Often, such authors incorporated, in stylized and developed way, compositional techniques extracted from the spectacular unraveling of urban popular music that characterized the second half of the 20th century. Two techniques call particular attention: the interference of improvisatory elements (such as those of jazz) in compositional writing (that is, the view that improvisational practice could lead to elaborate compositional procedures in the score) and the active use of rhythmic figures and ideas characteristic of popular genres. In this regard, Latin America and Brazil are particularly privileged. From the end of the 1980s and the start of the 1990s, Brazilian works, composers, guitarists, and chamber groups became a staple in the world of international guitar recitals, festivals, and series. Paulo Bellinati is at the very center of this revolution.

The creation of the guitar oeuvre for four guitars by Paulo Bellinati coincides with Quaternaglia’s own trajectory. (Collaboration between composer and quartet began in 1996). Its origin lies in a work of 1990, the LP Violões do Brasil, in which Bellinati plays (with the use of overdubbing), guitar, viola caipira, cavaquinho, and tenor and 7-stringed guitars. Three of the compositions that would appear in later versions for guitar quartet (all registered in this album) were present in that record: Lun-Duos (based on the Lun-Duo for two guitars), and the maxixe A Furiosa and Baião de Gude.

When evaluated in toto, Bellinati’s guitar quartet work appears to have been carefully sculpted to showcase the diversity of genres that characterize Brazilian music: alongside the already mentioned lundu, maxixe and baião, were added the jequibau Carlo’s Dance (a samba/bossa-nova in 5-beat time), a street frevo (Frevo e Fuga, commissioned by Quaternaglia in 2010), a maracatu (Maracatu da Pipa, based on a version for three guitars), and finally, a Brazilian waltz (a version of Um amor de Valsa, originally for solo guitar, especially prepared for this celebratory recording).

All of Bellinati’s compositions for guitar quartet received new versions for this commemorative album. Baião de Gude, Lun-Duos and Um amor de Valsa feature the composer himself who performs alongside Quaternaglia on a historical “violão seresta” from 1935, with steel strings. The rhythms of the frevo, maracatu and maxixe are intensified by percussionist Ari Colares, widely acclaimed expert on Brazilian percussion. Finally, producer Swami Jr., an eclectic and versatile instrumentalist, adds a creative bass guitar line to the four acoustic instruments in Carlo’s Dance.

From the same generation as Bellinati, Sérgio Assad is one of the most requisitioned, performed, recorded, and respected Brazilian composers active today, and Quaternaglia had, for many years, planned on commissioning a new work from him for the group.

Bellinati’s Mosaic (2021) makes use of “aural pebbles” by Bellinati that are rearranged in new designs and patterns. Assad’s mosaic unravels in ever-shifting form; tiles fit one another without ever disfiguring the original motifs. Submitted to a new geometry are themes such as those of A Furiosa, Baião de Gude, Ping-Pong, Maracatu da Pipa, Tom e Prelúdio, Um amor de Valsa, Jongo and others. The piece features an almost unencompassable number of Bellinatian tesserae.

Quaternaglia’s Bellinati’s Mosaic launches new light over the work of the composer, allowing each new track to be heard anew, enabling unexpected and reinvigorating connections.

Sidney Molina