Camargo Guarnieri is one of Brazil’s most interesting composers. While Villa-Lobos is far more present in the public imagination, there is every reason to look beyond him and investigate the work of composers such as Guarnieri. For this reason alone this release would be extremely welcome, but it is also a highly involving, beautifully executed disc. The composer’s first name was in fact Mozart, and his brothers were called Verdi, Rossine and Belline: their father’s hopes for a musical future for them were obvious, even if his spelling was eccentric.

Like Villa-Lobos, Guarnieri was extremely concerned with the development of a specifically Brazilian contemporary music and adapted musical forms such as the choro in order to pursue this aim. I use the word ‘adapted’ advisedly, since the composer did not simply take the form over but used it, as he said, as ‘a replacement for the concerto’. This recording contains three choros but the most substantial work is Seresta (the name refers to a Brazilian genre of vocal music, a synonym for ‘serenata’) for solo piano, harp, xylophone, timpani and strings. This is a vivacious piece in three movements, built on a kind of distillation of folk melodies, especially in the use of small motivic cells in the first movement, which is quite Bartókian in its rhythmic quality. The second, a kind of modinha, might also suggest Bartók, but this time his mysterious night music. It also shows Guarnieri to be a fine melodist. The final movement is, naturally, wild and exuberant.

The three Choros similarly combine rhythmic punch with lyricism. That for violin and orchestra most closely resembles a conventional concerto, with its three-movement design, but all of them are wonderfully engaging pieces, full of colour and variety. The performances are excellent, from both soloists and orchestra; it is clear that this music genuinely enthuses Isaac Karabtchevsky. There are also excellent booklet notes by Paulo de Tarso Salles.