ABEL CARLEVARO IN THE HISTORY OF GUITAR

HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS

ALFREDO ESCANDE
The german version of this article has been published in December 2003

by GITARRE AKTUELL (Germany)

Introduction

The topic of Abel Carlevaro’s relationship with Heitor Villa-Lobos and his work,
has deserved many articles and mentions in books and other publications with little
documentary support and many speculations up to now. Although many of his former
students have published interviews and others have included references to the topic
through outstanding works (many university graduation thesis, for example), it has
been put in doubt overtly in some specialised magazines when the first meeting
between both musicians really happened, as well as the truth of the fact that
Carlevaro did play in public and recorded for the first time some preludes. At the
same time other information was not only contradicted but also attributed to self-
publicity purposes.

Today, having a precise and wealthy documentary material, which allows

supporting the statements of Maestro Carlevaro and others that I will make here, and
as an advance of a deeper and extensive study I plan to publish as a book, I want to
quote passages from long conversations which I had with him between 1974 and
2001, firstly as his student, then as a collaborator in each of the books he wrote (not
all of them have yet been published). I have selected for this article the passages of
these dialogues which let rebuild the story about his relationship with Villa-Lobos,
and I have complemented them with those elements which arose from my own
investigations about the topic and they are still –all of them- properly documented. In
any other case based on my own judgement only, I will denote it explicitly.

Not all the items introduced in these conversations will result new for those
who already know about these topics. My friends and colleagues Oliver
Primus1[1],Janez Gregoric2[2] and Rüdiger Scherping3[3], among others, have
already published excellent works quoting similar statements from Carlevaro, and he
himself has also referred to some of these facts in his own books.

I want to express my gratitude to Mrs. Vani Leal de Carlevaro, who has gently
allowed me to have access to the personal files of the Maestro.

Conversations

- Maestro Carlevaro, how and when did you meet Villa-Lobos?

- I met him in Montevideo, where he had come to conduct some of his works. During
his stay here, some people from “Centro Guitarrístico del Uruguay”, and also Andrés
Segovia (with whom I was to studying in that time he was living in Montevideo)
asked me to give a concert in Villa-Lobos' honour4[4]. For me it was an occasion of
great responsibility, and Villa-Lobos (accompanied by Arminda), Segovia and
Francisco Curt Lange were in front of me in the first row of the audience. I know
there is a photograph showing all of them, but – because of shyness or just because I
did not realise at that moment the importance of the event – I did not manage to
participate in the group photograph. Today I regret it!

Once I had finished my short concert, Villa Lobos came to greet me,
congratulating me and giving some indications about his Chôros Nº1, which I had
included in my program. I should add that this was his only work for guitar which I
knew up to that moment. After some short comments, he made me some observations
of approval about my performance and he expressed his wish that I would go to Rio to

1[1] “Abel Carlevaro – Interview” Gitarre Aktuell – II/97

2[2] “Abel Carlevaro – Sein Schaffen als Meilenstein in der Entwicklung der Gitarre”
Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Graz – Jänner 1999

3[3] “Abel Carlevaro – ‘Der Weg des Mensches ist der Mensh selbst’” – Staccato
8Germany) – Januar – Februar 1998

4[4] The concert took place on October 25 th 1940 and the authorities of “Centro
Guitarrístico del Uruguay” send Carlevaro a letter on November 5th telling of their
gratitude (see document 1 and document 2 ).
work together on some pieces he had composed for the instrument. That caused me a
great happiness and at the same time curiosity to know those other works.

- How was your 1943 trip to Brazil finally accomplished?

- I did not rest, searching any appropriate occasion, which would allow me to go to
Rio, so that I could fulfil with Villa-Lobos’ invitation. It was precisely Dr. Francisco
Curt Lange, who was the director of “Instituto Latinoamericano de Musicología” at
that moment the person who organised for me a series of concerts around Brazil,
including two presentations in “Teatro Municipal de Rio”: one playing alone 5[5], and
the other one with the town Orchestra, making the Brazil première of the Concertino
for guitar and orchestra whose author, Guido Santorsola had dedicated to me. 6[6] (I
must acknowledge Dr. Lange's advice, friendliness and good will which were always
present to support my first steps).

- Was it the first time you went on tour outside Uruguay?

- That was my first tour outside Uruguay: first I made a performance in Porto
Alegre7[7], then in Sao Paulo and finally I arrived to Rio, where I could study with
Maestro Villa-Lobos. He was present in two of my concerts in Rio, and few days later
I was working with him, first on his preludes and then on his famous studies for
guitar.

- During that tour around Brazil in 1943, did you play in public any of Villa-Lobos
works, which you had been studying with him?

5[5] Fanny Ingold (pianist) and Guido Santorsola (playing the viola, with his wife
Sara Bourdillon at the piano) made the performance in the same show. All of them
with Carlevaro were part of a Uruguayan delegation tour organised by “Instituto
Latinoamericano de Musicología”. See document 3.

6[6] The Concertino for guitar and Orchestra, which was dedicated by Santorsola to
Abel Carlevaro, has been presented for the first time by both in Montevideo, on
September 4th in that same year, 1943.

7[7] On November 25th 1943 one of the Uruguayan delegation concerts was held in
Porto Alegre. They had already performed on the 19th in Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul.
- I stayed several months in Brazil in that tour around many cities. Among other
concerts, as I have already told you, I gave two in which Villa-Lobos was present: one
at “Teatro Municipal de Rio” and the other at “Teatro Dom Pedro”, an old theatre
from the colonial period in Petropolis city, near Rio. In the first one I played the
Preludes 3 and 4, which I believe was the first public presentation of those works8[8].
For the second one, Villa-Lobos and Arminda came with me from Rio9[9]. That was in
December 1943, the 10th and 12th respectively. It was in that time, as I have already
said, that Villa-Lobos gave me the manuscripts of the Studies 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10, and
Prelude Nº110[10].

- Did Villa-Lobos tell you that they were written by him?

- He never told me that, and I did not think at that moment that it would have any
importance. What was important for me was the fact that he gave them to me and for
that reason I keep them with great estimation. I cannot make a calligraphic study, and
besides it is possible that he would have asked for some copies to someone who
helped him. At that moment, of course, it was not so easy to have copies of documents
as it is today.

- Were those studies already published? How did you get to know them?

- They had not been published yet11[11], I wanted to study them, Villa-Lobos wanted
me to study them and he gave me the possibility by lending me the manuscripts and
later giving them to me. But I want to tell you something important. Because of Villa-
Lobos' invitation I went to his house to listen to his Studies for the first time. There he
introduced me to a great Spanish pianist, his friend, Tomás Terán, who had been living
8[8] See document 4

9[9] See document 5

10[10] I had those manuscripts in my own hands: Carlevaro, who kept them with
devotion, showed them to me more than once. I was also present in two conferences
about Villa-Lobos dictated by him (one in Montevideo in 1977 and the other one in
Buenos Aires in September 1981: see document 11). In both occasions, Carlevaro
showed them openly.

11[11] Although they are dated in 1929, in Paris, they were published after January
1953 (that is the date of Segovia’s prologue to Max Eschig’s edition)
in Rio for a few years. He invited him to play his twelve studies for guitar at the piano
for me. That was the unusual way I knew for the first time the studies for guitar,
played at the piano by Terán.

- I guess it was a very special class for you....

- It was a wonderful class! Villa-Lobos was telling me all the details concerning to
each of the studies, while Terán was playing them at the piano. I keep that peculiar
lesson in my mind as something very special. It made me understood how those
studies must be transmitted, with all their beauty, far from the instrument, and from an
abstract point of view; how to introduce the different problems that the author himself
showed me at the precise moment, during the performance.

- When did you start working on Villa-Lobos studies?

- While I was staying in Rio and when I was working with him at “Conservatorio del
Canto Orfeónico”, as I told you, Villa-Lobos gave me the manuscripts of the studies
and some preludes so that I started reading them. Of course the first one was the Nº1,
the study of arpeggios. After one week it seemed to me that my work was ready to be
presented, and considering this I took it to play it at his presence. When I finished
playing I was flattered by his congratulations for my performance and at the same
time he was impressed by the way I played his study. And he told me that the way I
had perceived it, had coincided – luckily – with his original idea. And I was even
happier when he asked me for a pencil and wrote on the manuscript he had given to
me, the indication “Allegro non troppo”. “I like it in this way” he told me, and at that
moment he said that the beauty of that study was in the clearness of each note and in
the different sonorities presented in each time, having the repetition the effect of an
echo. How excited I felt when he awarded me by giving me as a present those
manuscripts that he had lent me to study! After that very important day for me, I
continued working on the other studies under his tutoring, receiving the contribution
of his advice, always precise and clear. It was in those days, on 23rd December 1943,
that he autographed one of his photographs, which I still keep within the souvenirs
from that period12[12].

12[12] See Abel Carlevaro “Guitar Masterclass – Volume III” Ed. Chanterelle 1987 –
ECH 713 – pág. 2
- Is it true that you recorded works of Villa-Lobos in Rio de Janeiro?

- It is true. He took me to the Official Radio (I do not remember the exact name),
which belonged to the Ministry of Education in Brazil in order to record the preludes.
I never knew what happened with those recordings13[13] because when the tour ended
I came back to Uruguay, and I did not care about that event anymore. But maybe,
sometimes they were broadcasted by the Brazilian radio and I never knew about that.

- How do you assess that period of work with Villa-Lobos?

- That moment was very important because I started to get in contact with a very
special person, because of his quality as a human being and as a musician. I had
studied the rules of harmony and counterpoint and I tried to respect carefully all of
their precepts. Nevertheless I found myself with a character that broke all those rules.
It called my attention how he faced music so differently than the way I had
understood it in my first works. In front of that procedure I had to re-make my
scholastic world of discipline and respect for all that was learnt. Because I understood,
throughout his teaching, that man can break and start a new way. That world showed
by Villa-Lobos was a new one, which was very good for me because without realising
it I started to create my own rules which, although they did not exist at that moment,
developed in time, and this gave me as a result a wider vision of the music world.

- Do you consider that Villa-Lobos influenced your way of composing?

- I think that in a certain way my last works are a consequence of those pieces of
advice from this great Maestro. I have always been deeply grateful. For this reason
and the admiration that I profess to his work, I wrote the series of five studies
“Hommage to Villa-Lobos”

13[13] The fact is quoted in “O Diario” from Belo Horizonte on 28 th December 1943,
in the review about the concert which Abel Carlevaro gave the day before in that city.
When the critic Roberto Franck enumerates the performed works, he said: “.... simply
a great Prelude Nº3 of Villa-Lobos (recorded at the Educational Ministry in
Rio)...”(translation by the author). See document 6 and document 7.
- Could you make a biographical sketch and describe Villa-Lobos as a person and as
a musician?

- Of course. First, I should say that Villa-Lobos is unmistakable because of his

overflowing and persevering character. Because of his will and idealism he could
liberalise from the academic influences and produce his own music in which his
strong and original personality emerges, as well the sonorous reality of the Brazilian
people. His was a strong and charismatic personality, with a mischievous and witty
spirit. I heard him saying: “I strongly believe in what I feel. I hate imitation as well as
the musical routine”.

As a conclusion

I hope that what was previously written and the documents shown here (just a
part of the plentiful material in the documentary files on which I have based my
work) will put an end to the scepticism that some people keep about these facts, which
today are part of the history of guitar. Its protagonists do not live anymore, but their
works keep standing on their own. In spite of the fact that I plan to deepen into these
topics in a book (in progress) about Abel Carlevaro’s life and work, I will still express
in this occasion some of my own considerations.

First, I believe there is no doubt that – although young, because he was almost
27 years old – Carlevaro could not be considered as an inexperienced guitarist when
he travelled to Brazil and played in front of Villa-Lobos the première of his Preludes 3
and 4 (on December 10th 1943 in Rio de Janeiro). From that first contact on 25th
October 1940, great important events happened in his career. He obtained
outstanding recognition and prestige from them, particularly his concert on 12th
November 1942 in Montevideo, which was publicly presented by Segovia14[14].
Another important event in this sense was his premiering of Guido Santorsola’s
14[14] This will be detailed in the book. Simply I will say that –besides writing and
signing a presentation of Carlevaro which appeared inside the programme- Segovia
gave interviews to the main newspapers in Montevideo previous to the concert,
laudatory talking about Carlevaro and highlighting the fact that it was the first time he
showed publicly a pupil. An example can be found in an extensive interview in three
columns in “La Mañana” on 9th November 1942, page 5, titled “A. Segovia talks us
about Abel Carlevaro”
“Concertino para guitarra y orquesta” dedicated to him, also in the most important
theatre in Montevideo.(The same in which Segovia had premiered “Concerto in
Re” by Castelnuovo-Tedesco and “Concierto del Sur” by Ponce). I have more than
ten copies of articles from 1942 and 1943 in the most important publications in
Montevideo. From all of them it is possible to conclude that at that moment Carlevaro
was already considered the most serious guitarist of the country and the most
connected with the world of the new musical creation by the musical circles and the
critics.

However, Villa-Lobos was not the only Brazilian musician who noticed the
musical quality of the guitarist, Abel Carlevaro. The composer M. Camargo
Guarnieri was also impressed when listening to him and after one of the concerts of
that tour at the end of 1943 and beginning of 1944, he congratulated and told him
that he wanted to compose a work for him. Camargo’s “Ponteio” was born in that
way and dedicated to Abel Carlevaro, who performed it for the first time at Estudio
Auditorio del SODRE on 10th August 1944, shortly after he arrived from Brazil.

As we are talking about premières, I want to say that I have had in my own
hands the programme of a performance by Carlevaro at the Montevideo University
Hall, in a cultural soirée devoted to Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s work. There it is
evident that on 3rd September1942 Carlevaro performed in first audition for Uruguay
three pieces from the Italian composer: Variazioni attraverso i secoli, Tarantella and
Aranci in fiore. The first two were dedicated to Segovia, who, as it is known, was
living in Montevideo at that period and in 1939 had performed for the first time the
Concerto in Re by Castelnuovo himself. Not only was Segovia in favour of that
première in the city where he was living, but probably did also encourage it.

As a consequence, there is no reason to doubt about the fact that Villa-Lobos

supported the first public presentation (and, as we also know, the recording) of some
of his works by Carlevaro. Not only because of his significance –as we have already
demonstrated- as a guitarist and musician (something that –without reading any
chronicle- the artist Villa-Lobos had already examined closely) but also due to the
particular harshness of the relationship between Segovia and the composer. He told
Carlevaro that in Paris, 1929, Segovia expressed that his studies were “unplayable”.
I do not have the documentation that supports it15[15] but however, according to
Carlevaro, this had produced the first distance between both personalities. In October
15[15] Carlevaro gave similar information to Lionel Dieu (“Entretien impromptu avec
Abel Carlevaro” – Les Cahiers de la guitare – 1st quarter 1991). Moreover, the 24-year
distance between the date of the composition and the date of Segovia’s prologue calls
the attention. Has the initial Segovia’s resistance to Villa-Lobos music caused –
besides the well-known strength of both “egos”- the turbulence in the relationship
between them?
1940, some days before Carlevaro’s concert in homage to the Brazilian composer,
Segovia received Villa-Lobos in his house and felt again the same rejection for his
music, this time his preludes. In his letter to Manuel M. Ponce, on 22nd of that month,
he told him that the preludes, as well as the previous twelve “Estudos”, were most of
them of no use, boring, and also that one of them, played by Villa-Lobos himself,
almost made him want to laugh16[16].

Therefore, it is reasonable that finally the preludes have not appeared

dedicated to Segovia but to Villa-Lobos’ second partner, Arminda Neves d’Almeida
(under this name in the first publication of numbers 3 and 4, in 1941, and then as
“Mindinha”, her familiar nickname, in Max Eschig issues). Besides, he had decided
not to wait until Segovia played them one day. I believe that Segovia’s double attitude
attracts the attention: on one hand in his letter to Ponce, on the other hand the
autograph in the minute book from “Centro Guitarrístico del Uruguay” dated the day
of Carlevaro’s concert (document 1). This double attitude appears clearly if the letter
is compared with Segovia’s words in the Prologue of Max Eschig edition of the 12
Studies, in January 1953. I doubt that an experienced and witty man, like Villa-Lobos
surely was, failed to realise that duality.

Concerning the scores from which Carlevaro played Preludes 3 and 4 in Rio
de Janeiro in front of Villa-Lobos, we should say that they correspond to the
“Suplemento musical” published by the magazine “Música Viva” in January
194117[17]. I have –as I already said- a photocopy of that publication of the preludes,
which Maestro Carlevaro gave me years ago. It includes the fingering from
Carlevaro’s handwriting and the first page of each of the preludes exactly coincides
with the reproduced facsimile which appears in the magazine mentioned in the
previous footnote. As Mr Ophee18[18] shows, Francisco Curt Lange was a member of
the editorial team of the magazine. Therefore it is natural that he would have given
Carlevaro the issue we are speaking about. [19] It was him who arranged the first
meeting between both musicians, introduced them to each other, and organised
Carlevaro’s first visit to Brazil so that –besides giving concerts – he could study
Villa-Lobos’ works with the composer himself.

To end up these considerations I believe it is worth to transcribe part of the

comments, which deserved one of the concerts in Brazil (in “O Diario” from Belo
16[16] “The Segovia-Ponce letters” – Miguel Alcázar, Editions Orphée 1989 page 210
and 211.

17[17] See “Die Urauffürung der “Préludes” von Heitor Villa-Lobos” – Matanya
Ophee – published in “Gitarre & Laute” 3/1995 page 21 to 25.

18[18] Idem previous note.

Horizonte, on 28th December 1943)19[20]. I think that they clearly show the musical
level already reached by Abel Carlevaro and the impression he made in the Brazil of
Villa-Lobos:

“... a musical event of high level. That is the fact in the case of the concert I have just
listened to... and which performance was relied on the hands of a Uruguayan master,
Abel Carlevaro.

......................

This evening we heard the sounds of harpsichord, piano, bells; they were pizzicatos of
violin, viola, cello; they were chords of harp and staccatti of flute; it was all this but
not imitating other instruments, always keeping the great polyphony of the guitar! The
guitar as it is understood by an eminent Uruguayan master, student of the great
Segovia.

......................

... a real storm of applause, which made the great artist to reappear in front of the
public, that was all over the place, once and again.

Simply great performance, for the eyes as well as for the ears, which is an honour –as
the great country of the artist – for our capital which had the opportunity to listen to
the art of the guitar mastered by this wonderful artist”20[21].

Still something else...

In 1948, with the support of the Uruguayan government, Carlevaro travelled

for the first time to Europe. After many concerts in Spain, where he even filmed a
documentary, he went to London in 1949. In the English capital he gave many
concerts and recorded a disk for the “Parlophone” label. In a near future, as already
said , my research about this period of his career will be published . Now I will
satisfy with a reference to the concert on 6th May 1949 in the “R.B.A. Galleries”
hall21[22]. In that occasion, as in many previous ones, Carlevaro included in his
program a “Prelude” and a “Study” by Villa-Lobos. In the printed program it is
written “(M.S.)” after the names of both works. I believe that it means “manu
scriptum”, which sounds logical if we consider that the Studies would be published
19[20] See document 7

20[21] Author’s translation.

21[22] See document 9

four years later and Max Eschig's issue of the Preludes is dated in 1954. Besides, I
think the “Studio” which Carlevaro had been playing during some years and he
probably played in that event is the Nº1 (which he recorded later –in London too –
together with “Las Abejas” by Barrios and “Tarantella” by Castelnuovo Tedesco). I
also think that the Prelude is the Nº3, always of his preference, and which he included
in almost one hundred times in his concerts, as part of his program or as an
“encore”. It was also the one recorded in Montevideo in 195922[23]. And now, here
comes the main reason for this “addenda”: I have copies of many reviews of that
concert, but the one which attracted my attention was that signed by Arthur Jacobs in
“The Daily Express”23[24] of 7th May 1949. From there I transcribe the following
sentence:

“My choice went to two pieces heard for the first time in Britain, by Brazil’s Villa-
Lobos.”

The typographical emphasis is mine, and I do not have by now any reference,
which allows me to affirm that before that day any other guitarist had played those
works by Villa-Lobos for the British audience. However, I want to believe that the
specialised critic Mr. Jacobs really knew what he was talking about. Anyway, not
everything has been said about this topic yet, and it will be necessary to go on
inquiring...

22[23] “2º Recital de guitarra” – Antar Telefunken, ALP 4002. Perhaps the “Estudio”
could have been the Nº10 because it has also been of his preference, and he greatly
recorded it in that record, following the Prelude Nº3.

23[24] See document 10