Sonia Rubinsky, winner of the Latin GRAMMY® Award for Best Classical Album in 2009, is a pianist with a successful international career and a fantastic album featuring works by Almeida Prado. It's an honor to hear from her as part of our Music of the Americas celebration, and we're grateful for her ongoing efforts to promote Brazilian classical music around the world. 

ArkivMusic: Reading your biography, it is hard not to wonder how a Lithuanian man and a Polish woman ended up in Brazil raising you. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what specifically attracted you to the works of Brazilian composers like Almeida Prado?

Sonia Rubinsky: Indeed my roots are very eclectic since I was born in Brazil and lived in several countries before settling for good in Paris, France. My father was a second generation Brazilian, born to Lithuanian parents, and my mother was born in Poland, and came as a young child to Brazil. She and her parents had fled the war alongside several surviving members of her extended family who came one by one to Brazil. My father’s family was already established in the north of Brazil. It was by chance that they met, and it happened through several acquaintances they each had. They fell in love and had a large family of five kids, I am the youngest. Piano was a true love-affair for me. I could not be kept away from it. It was my refuge as an emotional companion, as an intellectual stimulus and as a discipline and rigor that gave immediate results — I started very soon to give concerts. I was a child-prodigy.  

The meeting with Almeida Prado happened through my father. By chance he sat next to Almeida Prado on an airplane from Tel-Aviv to Campinas (Israel to Brazil). The result of that conversation was my subsequent meeting with Almeida Prado who became a life-long dear friend. This was in the ’80s. Being a tremendous pianist, he showed me his compositions. I was awed by them at once. I was very attracted to learning them, but I knew I had to grow as a musician and as a pianist to be able to do them complete justice. They are simply very difficult!  

Almeida Prado closely followed my musical development and career. Yet, he never interfered in my training. Our many meetings and exchanges became a true sharing of experiences. He composed and dedicated several pieces of his which I was very pleased to premiere. I had also commissioned a Cello/Piano Sonata with Antonio Meneses from Almeida Prado, and he composed a true masterpiece. Antonio Meneses and I premiered it in 2004 in the presence of the composer. When I asked him if he would write me a piano concerto his response was that he had already composed it: the Concerto Fribourgeois which is in this featured CD. Almeida Prado heard me play Aurora (also on this CD). The first time I heard it was in New York with the pianist Sonia Muniz, wife of the great conductor Eleazar de Carvalho, who was the dedicatee of this piece. Thinking back, I was very struck by the colors and sound effects of the piece, almost like electronic music, but with an ecological twist — Nature invading MUSIC! It starts with the dimmed lights just before the sun rises. The sounds of the world asleep are beautifully portrayed. One by one the birds wake up, and by magic the sun appears, blasting and warming the world. Quite amazing!

AM: As a world-renowned Brazilian pianist, what can you find in Brazilian classical music that captivates you?

SR: I am delighted to bring novelty, richness and discovery to my audiences.  And I believe one can be pleasantly surprised when novelty is surrounded by familiar material. In that way, one can really appreciate the many aspects of a performance or of a program. Brazilian music is very difficult to perform since the rhythmic elements are very much developed compared to other types of music, and the singing and soulful qualities have to be heartfelt just like Chopin’s music or any romantic composer. In fact, I think that Brazilian music can really contribute to the understanding of more modern music since it is very attractive to listen to:  you really do not need to analyze it or to explain it in order to enter this world and find your own magic inside it, you just let yourself be taken by these aspects I referred to: beauty of melody and hypnotic rhythmic elements.  One can think that there is a vast schism of modern music due to WWII. One that the public really did not follow, especially with 12-tone music, or atonal music, or spectral, or computer music. The public stayed attached to more organized and recognizable features of the music like: tunes, or symmetry, while the great majority of European modern music reflected fragmentation, asymmetry and most of all — no repetition of material. When minimalist music came into the forefront (although much developed before the ’80s and ’90s) its hypnotic quality caught the public’s ears. And in fact, Brazilian music bridges this gap beautifully.

AM: As your listeners become familiar with this wonderful journey, what are some of your favorite moments in this album? Is there a particular feeling or image that might guide the listener?

SR: I would say to the listener - let yourself be guided by your ears by the talent of this amazing composer - trust it and let yourself experience this richness. Sometimes the places the music takes you will be surprisingly massive!  Sometimes magical sounds like a Fairy making a spell in the Concerto I (which is on the second track - at 2:38!). One of my favorite places in this very challenging concerto is Variation 4 of the Track I (which is in variation form - minute 2:08 — a strong tribal moment!!!! Or the great arrival to an incredible A major and E flat major chords at 5:30 of the same track. A strong feature of Prado’s music is to evoke deep feelings with few notes. That is the case of the Memorial movement which sounds like a dirge and is so heartfelt! The ending of the concerto is very impressive — it is one the largest pedal points in history — the composer arrives on F in the bass and stays there creating ever so greater masses of sounds.  It is a truly powerful ending.

In Aurora, Prado portrays the birth of the sun. One can really feel the sun’s heat coming upon the earth. After a piano cadenza around 8:00, the orchestra comes slowly and at 9:16 the piano enunciates a piano figure later taken by the whole orchestra, one clearly hears the celesta, a magical moment. After that the birds make their appearance at 10:48 and the world starts to make ‘sounds’ and wake up. From then on, it is a growing mass of sound, culminating in the Coda - one of my favorite places at around 16:10 and the amazing spectacle of the sun coming up. Almeida Prado himself told me that the piano writing was inspired by Chopin’s Etude op. 25 #12. Indeed! It is a strong moment!

AM: Beethoven died five years after Brazil's independence, but here, 200 years later, we remember Almeida Prado, a Beethoven fan who recognized him as an inspiration. How is it possible not only to deal with the mindset of a single person, but to know that a composer - like Almeida Prado - evokes another? How to convey so many stories and styles? 

SR: Indeed! Almeida Prado’s music is very demanding of the performer.  Concerto I is no less difficult than Prokofiev's 3rd Concerto, and perhaps much more! The demands of sound, precision, polyphonic listening, and imagination just to be able to tackle the text are monumental! Cartas Celestes XII, which Almeida Prado dedicated to me and I premiered it in New York has a direct influence from Beethoven’s op. 109 at the Coda. It is a piece I worked with Prado and played many times with him in the audience.

One of the qualities as a musician that Almeida Prado possessed was a vast knowledge of the repertoire. Having studied with the two giants of the twentieth century: Nadia Boulanger, and Olivier Messiaen, he had an encyclopedic knowledge and memory of the repertoire. This also reflected in this eclectic quality of his personality - cultural and musical references were showering upon you when you talked to him. All this is in his music. This freedom of thinking and capability to assimilate so many styles into one personal language was his trademark. And as a performer one really needs to embrace this freedom.  

AM: The recording process is something we are very curious about. Please tell us about it.

SR: Maestro Fábio Mechetti and I have worked together many times. I have played under him — from a Mozart Concerto to Beethoven, Schumann and Villa-Lobos concerti.  It is however the first time we recorded together. It was a wonderful experience since I had the possibility of playing two of the concertos on the CD (Aurora and Concerto I) in concert before we recorded it. The Orchestra was very prepared and very enthusiastic about the project! I had played Aurora with this same Orchestra with Fábio Mechetti years before. I remember Almeida Prado was present and worked with us.

It was a delight to work with Fábio Mechetti and the OFMG! We had the expert help from Ulli Schneider (recording engineer). Microphone spacing was specially studied so that each one of the concerti has its special sound characteristics. Indeed they sound very different from each other! In Aurora, for instance, Prado uses two groups of wind instruments in opposition to and dialoguing with each other. This antiphonal characteristic was brought in evidence by the mics spacing promoting this dialogue. 

AM: You recently played Almeida Prado's Concerto Fribourgeois with the English Chamber Orchestra, can you tell us more about how the British audience reacted? But more broadly, what does it mean to be the bearer of this wonderful musical heritage in Brazilian music?

SR: I basically just came back from London where the ECO, conducted by Neil Thomson and I played the Concerto Fribourgeois by Almeida Prado.  There was great expectation from the part of the orchestra and the conductor at rehearsal.  The ECO understood that Prado has a personal language, and was impressed by it. Since the concerto really makes sense with the piano part, naturally they were surprised by the effect and the challenges when both soloist and orchestra are put together. It is indeed challenging since this concerto presents very specific qualities — rhythmic precision is a must. There is great rhythmic tension in the last movement — the Moto Perpetuo, as in the Toccata — a wrong turn and we are not together!  It was exhilarating! The public and the orchestra felt it. Members of the ECO were very appreciative to me and expressed their admiration for being able to include this piece to their repertoire. They do not play a lot of modern music, nor Brazilian music.

It is a good question: how do I feel about being the bearer of a musical heritage? It is an honor and a great responsibility. Brazilian music is seen still, unfortunately, as a niche in the repertoire. And it should not be so. When you think of Russian music, one thinks of Rachmaninov, Scriabin and Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Shostakovitch. And that is certainly not ‘niche’ music in the great scheme of the repertoire. Neither is German music, or French music. It is all a question of perception. Brazilian music offers many specific qualities and colors — it has a personality of its own. It should be included in the regular curriculum of major music schools since it has one of the best children’s music in the world (I kid you not !!!!), and wonderful rhythmic challenges for a music student — one can really learn how to play polyrhythms as well as learn how to sing at your instrument with such compelling and soulful music as is Brazilian music!

AM: For modern music lovers, this is a must-have album. What other performances or recordings do you have in the near future?

SR: I have dedicated a lot of my recordings to the Brazilian repertoire, having recorded the complete piano works of Villa-Lobos for piano, with Naxos, a total of 8 CD’s and more than 200 works. Latin GRAMMY nominations as well as the winner of Latin GRAMMY gave me and this music more recognition. But, believing that the best way to program is to have an eclectic repertoire, I have decided to mix Brazilian music and the regular pieces of the piano repertoire. Recently, I have recorded a CD which I call Goldfingers where I pay homage to the great pianists of the Golden age and their programming. In it, I included a Mozart Sonata, Rachmaninoff Second Sonata (first version), Debussy’s Children’s Corner, and three transcriptions: Rigoletto (Verdi/Liszt), Liebesleid (Kreisler/Rachmaninov) and Carmen (Bizet/Horowitz). At the end of October I shall be the soloist with the Orquestra Filarmônica de Minas Gerais (the same orchestra in the Prado’s CD), with the most amazing and less-known Scriabin concerto. A true jewel. I shall be able to start showcasing Brazilian repertoire with the major works for the piano repertoire when I perform Prado’s Concerto Fribourgeois with Scriabin Concerto in the same program. It is a double-bill which enhances Scriabin’s modernity and Prado’s inventiveness.

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Remember that this unique album by Sonia Rubinsky is on sale as part of our Music of the Americas campaign to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.

Get it before the discount ends on 4 October 2022.