These performances of Bachianas Brasileiras Nos. 2 and 4 easily are the finest available. The São Paulo Symphony Orchestra certainly ought to know how to play this music, and do they ever! You’ll be amazed at how effortlessly the strings articulate the hellish motor-rhythms in the finale of No. 4, or how the players differentiate the percussion timbres in the “train” movement of No. 2. Even if you know these works well, it’s like hearing them for the first time. In No. 3 for piano and orchestra, not one of the best pieces in the series, conductor Roberto Minczuk shapes a performance quite similar to that on the composer’s own EMI recording, albeit with infinitely greater sound and much, much better playing.
Jean Louis Steuerman, a pianist whose limited discography (mostly for Philips) usually excites little enthusiasm, is a decent soloist, if perhaps at times a trifle heavy-handed in the faster music. But it’s not really his fault: the music does meander a bit, albeit amiably. Sonically this is stunning in terms of dynamic range and timbral splendor, but I question the excessive prominence of the percussion at the climax of the chorale (third movement) of No. 4, where the crashing tam-tam and bass drum overwhelm the tune in the brass. It’s an odd and atypical miscalculation (most performances err in the opposite direction) in what otherwise is a very impressive effort by all concerned.
