Although Heitor Villa-Lobos, his countryman, was ten years his senior, the assert claiming that the Brazilian composer Oscar Lorenzo Fernández was an absolute contemporary of Villa-Lobos is quite legitimate since Fernández also died ten years earlier. But, apart from having seen the same world, their life and musical biography are quite different.
The composer was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1897. He did his musical studies at the National Institute of Music and in 1936 he founded the Conservatorio Brasileiro de Música, which he lead until his death in 1948. Despite having composed a ballet, symphonies, two suites for orchestra and more than 80 compositions for piano, Oscar Lorenzo Fernández is mainly remembered today for an Afro-Brazilian piece plenty of great rhythmic and musical richness, "Batuque".
From his opera Malazarte, previously composed with a libretto extracted from a play, Fernández set aside three pieces in 1941 to build a suite he called Reisado do Pastoreio, whose movements he named: Pastoreio, Toada and Batuque.
The last piece enchanted Toscanini in his time, who took over its outreach enthusiastically.
Today it is worldwide recognized, being part of the standard repertoire when it comes to making third world symphonic music.
Its name comes from the religion practiced by the ancient slaves of Bantu or Sudanese origin: "batuque" or "batuke", and which spread through the Rio Grande do Sul region in the mid-nineteenth century, reaching Argentina and Uruguay. This appellation also gave rise to the words "batuque" or "batucada" as synonyms for percussion.
The rendition is by the UFF National Symphony Orchestra (Universidade Federal Fluminense), under the baton of a lady, the Brazilian conductor Ligia Amadio.
