Introducing piano works by Oscar Lorenzo Fernandez

Naxos Classical Spotlight

Composer/poet Oscar Lorenzo Fernandez was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1897. He went on to become a leading figure in the development of Brazil's classical music scene, as a composer, conductor, musicologist, and a professor of harmony in the National Music Institute in Rio de Janeiro, as well as other institutions. Along with Francisco Mignone and other prominent musicians, he was a founding member of the new Conservatório Brasileiro de Música, and together with Villa-Lobos he helped innovate music teaching in Brazil. His considerable musical legacy includes 48 songs, two symphonies, the orchestral suite Reisado do Pastoreio, the opera Malazarte, numerous chamber works, and around 80 piano pieces. A selection of the latter forms the basis of this podcast discussion between pianist Clélia Iruzun and Raymond Bisha.