Duration: ca. 13′
Instrumentation: violin and piano
Performance Note: In June 2019 I went to Brazil as an “embedded journalist” (Benjamin Zander’s description of my job) with the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra during the ensemble’s tour of that country, reporting on their concerts, masterclasses, and assorted travel adventures. This was my first time anywhere in South America and, while the orchestra’s packed itinerary didn’t leave much room for sightseeing or the opportunity to experience much indigenous Brazilian music, it did provide an unforgettable overview of one of the world’s most striking countries, cultures, and populations.
The two-week trek veered all over the Brazil, from Salvador in the north to Porto Alegre in the south (and many spots in between). During a visit to a music school in a favela in that latter city, I had a chat with Mitsuru Yonezaki, the BPYO’s concertmaster, in which she mentioned that she’d be happy for me to write her something. Having, an hour or so beforehand, heard Mitsuru play the daylights out of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, I determined that anything I wrote for her must showcase her brilliant technique. At the same time I wanted to write a piece that somehow celebrated Brazil.
Thus was born Suíte brasileira. Its four movements allude to various 19th- and 20th-century Brazilian musical forms and compositions. The outer ones – “Choro” and “Tango brasileiro” – are nods to a pair of familiar (and related) genres. In the spirit of Darius Milhaud’s Le boeuf sur le toit, “Choro” paraphrases several favorite tunes, while the tango is a small homage to one of my favorite Brazilian composers, Ernesto Nazareth. In between comes “Angola,” a slow movement infused with toques drawn from Capoeira music. Meanwhile, the ghost of Heitor Villa-Lobos hovers over “Bachiana,” the Suite’s scherzo-like third movement, which combines certain treasured elements from Bach’s unaccompanied violin sonatas and partitas with a little fantasia based on Sergio Assad’s “Menino” (incidentally, his daughter, Clarice’s, Bonecos de Olindo was part of the BPYO’s tour repertoire).