NEW ON NAXOS | MARCH 2023
8.574409 Release Date: 24 Mar 2023
Fabio Mechetti © André Fossati
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Carlos GOMES (1836–1896) Opera Overtures and Preludes Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra • Fabio Mechetti
Key Features: •
This is Volume 14 in Naxos’ The Music of Brazil series. These are also the first recordings of the overtures and preludes of Gomes to be made available for an international audience. • Fabio Mechetti and the Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra are leading figures in the Naxos ‘Music of Brazil’ series – in 2008, Mechetti became the founding music director and principal conductor of the orchestra. • The Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra has received numerous awards and accolades, including CONCERTO magazine’s Grand Prize (2015, 2020), the Carlos Gomes Award for the best Brazilian Orchestra (2012), and being named classical music ensemble of the year (2010) by the São Paulo Association of Art Critics (APCA). • Together conductor and orchestra have recorded the music of Pedro I which can be heard on 8.574404: ‘The sure orchestral direction of Fabio Mechetti …provide a triumphant demonstration of how far understanding of the performance of repertoire from the 18th century in Brazil has come over the past few decades, and the recorded sound, captured at the Sala Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, is exemplary’ ( Gramophone ). • They have also recorded Almeida Prado on 8.574225 which was nominated for a Latin GRAMMY in 2020 (Best Classical Album category): ‘The Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra, under the expert direction of Fabio Mechetti, provides a well- considered and exemplary accompaniment. The recorded sound is very good’ ( Fanfare ).
About Fabio Mechetti, Conductor Fabio Mechetti has been artistic director and principal conductor of the Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra since its foundation. Under his leadership, the orchestra has received numerous awards, recorded nine albums, including several for Naxos, and undertaken a tour of South America. In 2014, he became the first Brazilian music director of an Asian orchestra when he was appointed principal conductor of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. In the US, Mechetti conducted the Jacksonville Symphony for 14 years and is now its conductor emeritus. Carlos Gomes was not only Brazil’s leading operatic composer, but he also helped pave the way for Italian verismo during the latter part of the 19th century. The preludes and overtures from his operas chart a course from early experimentation with orchestral sonority to a new conception of atmosphere and tension in his historically based dramas. In Alvorada (‘Dawn’) from Lo schiavo his descriptive writing comes close to the status of a symphonic poem. The music from his greatest artistic triumph, Il Guarany , weaves themes into an organic whole, while his final opera, Condor , is reminiscent of French orchestral music in its employment of whole-tone scales.
Companion Titles – The Music of Brazil
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8.574407
8.574404
8.574225
8.574067
Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra
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