Bach in Brazil remastered. HEAR NOW
Bach in Brazil remastered and re-released for today’s audiophile classical guitar listener.
Remastered and re-released for today’s audiophile classical guitar listener, “Bach in Brazil” is a beautiful recorded collection of some of the finest repertoire for classical guitar. Played by guitarist Gordon Kreplin, the recording received rave reviews on original release! Enjoy works by Venezuelan guitarist and composer Antonio Lauro, Brazilian composer Heitor Villa Lobos, and Baroque-era German composer Johann Sebastian Bach.
The Making of Bach in Brazil
This recording was done on location at St.John’s Episcopal Church in Broad Creek Maryland and at Edenton United Methodist Church in North Carolina during the spring of 1995. In order to accommodate the charming but intrusive voices from the natural and not so natural world, these recordings were made between 2 and 4 AM. St. John’s is a colonial church that George Washington attended from time to time. It is surrounded by 17th and 18th century gravesites, including those under the floor, so we never really felt alone during our sessions.
The Repertoire on Bach in Brazil
Heitor Villa-Lobos considered Bach’s music to be a source of universal folklore and a link that united all peoples. Bach’s treatment of dance forms in the Baroque “classical suite” is a good example — the core movements of the suite reflect diverse cultural traditions throughout Europe. The music of Villa-Lobos was a synthesis of Brazilian folkloric idioms and European stylistic traditions- he felt an affinity for Bach’s work and his music often reflected aspects of Bach’s musical style. Antonio Lauro, like Villa-Lobos, wrote in a style that combined his own folk traditions of Venezuela with European forms and harmony. Lauro, like Bach, wrote stylized dance forms that echoed diverse cultural traditions. All three composers featured on this CD shared an interest in the process of stylizing folk idioms to create or perfect evolving art forms.
About the Artist – Guitarist Gordon Kreplin
Bio
Gordon Kreplin has performed throughout the US, Spain, Portugal and South America. Critics and audiences alike have experienced his performances as having an easy warmth. His concerts in Spain and South America were sponsored by the United States Information Service (USIS). Kreplin received an A+ rating from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and USIS for touring abroad.
Kreplin’s teachers include Jose Tomas at the Oscar Espla Conservatory (where he studied for two years), Andres Segovia at Musica de Compostela, and John Marlow at American University. Kreplin served for four years in the North Carolina Visiting Artist program. He has taught at various universities in the U.S. Kreplin also taught at El Conservatorio de Horta on the island of Faial in Portugal. He is also Co-Founder and Co-Director of Ascencion Music Academy on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
” In my work as a concert musician and music educator, I teach about the aesthetic tools of rhythm, color and composition to audiences and private students alike. In my work as a photographer, I teach about lighting and composition in environmental portraiture. For me, such tools are the essence of both music and photography.”
Gordon Kreplin
Artist Statement
So how does one photograph music?
For so long the question of artistic relevance has eluded me. My first career included giving concerts and teaching throughout the United States, South America and Europe. We released a few successful recordings on our label Ascencion Recordings, begun in 1995. It certainly seemed enough… and then a camera came into my life- a really good camera, a Hasselblad. I had always enjoyed photography but it was to become more than a minor passion! I loved photographing clients in environmental settings. And in that work I discovered a strong sense of composition and color – not yet realizing that this developing artistry was coming from a musical soul. One that spoke of clarity, design and intuition.
Concerts, judging and photography seminars?
So, after twenty years of performing in both concert and educational settings, a second career of photography took hold. I earned many awards, nationally and internationally for art photography and began giving seminars to state photographic conventions. The seminars called upon my experience as a performer and public speaker- again that musical soul was gently reminding me of its continuing relevance. I was approved as an international judge for the Professional Photographers Association and served on annual panels for photographic competitions. Rewarding… but that muse of melody and harmony still called.
How one endeavor goes to sleep, but not really …
In 2016 my wife Cathy and I put the portrait business to sleep. It was time to get back to music full time. We re-awakened our record label, Ascencion Recordings, after the discovery of several recordings that had been edited and initially mastered, found in a forgotten studio closet- recording sessions completed just as the photography business blossomed. We began to produce and then release several recordings. During the Covid lockdown, I also discovered poems and writings that I had written since my 20s–those were in another closet! So I set about editing and creating a work of poems that related to my best photographs. I discovered from that quixotic muse, quite governed by music, that the thematic content of those poems was reflected in my photography in a variance of rhythm, composition, color and form. All integral aspects of interpretation from musical phrasing to color to harmonic rhythm.
Gordon Kreplin has performed throughout the US, Spain, Portugal and South America. Critics and audiences alike have experienced his performances as having an easy warmth. His concerts in Spain and South America were sponsored by the United States Information Service (USIS). Kreplin received an A+ rating from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and USIS for touring abroad.
Kreplin’s teachers include Jose Tomas at the Oscar Espla Conservatory (where he studied for two years), Andres Segovia at Musica de Compostela, and John Marlow at American University. Kreplin served for four years in the North Carolina Visiting Artist program. He has taught at various universities in the U.S. Kreplin also taught at El Conservatorio de Horta on the island of Faial in Portugal .
What the Critics are Saying
” In Bach in Brazil … Gordon Kreplin has given us something memorable … lingering both on notes and in precious silence … details that make it hard not to become completely absorbed in his play.”
Michael Gill (Cleveland) Morning Journal’s ARCADE
“… an amazing guitarist … Kreplin’s playing is organic, lithe, muscular … limpidly beautiful. If you buy one CD this year, let it be this one.”
Peter Fay, Washington Review
“I am recommending a … CD called Bach in Brazil … perfect for just about anything …”
Brian Soergel, L.A. Jazz Scene
” Kreplin’s solo album Bach in Brazil will grab your attention. It showcases his elegant playing style, fine intonation and good variety of material.”
David Steinberg, Albuquerque Journal
“… His playing is warm and easy. He’s one of those instrumentalists who make it all sound so simple that anyone could do it, while moving the listener to keep his CD playing.”
Iris Lorenz-Fife, Views from the Coast
The Audiophile Recording Process
The original Bach in Brazil sessions took place in 1995, on location at St. John’s Episcopal church in Broad Creek, MD. Recording engineer Cathy Pescevich (Kreplin) chose Microtech Geffel m295 microphones for the project. Her goal was to capture the sound of Gordon’s instrument with unrivaled naturalness and clarity.