditation originally written for solo piano. It has been re-imagined for many instrument combinations, and appears here for the first time for violin and piano.
About the Artists
FRANCESCA ANDEREGG
Hailed by the New York Times for her “rich tone” and “virtuosic panache,” violinist Francesca Anderegg delivers insightful accounts of contemporary and classical music. Through her inventive programming, active composer collaborations, and precise yet impassioned interpretations, Anderegg has earned renown as a musical explorer of the first order. As a soloist, Ms. Anderegg has toured throughout Argentina and Brazil, performing a wide variety of contemporary and standard violin concerti with orchestras in the United States and South America. Since her Carnegie Hall debut performance in 2008, Ms. Anderegg has given solo recitals in national and international venues, including Brooklyn's National Sawdust, The Arts Club of Washington, the National Museum of Colombia in Bógota, and many others across the world. Her three solo albums have been featured on radio programs throughout the country and noted for their “stunning virtuosity” (Fanfare Magazine), “lustrous tone” (The Strad Magazine), and “riveting listening experience” (Second Inversion). Her album "Wild Cities" was selected as a favorite of 2016 by New Music Box, and her most recent commercial release, "Images of Brazil," was praised as “the most delightful disc of Brazilian chamber music to come along in years” (Fanfare Magazine). Ms. Anderegg’s appearances include concerts at Chicago’s Symphony Center and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York with Itzhak Perlman and members of the Perlman Music Program.
The search for unusual repertoire has made Ms. Anderegg a fierce advocate for new music. Since 2007, when she made her New York concerto debut performing Ligeti’s Violin Concerto with the Juilliard Orchestra, she has championed the artistic and emotional expression of works by 20th century and living composers. As concertmaster of the contemporary music ensemble AXIOM, she led Miller Theatre's production of Elliott Carter's opera What Next?, in a performance that was rated one of classical music's top 10 events of the year by Time Out magazine. She performed Daniel Schnyder's jazz-influenced Violin Concerto with Orchestra for the Next Century, and performed Pierre Boulez's orchestral and solo compositions under the direction of the composer at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland. With her husband, the Venezuelan-American composer Reinaldo Moya, Anderegg has performed a series of his original works exploring magical realism and other elements of Latin American literature and imagination. In 2019, she gave the world premiere of Moya's violin concerto at the Lakes Area Music Festival with conductor Gemma New.
Anderegg holds an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and masters' and doctoral degrees from The Juilliard School, where her teachers included Robert Mann, Ronald Copes, and Naoko Tanaka. She is a laureate of the Corpus Christi Competition and winner of fellowships from both the McKnight Foundation and the Leonore Annenberg Fund. Her festival appearances include the Tanglewood Music Center, the National Music Festival, Music in the Vineyards, and Yellow Barn. An enthusiastic educator and mentor of young musicians, Anderegg is Associate Professor of Violin at St. Olaf College and has taught in the summers at Interlochen Center for the Arts, Brevard Music Center, and the Sarasota Music Festival. She has been an invited guest teacher at universities throughout the country and abroad.
ERIKA RIBEIRO
Renowned for her remarkable musicality, transparency, and the spontaneity of her pianism, Latin Grammy nominee Erika Ribeiro is a truly 21st-century artist always on the search for new performance approaches, and combining diverse styles in her playing and programming.
Winner of 10 piano competitions in Brazil, Erika has performed extensively in her native country, as well as in the United States, Europe and Latin America. She has played at prestigious venues such as Sala São Paulo, Theatro Municipal (Rio de Janeiro), Sala Minas Gerais, Cecilia Meireles Hall, among others. She has been a frequent guest soloist of main Brazilian orchestras, including the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, Minas Gerais Philharmonic, Bahia Symphony Orchestra, OSUSP, Orchestra of the Radio and TV Cultura and many others; in Europe, she performed with the Kalisz Philharmonic (Poland) and the Gaia Philharmonic Orchestra (Portugal). As a chamber musician, Erika frequently collaborates with diverse singers and instrumentalists.
Her first solo album Erika Ribeiro (Igor Stravinsky, Hermeto Pascoal, Sofia Gubaidulina) was nominated for the LATIN GRAMMY 2022 as Best Classical Album, and was a finalist at the prestigious Brazilian "Prêmio Concerto" as Best Album of the Year. In this work, released by Rocinante Records, Erika originally transcribed pieces by Stravinsky and Pascoal for the piano, including rare pieces written by Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina. In 2018, she recorded the acclaimed album Images of Brazil with American violinist Francesca Anderegg, released by Naxos Latin American Series, containing rare gems of Brazilian repertoire for violin and piano. Her new album Entre Luas with singer Tatiana Parra was just released by Maritaca Records.
Ms. Ribeiro holds a B.A. and M.A. in Music from the University of São Paulo, and a PhD from the University of Rio, where she studied the concept of pianism and pianist-composer Egberto Gismonti. She also studied at the prestigious Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" Berlin, Germany (2003-05), and chamber music at Écoles d 'Art de Fontainebleau, France (2008). She has attended music festivals in the U.S., Switzerland and France, where she received the highest honors in performance at the Fontainebleau Academy. Ms. Ribeiro is currently Piano and Chamber Music Professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO).