Eva Kong / Soprano

Oliver Scott + Shuhei Lawson / Cellos

Alex Raineri / Piano

Live performance from the 2020 Brisbane Music Festival 'Streamed Series'.

Jai Farrell / Audio Engineer & Videographer

Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos composed nine suites for varying instrumentation called Bachianas Brasileiras. In these works, Villa-Lobos fuses the musical temperament of South-American folk traditions alongside a notably neo-classical flavor, in particular hearkening to the music of JS Bach. The fifth of these suites is scored for soprano and orchestra of cellos - here arranged for soprano, two cellos and piano. The outer sections are a stunning vocalise - without text, simply the natural beauty of the soprano voice alongside an enchanting pizzicato accompaniment. The middle section of the aria is a sweeping setting of a poem by Ruth V. Corrêa.