Villa-Lobos: Complete Music for Solo Guitar

Though largely self-taught as a composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos became the father figure of Brazilian 20th century music. He produced an enormous amount of works in every genre, folk music providing a major ingredient to many of his scores. Though deeply involved in Latin-American music, Villa-Lobos wrote only four works for solo guitar. Two of these, the 12 Studies of 1929 and the 5 Preludes of 1940, now form a major part of the essential repertoire of every major guitarist. Neither set includes outgoing showpieces, such virtuosity being more apparent in the Suite populaire brésilienne, a very early work dating from 1908-12. The disc covers his complete catalogue of solo works for the instrument.