Complete Chamber Works of Carlos Chavez, Vol. 2 $3.45

About Complete Chamber Works of Carlos Chavez, Vol. 2

This recording received a 2004 Grammy Award in the "Best Small Ensemble" category.

The Energía of Chávez is from the 1920s, and was commissioned by Edgar Varèse. A compact aural attack for 9 instruments, the work is an apt metaphor for the assembly line. The listener can feel all the cogs and wheels of the music taking place in a stunning 9 part polyphony.

Taken as a whole, the three Soli of Chávez are one of the most fascinating series of pieces for wind instruments in the 20th century. These works perfect Chávez’s unique idea of non-repetition in music, where the musical thought is composed as a never ending stream of ideas held together by the logic of the composer’s superb ear. Soli I dates from 1933 and is a bracing quartet for oboe, clarinet, bassoon and trumpet. The work coincided with Aaron Copland’s first visit to Chávez in Mexico City. Soli II is a demanding wind quintet from the 1960s written for the principal members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Soli IV for brass trio perfects the idea of non-repetition in a blazingly colorful and abstract masterpiece for horn, trumpet and trombone. (Soli III is an orchestral work and not included in this series)

The Sonata for Four Horns is a masterpiece worthy to stand alongside the massive murals of Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siquieros, Rufino Tamayo and Jose Clement Orozco. Chávez consciously composes a rich, añejo tinged piece for the neglected “workers” of the orchestra, the collection of four horns. Singled out by Aaron Copland as one Chávez’s most effective pieces, the rare composition was indeed the first serious pieces for four horns ever composed.