Marcelo Bratke – Solo Piano Works Ernesto Nazareth

I don't much like this recording by Bratke of Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth. I'd much rather listen to his first Nazareth album ("Brasil") on the Olympia label, where his approach to this music was much fresher and true, naiver even. Here, Bratke plays popular Nazareth from an elitist classical pianist's standpoint, always keeping respectful distance from the music and never willing to become truly involved in its (admittedly perhaps) gaudy palette of emotions. The fact is that his approach seems not to be either right or the best one possible, and something is odd and unnatural, distant and "antiseptic" in its treatment.