All Portugalsom CDs are available at an extremely attractive
price and this offsets the shortish playing time. Rare and often extremely
fine repertoire will be the reason for seeking out these discs. The
Portuguese government has done wonders for their nation's music by sponsoring
a very ambitious series of recording and we are the beneficiaries. Without
them would we ever have heard of Lopes-Graca, Freitas Branco, Freitas
or Braga Santos?
Braga Santos's First Symphony is in three big movements
playing for almost three quarters of an hour. The symphony which dates
from 1947 is dedicated 'to the heroes and martyrs of the last world
war.' Its voices are not latino. Instead there are unnerving resonances
with the symphonies of Vaughan Williams (12.35 in the first movement),
with Tchaikovsky (especially the mournful Slav tension of the Fifth
Symphony), with Bruckner, with Jon Leifs (listen to those brass and
percussion impacts at the end of the first movement) and with Rachmaninov
(1.38 in the finale).
I know of three recordings of the work. There is a
mono disc in distressed sound of Pedro de Freitas Branco conducting
a historic performance from the 1950s and there is Alvaro Cassuto's
Marco Polo disc. Antal's Hungarian version is the most gripping of the
three and if this is the result of spending four days in the studio
then others should try it. Sound quality is superb - depth, plushness
of string tone, biting brass. If you know your versions of the Moeran
Symphony you can think of Cassuto as the Handley version, Freitas as
Heward and Antal as Boult in the still wonderful sounding Lyrita LP
version.
As a bonus there is the third of three symphonic overtures.
This is rustically Sibelian, folksy, smiling and with the skipping smiling
energy of the Fourth Symphony - also not to be missed on this label
(and reviewed on this site). The tension and excitement undeniably radiated
from Antal's interpretation of the symphony carries over faithfully
into the overture.
The best version available of the First Symphony. This
is a work that anyone who loves his Sibelius, Moeran or Vaughan Williams
must hear. After the Fourth Symphony disc this is the disc to make converts
to the world of Joly Braga Santos and to make him a household name in
Berlin, Chicago, Stockholm, London, Moscow and New York. This is a sheerly
lovely disc.
Rob Barnett
ORDERING DETAILS
The prices remain the same but not the transport costs:
For UK --- £6 per CD
Freight --- till 3 CDs --- not registered --- £2.40; registered----
£3.50
For USA --$ 10 per CD
Freight --till 3 CDs -- not registered ---$5; registered ---- $6.80
Portusom accept Visa or American Express
Orders: for the attention of Eduarda Martins
by fax to the nş 351 21 7142353
By mail to:
Rua Adelaide Cabete,3C
1500-023 LISBOA
Portugal
by e-mail info@strauss.pt
Hungarian State SO/Mátyas
Antal