After a first recording entirely dedicated to the Spanish composer Joaquín Turina; the Damocles Trio of New York is back at Claves with a double album once again deeply imbued with a strong Latin flavour. On the programme are trios with piano by two sons of Rio de Janeiro – Heitor Villa-Lobos and Oscar Lorenzo Fernandez.

The three trios by Villa-Lobos are youthful works; written before the composer made his pivotal journey to Paris. Surprisingly; it is in these early works that he seems the least Brazilian; as if it was his later expatriation that would induce a (re)discovery of his roots. In his introduction; Etienne Barilier writes: “In Rio de Janeiro he was above all a romantic; an impressionist – and French. These youthful works might disappoint if we were to consider them from a Brazilian angle. But they are none the less rich and promising. Moreover; they allow us the pleasure of discovering the road that was gradually to lead the composer to himself.”

Oscar Lorenzo Fernandez was born in 1897; ten years after Villa-Lobos. Like him; he infused his work with the folk music of his homeland. And; like him; he was first influenced by European romanticism and French impressionism; only becoming a truly “Brazilian” composer in the early 1920s. His Trio Brasileiro was written in 1924.