"Just in case you wonder where Alexandre Diass Nazareth recordings have gone: he asked us to remove them from the site as he will be selling them commercially on CdBaby. A great pity but we do have to respect these wishes I guess."

I'm sorry to hear that Mr. Dia's recordings will not be available here. At the same time I realize that making good recordings takes some time and yes, money (at least upfront for quality equipment or whatnot). And then tuning and maintaining the instrument so that it's always in top form.

well...
good time for preparing a recording of Odeon then.

[:D]

That's funny, Luis! I just played through a Nazareth piece tonight! It's not Odeon, though.

what have you been playing, Monica?

I like "Apanhei-te cavaquinho" a lot.
it makes the piano sound as a real cavaquinho.

[img]http://filmeespiaso.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/cavaquinho-1.jpg[/img]

It's called Eponina. I don't remember how I stumbled upon it, but it's cute and not terribly difficult. Won't be ready to record for maybe another week or so.
That instrument looks like a ukelele.

I don't know this Eponina.

Yes, cavaquinho is similar to a ukalele, but only in apparence. Cavaco's strings are REALLY HARD, my fingers would even bleed. And ukalele has an exotic tunning, an "out-of-order" tuning of the strings (I don't know why... it must have to do with the kind of music it plays).

Cavaquinho is an important instrument to play the accompaniment of samba. It's also the soloist of many choros. Waldir Azevedo was a great composer of choros, and a great cavaquinho player. It's a pitty he didn't write for the piano, because I like his pieces a lot.
The piece below is Brasileirinho, his most famous one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si5y0QGSjTY

PS: in fact, cavaquinho is much more similar to a banjo than a ukalele. Banjo is also part of the accompaniment of samba, and those who play cavaquinho usually play banjo too. I don't know the differences however. I never played a banjo.

Thanks for the youtube link - I've never heard or even of a cavaquinho before. But I think a banjo is more 'twangy'. I'm surprised to learn that Brazilians even play banjo! I had no idea....

Dear Robert, Cris, Monica, Luis, pianoman342, Andrew, Marcelo and other fellow pianist colleagues who have commented on this subject and also on the +70 recordings I have done in the past 5 years.

I thank all the moderators for understanting my wish for withdrawing my Nazareth recordings from the Piano Society website. I'm sorry for not writing a public letter at the time, so that's why I'm writing this.

When I submitted my first recordings in 2007, I did it without any professional purposes, mainly to illustrate musically the texts I had been writing for Sovaco de Cobra, about rare Nazareth pieces: http://sovacodecobra.uol.com.br/2007/03 ... h-inedito/ The recordings weren't published exclusively at PS, since I also put them on Brazilian sites, and eventually on youtube.

The first 7 recordings were made for rehearsal purposes before a recital I played in Brasília. Later on we came up with the idea of creating a series with Nazareth's rare music. In the following years, I studied a lot his music, and developed more consistent ideas for interpretating his pieces.

During this process, it was a joy to submit each recording to piano society and read the comments and critics about my renditions. I also enjoyed a lot listening to the recordings of several other members, and I'll be eternally thankful for having "discovered" the music of Kapustin here, which I now adore.

During the past years I faced some choices and decided to become a professional pianist/music teacher. As a result, I decided to transform my Nazareth recordings into a commercial release at CDBaby. By organizing them in commercial albums with covers and UPC code, I intend to put them alongside with other Nazareth albums that have been released through the decades, by other interpreters; therefore they can now be listed in his discography.

These recordings hosted at PS had many download hits during the years they were up, and I'm happy that many people got interested in Nazareth's music and my renditions of it. However, since they are now being sold, I decided to ask PS to retrive them some months ago. I have no false hopes of making substantial money with them, and I will be happy if they pay the investment. However I do intend to make new recordings of his pieces, growing the collection into an eventual complete works set.

I always understood that they were my copyright, since I produced them and uploaded them (and Nazareth's works are in public domain). I have no intention to bother anyone with this choice, and I agree with Cris that a clause could address this issue, making things clear about the ownership of the submitted mp3s.

I also agree with Monica in the sense that I will never be able to erase the footprint of the mp3s, but I don't see that as a problem, since people can always manage to find mp3s of sought recordings. However, I ponder that it is also interesting to have the possibility of buying a digital album directly from the artist, distributor or from the recording company website.

I hope not to sound ungrateful, for I did my small share of contribution to the annual fee, and the recordings were available for over 5 years. I am really thankful to Piano Society for the excellent experience of sharing music, and to each one of the members with whom I corresponded. I also congratulate Cris, Monica and Robert for the outstanding way in which they coordinate this excellent website, which is unique in piano history.

I will be around, and I'd like to offer help to anyone researching Brazilian classical piano music.

All the best,
Alexandre