Luís de Freitas Branco - Orchestral Works Vol. 2 (Álvaro Cassuto)

Information

Composer: Luís de Freitas Branco

• (01) Symphony No. 2
• (05) After a reading of Guerra Junqueiro (Fantasy)
• (06) Artificial Paradises

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra
Álvaro Cassuto, conductor

Date: 2009
Label: Naxos
https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.572059

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Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 10 / SOUND QUALITY: 10

Who was Luís de Freitas Branco? His Second Symphony combines Gregorian themes (Respighi) with richly lyrical chromaticism (Franck). After a reading of Guerra Junqueiro is pure Richard Strauss, Don Juan in particular, right down to the combination of solo violin, harp, and glockenspiel. Artificial Paradises is French, d’Indy trending toward Debussy and Ravel–there’s an episode with rippling winds straight out of Daphnis and Chloe, except that the Branco is actually the earlier work (1910), the product of a 20-year-old composer with tremendous gifts.

What makes all of this so fascinating isn’t that Branco is derivative, but that the music still rings so true. The Franck is good Franck, the Strauss just as glowing as the real deal. Branco doesn’t conceal his influences, he revels in them, and this gives his music an authenticity and focus that makes the issue of sheer originality basically irrelevant. As in previous issues in this series, Álvaro Cassuto is the ideal exponent of his countryman’s music, and the sound that Naxos gets in Dublin remains some of the finest on offer from this label. Excellent on all fronts! [2/16/2009]

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday

More reviews:
http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/n/nxs72059a.php
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2009/Jan09/Branco2_8572059.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2009/june09/Branco2_8572059.htm
https://www.allmusic.com/album/lu%C3%ADs-de-freitas-branco-orchestral-works-vol-2-mw0001865793
https://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=8.572059&languageid=EN
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Freitas-Branco-Junquiero-Artificial-Paradises/dp/B001LKLKRU

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Luís de Freitas Branco (Lisbon, 12 October 1890 – Lisbon, 27 November 1955) was a Portuguese composer, musicologist, and professor of music who played a pre-eminent part in the development of Portuguese music in the first half of the 20th century. Born into an aristocratic family, Freitas Branco had a cosmopolitan education and began composing at a precocious age. He studied music in Berlin and Paris, where he worked with Engelbert Humperdinck and other composers. He became professor of composition in 1916 at the Lisbon Conservatory of Music, where he taught, among many others, Joly Braga Santos.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lu%C3%ADs_de_Freitas_Branco

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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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