Hey Keith!

Wow! Another enthusiast of the great music of Brazilian composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos! If you, my Forum friends, have never heard the Bachianas Brasileiras (try to find an old recording of it, with Bidu Sayao as the vocalist, if possible, although it may well be out of print by now), you will be amazed by the beauty of this composition. I lived and studied in Brazil years ago (when I was a youth) and had the privilege of having met and heard Bidu in person. What a thrill that was!

In my opinion, one of the most exciting musical adventures one can ever experience is hearing a masterpiece for the first time. The Bachianas Brasileiras has always been one of my favorites, since that first time I heard it in that majestic foreign land so far away! Try it my friends. Another, if you are not familiar with it, the masterful "Variations on a Theme of Paganini" by Sergei Rachmaninoff. The first time I ever heard that was also, strangely enough, also in Brazil as the background music from an American movie (with Portuguese subtitles!) called "The Story of Three Loves". I watched the movie three times to thrill at the music that I have loved ever since. Whew, I tremble just hearing these two creations in my mind, much less in my ears, as I listen to them being played!

Ted (an incurable romantic, among other things! )