Bows Up! – Portuguese Music for Strings
Sérgio AZEVEDO (b. 1968)
Sinfonietta for Strings (2019) [16:28]
António FRAGOSO (1897-1918)
Concerto romântico (2018, orch. of Suite romantique (1916) by S Azevedo) [3:20]
Sérgio AZEVEDO
Music for Strings – in memoriam Béla Bartók (2021) [18:31]
Joly BRAGA SANTOS (1924-1988)
Concerto for Strings in d minor, op. 17 (1951) [18:30]
Ana Beatriz Manzanilla (violin: Fragoso)
Camerata Atlântica
rec. 2020, Auditório Senhora Boa Nova, Estoril, Portugal
NAXOS 8.579105 [57:02]
This release features three first recordings of works written or orchestrated in the last few years by Sérgio Azevedo, described as one of the most prominent Portuguese composers currently working. His two original works are strongly neo-Classical in the manner of Prokofiev and Bartók, the latter a homage to the Hungarian master. The Sinfonietta for Strings was, by some distance, the best part of the CD. It wears its neo-Classicism lightly, straying into areas not too far removed from Walton, Vaughan Williams and indeed the Braga Santos discmate. My enjoyment of it was rather spoiled by the abrupt and unsatisfying endings to the first and last movements, the former to such an extent it was as if the final bars had been lost. The Bartók homage piece is much harder going, chromatic and hard-edged. The first movement is an elaborate fugue, based on the fugue from Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta. Nothing in it resonated with me at all.
If you look at the death year for António Fragoso, it won’t surprise you that he died in the flu pandemic that followed the First World War. To mark the centenary of his death, Fragoso’s family commissioned Sérgio Azevedo to produce a violin concerto, based on a suite for violin and piano (review). Here we are presented with the very brief Prelude, lyrically simple with some moments of inspiration. We don’t get the other three movements, not because Azevedo has not completed the commission, rather that they
are scored for full orchestra. Given that Camerata Atlântica is an eleven
strong strings-only ensemble, such significant augmentation obviously wasn't
feasible. I am also informed that a recording of the full work under the
auspices of the commissioners is in the pipeline, so even the Prelude given
here required special permission.
The final work comes from the middle of last century and one of the greats of Portuguese classical music, Joly Braga Santos. His name was the reason I requested this disc to review – I feel that his Fourth Symphony is one of the great unsung works of the twentieth century. Here with the Concerto for Strings, Naxos has a competitor within its own stable, that of a Marco Polo release from twenty years ago in the series conducted by Alvaro Cassuto (review). It is one of the last works written in his first phase, which is characterised by the use of folk melodies and a pared-back Romanticism, which is very much reminiscent of Vaughan Williams. The first movement of this work certainly brings the Tallis Fantasia to mind. There is a substantial contrast in approach between the Cassuto recording - with full strings - and this one with the eleven members of Camerata Atlântica. This leads to a much brighter sound (a better acoustic helps too), but also a lack of depth, especially in the intense Largamente maestoso opening to the first movement. I’m afraid Camerata Atlântica simply doesn’t cut it here – I hear nothing majestic in their performance at all. The other big difference between the two performances comes in the last movement, Allegro ben marcato. Camerata Atlântica do demonstrate the marcato (accentuated) rather better, undoubtedly helped by the smaller ensemble, but charge through the movement at a tempo approaching Prestissimo – just too fast to my ears.
The sound quality of the release is good; the booklet notes are fairly typical of the label. The absence of the three movements of the Fragoso, the poor running time and the uncompetitive Braga Santos, however, make this a less than satisfactory release.
David Barker
