Joly Braga Santos - Music for Strings (Álvaro Cassuto)

Information

Composer: Joly Braga Santos

• (01) Concerto for Strings in D
• (04) Sinfonietta for Strings
• (07) Variations Concertante for Strings and Harp
• (08) Concerto for Violin, Cello, Strings and Harp

Bradley Creswick, violin
Alexander Somov, cello
Sue Blair, harp

Northern Sinfonia
Álvaro Cassuto, conductor

Date: 2001
Label: Marco Polo
https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.225186

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Review

Portugal’s leading symphonist is well served here in a finely played and recorded disc

The previous discs in Marco Polo’s valuable Braga Santos series‚ covering all the symphonies (bar the Fourth)‚ each paired a product of his early modal­Classical idiom with a work from his later‚ more austere manner. This newcomer features four works for string orchestra‚ including two concertos‚ the chronological disposition of which neatly illustrates how the composer’s style made that change during the 1960s.

This is the third outing for the 1951 Concerto for strings‚ a tribute to its winning‚ Vaughan Williams­like air. Cassuto and the Northern Sinfonia give it a spirited account‚ not quite so polished as Turovsky‚ but preferable‚ as with the Sinfonietta (1963)‚ to Minsky on Schwann. Another‚ rather different‚ folk influence at work in this latter piece is that of Bartók‚ with what sounds to me like a clear allusion to (if not a quote from) The Miraculous Mandarin in the finale.

Cassuto suggests in his note that the mark of the New Viennese School is present in the Sinfonietta’s central Adagio‚ and a more Expressionist aesthetic is certainly apparent in the Variations concertantes (1967). Its soundworld is altogether more polyphonic and severe‚ despite the presence of the harp. Its seven sections make for a fascinating listen and the composer applied the lessons learned into the more extrovert and approachable Concerto for violin and cello (1968). Here the textures are richer and the slow­fast­slow pattern gives the work a very different character to its companions.

If Turovsky remains first choice for the Concerto in D‚ this issue is in every respect very recommendable‚ the Northern Sinfonia’s virtuosity matched by Andrew Walton’s fine sound. A splendid disc.

-- Gramophone

More reviews:
BBC Music Magazine  PERFORMANCE: ***** / SOUND: ****
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 8 / SOUND QUALITY: 9
https://www.amazon.com/Braga-Santos-Concerto-Strings-Joly/dp/B00005RT5C

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Joly Braga Santos (May 14, 1924 – July 18, 1988) was a Portuguese composer and conductor. He studied violin and composition at the National Conservatoire of Lisbon, and was a disciple of Luís de Freitas Branco. After the Second World War, he was able to go abroad, having studied conducting with Hermann Scherchen and Antonino Votto, and composition with Virgilio Mortari. Braga Santos was considered the leading Portuguese composer of the 20th century. He wrote six symphonies, three operas, chamber music for a wide variety of instruments and ensembles, film scores, and several choral works.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joly_Braga_Santos

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Álvaro Cassuto (born 1938) is a Portuguese composer and conductor. He was born in Porto, Portugal, and studied in Lisbon and Berlin. Cassuto has been music director of the Portuguese Radio Symphony, the New Portuguese Philharmonia, the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, the Algarve Orchestra and the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Koussevitzky Memorial Prize. Cassuto has recorded many highly successful CDs for the Strauss, Portugalsom, Marco Polo and Naxos record labels, notably a series of recordings of Portuguese composers for Naxos.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81lvaro_Cassuto

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