To think, there was a time when I hadn’t heard of Luis de Freitas
Branco. In the last couple of years I have reviewed his Second
Symphony (Naxos
8.572059) and the Third (Naxos
8.572370) and purchased the First Symphony (Naxos
8.570765). I have come to really admire and to enjoy his
almost unknown work.
The booklet notes were been written by the conductor and he
comments that “Freitas Branco is the most important Portuguese
composer of the first half of the twentieth century”. And he
should know because he has recorded all of the works and is
a recognised expert on the composer. However, I still cannot
understand why an Irish orchestra, as good as they are, have
been chosen to record them. The same goes for the Marco Polo
CDs of the orchestral works of Joly Braga Santos (Freitas Branco’s
pupil). Surely a Portuguese orchestra would do as good a job,
and might even already know some of the music.
This, Freitas Branco’s Fourth and last symphony begins
(like the Mass) with a Gregorian melody in unison, the Kyrie
Eleison. It then launches out on a journey investing occasionally
in other ‘plainchantey’ tunes but never repeating its opening.
The first movement - which is eleven and a half minutes long
- is a vast ternary structure once the Allegro kicks in but
with the A section falling into several sections. Whilst listening
I was asking myself if there is anything about this music which
is especially Portuguese; certainly there’s nothing Spanish
about it. My all too-brief excursions into Portugal - and I
don’t mean just the Algarve but into the smaller towns and countryside
of what is a very beautiful and varied landscape - have introduced
me to a religious, noble and proud people - even more so I should
imagine in Freitas Branco’s day. They are a nation full of colour
and able to be festive despite their in-built passion and gravity.
These characteristics can be sensed in this music. And as we
embark on the second movement, an Adagio, we encounter another
characteristic, that of an aching fervour which although calm
has deep undercurrents of seriousness. This is a gentle episode
building to a “majestic conclusion”.
The Scherzo, which follows, includes a tambourine reminding
us of the dancing which one sees in villages all over the country
especially in celebration of saint’s days. It is brief and acts
as an introduction to the vast finale. This begins portentously
and ends with a noble Elgarian chorale; after all St. George
is Portugal’s patron saint as well! In between it moves through
an almost pastoral allegro but with contrasting tempi surrounding
it. This is often light, mysterious and fleeting and often fervent
and strong. Despite its length this movement - and indeed this
very enjoyable symphony as a whole - does not outstay its welcome.
Of all of the composer’s symphonies it is this one that I might
well return to most often.
The other work on this generously filled CD is Vathek
subtitled a Symphonic Poem in the form of Variations on
an Oriental Theme. It is truly original and remarkable both
in its structure and in its harmony and orchestration. It brings
this series of Freitas Branco orchestral music to a marvellous
conclusion.
The symphonic poem, which may well have been inspired by early
Stravinsky and certainly by Rimsky-Korsakov, has a curious form
which has been dictated by a story-line based on a novel by
William Beckford. It concerns Vathek the Caliph of Samarah who
has five palaces build for him each dedicated to a different
sense. It would have created an almighty storm in 1913 about
the same time as the premiere of ‘Le Sacre’ had it been heard
then. Its experimental harmony from a man of just 23 years is
quite remarkable. That said, he had been moving towards some
sort of harmonic experimentation a few years earlier in his
Artificial Paradises of 1919 (found on Volume 2 in this
series).
This work which was not played in its complete form until 1961
begins with a brass Introduction that is polytonal and would
have hit the original audience hard. They were, after all, used
to a diet of Tchaikovsky and highly conservative and now forgotten
Portuguese masters. The theme is announced on a solo bassoon,
which is deliberately oriental in contour. Then there is a Prologue
with an extraordinary twelve-tone chord built in fourths. This
is not dissimilar to the one Stravinsky conjures from the strings
at the end of ‘The Sage’ (bar before Fig 72 in Le Sacre).
The five variations which follow represent the five palaces:
first of the ‘Eternal Feast’, secondly a gloriously romantic
‘Temple of Melody’, then an extraordinary ‘Delight of the Eyes’
Temple which Freitas Branco sets as a brief ‘fugato in 59 voices’
a cacophony of counterpoint which I wont even attempt to describe.
Fourthly we have a ‘Palace of Perfumes’ and finally a ‘Refuge
of Happiness’ in which an oriental dance is set out for us accompanied
by beautifully and scantily clad maidens. The composer cogitates
on these matters in a bipartite Epilogue, which ends in a grand
chorale.
So, for much less than a mediocre bottle of Port this CD is
well worth investigating, as indeed are any of the four devoted
to this composer. I for one am very pleased to have been given
the chance by Naxos to get to know this most enjoyable and interesting
composer.
Gary Higginson
RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra/Álvaro Cassuto
