*VILLA-LOBOS. Quatuor for flute, harp, celestra, alto saxophone and women's voices. Nonetto (Lmpressao rapidá de todo o Brasil). The Roger Wagner Chorale and the Concert Arts Ensemble (Wagner). Capitol CTL 7037 (12 in., 36s. 5j-d.).

So long as the bulk of Villa-Lobos's huge output remains as obstinately unobtainable in Europe as it is at present, the likelihood of his general acceptance to the ranks of the important creative figures of our time is remote ; for, however much our appetite may be whetted by those compositions of his we do manage to hear, without easily available scores and material his works cannot be performed. So much is obvious yet his Brazilian publishers do little to help the situation, and it is left to the gramophone to spread a knowledge of the music of one of the strangest, most prolific and imaginative composers of the day. His fecundity is already legendary ; so is his eccentricity and his habit of blandly bringing out a work already published in another orchestration under another title. Much of his music, teeming as it does with rhythmic and instrumental complexities, gives the impression of being written for sheer love of novel effects and sonorities, the structural shape being left to look after itself.

The Quatuor, for example—the female choir which hums and makes explosive noises in the two latter movements is merely an extra to which mathematical purists will have to turn a deaf ear—is positively enchanting: the flute in its low register against the tinkling murmur of the celesta and the cool splash of the harp constantly reminds one of Ravel's Introduction and Allegro, and indeed it is not without relevance to recall that this work was written in 1921, after Milhaud (then in Brazil) had been introducing Villa-Lobos to the music of the French school. The wonder is that with four instruments each of so little variety of tone-colour there should be no suspicion of monotony. If only the material of the Quatuor were available I would urge concert-givers to let us have the opportunity of hearing it: as it is, I can only recommend everyone to hear this recorded performance, which, like that of the other work on this disc, attains the highest standard both in playing and engineering.

The jVonetto on the reverse (my copy gets the two works labelled back to front) calls for even greater tolerance on the part of mathematically-minded listeners, for theinstrumentation is for flute (doubling piccolo), oboe, clarinet, saxophone (baritone alternating with alto), bassoon, harp, piano, celesta, a tremendous array of percussion including many Brazilian native instruments (my favourite is a china plate tapped with a metal stick) and necessitating three players—and a mixed voice chorus which sings meaningless syllables for rhythmic or explosive effects. As might be suspected from the sub-title of this onemovement work, it sounds very much like programme music, and would do admirably as a colourful background (slightly sinister in an Emperor Jones kind of way) to a film travelogue of Brazilian jungles. It is a fascinating score, full of intricate crossrhythms and original instrumental sounds, though what it all adds up to I'm not certain : sufficient to say that, in this brilliant performance directed by Roger Wagner (whose choir has recently been winning deservedly high praise in this country), it will give pleasure to any musiclover with a taste for the exotic. L.S.