Western Europe's Classical forms find themselves tastefully draped with the warm and refreshing colors of Brazilian aesthetics in the compositions of Heitor Villa-Lobos, colors that are worn with elfin flare in this collection of short piano works performed by Brazilian-Slavic pianist Sonia Rubinsky.

She opens with Villa-Lobos' amorous, lush piece A Lenda do Caboclo ("The Legend of Caboclo"), which is directly followed by the Chopin-esque and true-to-its-title etude Ondulando ("Undulating"); the now languid, now quaking Valsa da Dor ("Waltz of Sorrow") concludes the first portion of this recording, the latter part of which consists of two multi-movement works.

Tracks 4 through 12 contain the nine movements of A Prole do Bebe, No. 2 ("The Baby’s Family"), character pieces which musically depict the actions of various animals that are made of different materials. O Gatinho de papelao ("The Cardboard Kitten"), for example, depicts the mysterious scampering of a kitten, while O Passarinho de panno ("The Cloth Bird") depicts the fluttering of bird wings.

The final 12 tracks contain the short Cirandinhas ("Little Round Songs"). Each of these tell a short story, as in the benign and spritely Olha aquela menina ("Look at that Girl"), which begins and ends in a major key, with a contrasting minor-key section placed in between. Also charming is Vamos ver a mulatinha ("Let's see the Little Mestizo Girl"), whose simple melodies seem to communicate as clearly as if they had been spoken directly by the composer himself.

Featured Tracks:
A Lenda do Caboclo
Ondulando

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