Rio-Paris - The Brazilian Project

Very disappointed - the singing styles really don't work together.

I've finally had a chance to listen to the Erato CD Rio Paris, a project by guitarist Liat Cohen, with the involvement of three special singers: Natalie Dessay, Agnes Jaoui and Helena Noguerra. Seven of the 17 tracks are by Villa-Lobos, but I also really enjoyed Cohen's choice by more recent composers, beginning with my favourite Tom Jobim song, Waters of March.The centre-piece of the disc is the Aria of Bachianas Brasileiras #5, presented in Villa-Lobos's own arrangement for guitar and voice, and performed by Liat Cohen and Natalie Dessay. Two little-known early songs by Villa-Lobos with Cohen and Dessay are also included: Les Meres, op.45, and L'oiseau besse d'une fleche, op. 10 (most VL pieces with opus numbers are from the beginning of his career: these are from 1913 and 1914).There are plenty of other delights included. I especially appreciated three spare arrangements for guitar and voice by Rafi Kadishson: - Agua e vinho by Egberto Gismondi, sung by Helena Noguerra - the Baden Powell/Vinicius de Moraes Samba em preludio, sung by Agnes Jaoui and Helena Noguerra - the Jobim standard Desafinado sung by Helena NoguerraThe liner notes by Villa-Lobos scholar Rémi Jacobs show the serious side of the project, but you can tell from Liat Cohen's notes, the pictures included in the booklet, and the music itself, everyone involved seems to have had a lot of fun.

I bought this disc thinking that Dessay's version of Villa Lobo's vocalese would alone be worth the price. And it was. But the rest of the disc is totally charming as well. Three lovely voices and excellent guitar The disc is a winner.

A delightful album of Latin-American music and songs performed by three fine singers - Natalie Dessay, Agnès Jaoui and Helena Noguerra accompanied by guitarist Liat Cohen; each singer (and Cohen) has solo tracks and some feature duets or all three voices.It's a relaxed, intimate and very pleasurable disc to listen to; the songs are in Portuguese or French – it's cool to hear “The Waters Of March” sung in French – such a well-known song in it's English version.As one would expect, each singer brings their own special talent to the selection and it's a really lovely showcase of fine music-making.The lyrics to the songs (with no translations) are included in the booklet and the disc in nicely presented in a fold-out digipack.The CD has a playing time of 68.50 minutes; check out the videos for the album on YouTube.

Parfois on peut être étonné par la sévérité de certains à critiquer négativement, comme par la facilité d'autres à louanger. Mais là, sincèrement, je ne comprends pas comment on peut reprocher à une soprano lyrique d'en faire des tonnes et à une guitariste classique de ne pas avoir la couleur d'un musicien moins académique, alors qu'il ne s'agit pas ici d'écouter de la musique brésilienne, mais bien d'accepter et d'apprécier que des artistes aux talents divers puissent rendre un hommage honnête à des compositeurs et auteurs devenus si populaires qu'on qualifie leurs œuvres de "contemporary classical music" (musique classique contemporaine). Si j'avais suivi ma seule curiosité, et non pas les critiques, j'aurais acheté ce CD dès sa sortie.

Brilliant! The repertoire for each singer is perfect, Cohen's guitar playing sparkles, and Helena Noguerra is a revelation.

J'ai acheté cet album pour l'offrir a un ami car il réside à l'étranger et il lui était impossible de le trouverIl a beaucoup aimé.

Ce DVD correspond tout à fait à mes attentesQue dire de plus, j'aime et je l'écoute en boucle toute la journée