Both works here come from the mid 1920s, after Villa-Lobos had returned from his first visit to Europe, where he was much influenced by French musicians. But the 16 Cirandas display their Brazilian origin by being based on children’s dance tunes – with one or two exceptions like the longer and haunting No. 15 (“What lovely eyes”) – of his native country, though tricked out with harmonic sophistication and keyboard treatments of often extreme elaboration. The rapid chord-alternation between hands found in No. 4 (“The carnation vies with the rose”) and No. 16 (“Co-co-co”) is similar to that in Villa-Lobos’s best-known piano piece, “Polichinelle”. Four of the melodies are also found in the parallel collection of Cirandinhas, and he later drew on Nos. 8, 9 and 15 again in the Fifth String Quartet. Music for children to play the Cirandas are emphatically not, calling as they do for large hands, considerable weight and very advanced technique. Alma Petchersky’s performances are trenchant and alive with fantasy and brilliance (as in Nos. 7 and 12).
Artur Rubinstein was understandably taken aback when told that Rudepoema was intended as a musical photograph of his personality. (Was he really such an Angry Young Man?) Complex as was his temperament, he would have been hard put to it to match the violent and unruly character of this extraordinary piece, though he might have recognized the relevance of its quirkiness and occasional spiky humour, and certainly its challenging virtuosity. Much of the work is marked Tres sauvage, but apart from some insistent motor-rhythms and ostinatos and strident outbursts the underlying flavour is often more French than Brazilian. There has not so far been a really satisfying recording of this hugely demanding piece since Nelson Freire’s dazzling performance for Telefunken (9/74 – nla), but Alma Petchersky not only lays about her with vehemence, clarity and a technical command that compels respect, but enters fully into the expressive lyricism of its cantabile sections. Rudepoema is a vast sprawling work, but this performance comes as near achieving coherence as is possible.'