Joly BRAGA SANTOS (1924-1988)
Symphony No. 2 (1947) [48.30]
Crossroads (ballet in one act) (1967)
[16.53]
Bournemouth SO/Alvaro
Cassuto
rec Bournemouth 1-2 August
2000
MARCO POLO 8.225216
[65.23]
Crotchet
Braga Santos, the Portuguese composer, wrote his first four symphonies between
the ages of 22 and 27. The Fourth is one of those works (Louis Glass's Fifth
Symphony is another) of such irresistible new-minted and immarescible freshness
that its omission from concert and radio lists beggars belief. A copy of
the Fourth can be ordered from Portugal by e-mail (just drop a line to
strauss@mail.telepac.pt)
Marco Polo have already recorded Symphony No 3 (1949) and Symphony No 6 (1972)
on 8.225087 and Symphony No 1 (1946) and Symphony No 5 Virtus Lusitaniae
(1965-66) on 8.223879. These recordings and those from the Portugalsom
company present a fairly full picture of this composer. The omission (until
now) has been the seecond symphony. Cassuto remains the conductor as on the
previous discs but here he abandons his Portuguese SO and joins creative
forces with the Bournemouth SO. The Second Symphony turns out to be out of
the same style as the First and Fourth Symphonies. The first movement bounds
with Brucknerian energy, tense, exciting, tuneful. The Adagio singingly yearns
with the very best touched with the wand of Vaughan Williams succeeded by
a Moeran-like pastorale touched with elements of Vaughan Williams Fifth Symphony.
The life-giving influence of the folk music of the Alentejo glows through
the pages of this work cross-bred with Bruckner, Kurt Weill (his brand of
jerky symphonism), Debussy and Kodaly. The Bournemouth orchestra give an
accomplished account as they also do of the ballet music. Crossroads was
a Gulbenkian commission first performed in Lisbon in 1967 after his studies
with Scherchen and Mortari signalled the insurgence of avant-garde voices
(1960 onwards). However the music emerges unscathed by rebarbative 'modernity'
yet far from anodyne. The five movements breathe in accents from Ravel's
Rhapsodie Espagnole, Stravinsky's Rite, Canteloube's Auvergne
songs, the Alentejo suites of de Freitas Branco. The usual good notes
from the conductor.
Roll on the Marco Polo version of the Fourth Symphony. Until then enjoy this
disc which (after the Fourth Symphony) is the one to start with if you decide
you would like to try Braga Santos.
Rob Barnett
See multiple
review of other Braga Santos recordings
