String Quartet No. 15 (Villa-Lobos)

String Quartet No. 15 is one of a series of seventeen works in the medium by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. Villa-Lobos composed his Fifteenth Quartet in 1954, working on it at the Tamanaco Hotel in Caracas^[1] and completing the score in New York.

It was first performed by the Juilliard String Quartet (Robert Mann and Isidore Cohen, violins; Raphael Hillyer, viola; Claus Adam, cello) on 19 April 1958 in the Coolidge Auditorium of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., as part of the Inter-American Festival of Music. The score is dedicated to the New Music String Quartet "após a leitura excepcional desse quarteto na residência dos Embaixadores A. Berle em New York".^[2]

A typical performance lasts approximately 19 minutes.

Like most of Villa-Lobos's works in this medium, the quartet consists of the traditional four movements:

Allegro non troppo
Moderato
Scherzo (Vivace)
Allegro

The final, Allegro movement opens with a fugato section, with the voices entering at the unusual intervals of a seventh, a third, and a fourth above the first statement in the cello.^[3]

Discography

Chronological, in order of recording dates.

Villa-Lobos: Quatuors a Cordes Nos. 15/16/17. Quatuor Bessler-Reis (Bernardo Bessler, Michel Bessler, violins; Marie-Christine Springuel, viola; Alceu Reis, cello). Recorded at Studios Master in Rio de Janeiro, August–November 1988. CD recording, 1 disc: digital, 12 cm, stereo. Le Chant du Monde LDC 278 948. [S.l.]: [S.n.], 1989.
- Also issued as part of Villa-Lobos: Os 17 quartetos de cordas / The 17 String Quartets. Quarteto Bessler-Reis and Quarteto Amazônia. CD recording, 6 sound discs: digital, 12 cm, stereo. Kuarup Discos KCX-1001 (KCD 045, M-KCD-034, KCD 080/1, KCD-051, KCD 042). Rio de Janeiro: Kuarup Discos, 1996.
Heitor Villa-Lobos: String Quartets Nos. 3, 10 and 15. Danubius Quartet (Gyöngyvér Oláh [Quartets 3 and 10], Judit Tóth [Quartet 15] and Adél Miklós, violins; Cecilia Bodolai, viola; Ilona Ribli, cello). Recorded at the Rottenbiller Street Studio in Budapest, 15–19 June and 1–2 July 1992. CD recording, 1 disc: digital, 12 cm, stereo. Marco Polo 8.223393. A co-production with Records International. Germany: HH International, Ltd., 1993.
Villa-Lobos: String Quartets, Volume 3. Quartets Nos. 7 and 15. Cuarteto Latinoamericano (Saúl Bitrán, Arón Bitrán, violins; Javier Montiel, viola; Alvaro Bitrán, cello). Recorded at the Sala Nezahualcóyotl in Mexico City, September 1996. Music of Latin American Masters. CD recording, 1 disc: digital, 12 cm, stereo. Dorian DOR-90246. Troy, NY: Dorian Recordings, 1997.
- Reissued as part of Heitor Villa-Lobos: The Complete String Quartets. 6 CDs + 1 DVD with a performance of Quartet No. 1 and interview with the Cuarteto Latinoamericano. Dorian Sono Luminus. DSL-90904. Winchester, VA: Sono Luminus, 2009.
- Also reissued (without the DVD) on Brilliant Classics 6634.

v t e Heitor Villa-Lobos
List of compositions
Opera	Magdalena: a Musical Adventure Yerma
Orchestral works	Chôros No. 6 Chôros No. 8 Chôros No. 9 Chôros No. 10 Chôros No. 11 Chôros No. 12 Chôros No. 13 Chôros No. 14 Symphony No. 1 (The Unforeseen) Symphony No. 2 (Ascension) Symphony No. 3 (War) Symphony No. 4 (Victory) Symphony No. 5 (Peace) Symphony No. 6 (On the Outline of the Mountains of Brazil) Symphony No. 7 (Peace Odyssey) Symphony No. 8 Symphony No. 9 Symphony No. 10 (Sumé, Father of Fathers: Amerindian Symphony with Chorus) Symphony No. 11 Symphony No. 12 Uirapuru
Concertante	Cello Concerto No. 1 Cello Concerto No. 2 Fantasia for saxophone, three horns, and strings Guitar Concerto Piano Concerto No. 1 Piano Concerto No. 2 Piano Concerto No. 3 Piano Concerto No. 4 Piano Concerto No. 5 Momoprecoce
Chamber music	Nonet Miniaturas Modinhas e canções String Quartet No. 1 String Quartet No. 2 String Quartet No. 3 String Quartet No. 4 String Quartet No. 5 String Quartet No. 6 String Quartet No. 7 String Quartet No. 8 String Quartet No. 9 String Quartet No. 10 String Quartet No. 11 String Quartet No. 12 String Quartet No. 13 String Quartet No. 14 String Quartet No. 15 String Quartet No. 16 String Quartet No. 17
Piano works	A prole do bebe Rudepoêma
Works for guitar solo	Chôros No. 1 Étude No. 1 Étude No. 2 Étude No. 3 Étude No. 4 Étude No. 5 Étude No. 6 Étude No. 7 Étude No. 8 Étude No. 9 Étude No. 10 Étude No. 11 Étude No. 12 Prelude No. 1 in E minor Prelude No. 2 in E major Prelude No. 3 in A minor Prelude No. 4 in E minor Prelude No. 5 in D major Suite populaire brésilienne
Other compositions	Bachianas Brasileiras Introdução aos Chôros Chôros No. 2 Chôros No. 3 Chôros No. 4 Chôros No. 5 Chôros No. 7 Chôros bis Quinteto (em forma de chôros) The Little Train of the Caipira
Film score	Green Mansions
Related articles	Modern classical guitar Music of Brazil
Category

String Quartet No. 15 (Villa-Lobos)

Discography

Filmography

References

Cited sources

Further reading

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