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| Sunday, 11 January 2004 |
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Features |  |
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Review - Malinee Peris : From Portugal to Brazil Malinee Peris, the most senior and the most distinguished of solo
pianists of international standing to emerge from Sri Lanka, and who The second, 'From Portugal to Brazil' has just appeared as one of Brioso's Tenth Anniversary releases. This CD has a total playing time of 79 minutes with 36 bands giving 70 minutes of piano music itself. Apart from Villa-Lobos and Guarneri, the composers represented here are totally unknown except to specialist music scholars. And anyone who is so simplistic as to expect baila and caffringha - which we have inculturated from the time of the Portuguese conquest of Sri Lanka - will not find anything like it on this CD. Bands 1-6 have two Scarlatti-like sonatas by Seixas (1704-1742) who has been called the most important Portuguese composer of the 18th century. Bands 7-15 consist of a theme and eight variations by Bomtempo (1775-1842). From there onwards we are in the 20th century. There are five Preludes by Fernandes (1906-1983), which are a bit romantic sounding. Then come another five Preludes, these date from 1928 and were written by Branco (1890-1955), and they have an impressionistic style, like Debussy's. The Brazilian series opens with two pieces, 'Old Song' and 'Regretful Serenade' by O.L. Fernandez (1897-1918). Villa-Lobos (1857-1959) is represented by six pieces. These are the most tuneful of the lot in the CD. If I were forced to select just one or two pieces from the entire CD for daily listening, they would be bands 29 and 30, Cirandas No. 1 (Terezinha de Jesus) and Cirandas No. 2 (A Condessa), both by Villa-Lobos. Finally in the CD there are three pieces by Santoro (1919-1989), Nazareth (1863-1934) and Guarneri (1907-1993). They reminded me distantly of the 'Scaramouche' suite by the French composer, Milhaud. How had Miss Peris built up this strange and brilliant repertoire of non-mainline music? My guess is that the four years (1986-89) she had spent in Portugal opened her senses to Portuguese music and to the music of Brazil which was a former Portuguese colony. She has performed on the concert stage all over Portugal, with recitals in the major cities including Lisbon and Oporto, and at music festivals in the Algarve and Figuera de Foz. Valentine Basnayake Chair, Western Music Panel, The Arts Council of Sri Lanka |
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is
now also Associate Professor of Music (Piano Performance and Chamber
Ensemble), George Washington University, Washington DC has been
commissioned by Brioso Recordings to give a series of select piano
recitals. The first of these, on Ravel and Debussy, was released in 2001.
