CD Saracoteio
Lucia Barrenechea

Lucia Barrenechea's CD Saracoteio presents a selection of piano works by Brazilian composers from several regions of the country, and includes a great variety of styles which show the strength of musical composition in Brazil.

Lúcia Barrenechea, CD "Saracoteio", 2009.

Lúcia Barrenechea is a piano teacher at UniRio's Instituto Villa-Lobos, soloist and camerista. Together with her husband, the flutist Sérgio Barrenechea, maintains since 1989 the Duo Barrenechea. In this CD, Lúcia presents a selection of piano pieces by Brazilian composers of the most diverse tendencies and regions of the country, covering a wide variety of styles that show, according to the performer, the strength of musical composition in Brazil.

Sonatina nº 1 and Saracoteio, by Camargo Guarnieri, open the disc. The first was written in 1928, early in his career, and has three very contrasting movements. Saracoteio, who gives the name to the album, is a piece of the final compositional phase of Guarnieri, in which he demonstrates mastery of pianistic writing, in a polyphony of overlapping rhythms and harmonies. Also on the disc are Hommage à Chopin, by Villa-Lobos; Suíte Russana and Sertão Central by Liduino Pitombeira, Testamento, by Caio Senna, and works by Estércio Marquez Cunha (Estudo, among others), Goiano composer and teacher, besides Henrique Oswald (Il neige! ... e Valse op. 4 nº 1) and Carlos Gomes (Mormorio and Niny).

Excerpet from liner notes by Carole Gubernikoff

With the works of Estércio Marquez Cunha we find ourselves in a new atmosphere. Born in Goiás and professor at the Universidade Federal de Goiás, Marquez Cunha is one of the first Brazilian composers to earn a doctorate in musical composition, a title which he received from the University of Oklahoma, in 1984. Estudo is a slow and extremely unpretentious piece in which registers and intensities of the instrument are explored within the possibilities of chromatic scales and combinations of major and minor sevenths, ninths and seconds. Through the series of pieces Músicas para Piano one can trail back the composer's creative path, from 1967, the earliest one presented in this CD, composed in 1967 to the most recent, number 55, composed in 2003, dedicated to Lucia Barrenechea.

Liduino Pitombeira was born in Russas, state of Ceara, He taught composition at the University of Louisiana, in the U.S., where he earned his doctorate degree in 2002. He is currently a member of the faculty of Universidade Federal da Paraíba. As a musician and composer, Liduino took part in actions in favor of Early Music and Northeastern Brazilian Music. In Suíte Russana, 1992, every movement makes reference to a certain aspect of or vicinity of his hometown. Sertão Central was written in 2004, after he finished his doctorate. In this work, Pitombeira keeps the same interest in the sonorities and landscapes of his birth place, exploring more abstract writings that evoke different colors and moments of the day.

Caio Senna was born in Sao Paulo, but moved to Rio de Janeiro where he had his musical training. He graduated at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ and is currently teaching at UNIRIO. Testamento is a group of eight studies dedicated to Wilma Graça, pianist and piano teacher. In Memorian Wilma Graça, (after a prelude by Scriabin), is a piece of static character, in which only two polychords built on fourths are used. This typically Scriabine harmony is distributed in a soft and permanent manner throughout the whole piece, only interrupted by a fixed note (a Bb). A dama de cabelos azuis uses a harmony extracted from a piece by the Brazilian composer Jean-Pierre Caron that explores the resonances of the piano in fortissimo attacks. In Senna's piece, the brutal sonority is gradually transformed in an explosion of fragments that gradually diminishes to the end.

Saracoteio's Repertory

M. Camargo-Guarnieri (1907-1993)

Sonatina nº 1:

I. Molengamente / II. Ponteado e bem dengoso / III. Bem depressa

Saracoteio

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)

Hommage a Chopin:

I. Nocturne / II. Ballade

Estércio Marquez Cunha (b. 1941)

Estudo e Músicas para piano nº 55, 32, 47 e 50

Liduino Pitombeira (b. 1962)

Suite Russana op. 11:

I. Pedras / II. Ingá / III. Bonhu / IV. Timbauba

Sertão Central op. 84: I. Alvorada / II. Meio-dia / III. Entardecer

Caio Senna (b.1959)

Testamento: I. In Memorian Wilma Graça II. A dama dos cabelos azuis

Henrique Oswald (1852 — 1931)

Il Neige!.... e Valse, Op.4 nº 1

A. Carlos Gomes (1836-1896)

Mormorio e Niny

Lucia Barrenechea, piano