Joly Braga Santos

[vandermolen]

Holds hands up It does often exasperate me when the contributions to threads veer off into the surreal but hey at the end of the day it's only a bit of harmless fun mid serious discussion!

Absolutely, and I know it's tempting fate but this has been a very good thread. I too am guilty of indulging in inane banter about mad Dutchmen and clogs etc, but I am  firmly back on the rails now. Tonight I hope to listen to my BS "Music for Strings" CD on Marco Polo.

[pjme]

Ok - this is positive news. I'll give symphony nr 2 ( at almost 50 mins a BIG work!) a spin tonight...

(Fairly) unknown composers can be inspiring! Keep up the good work.
P.

[Dundonnell]

Ok - this is positive news. I'll give symphony nr 2 ( at almost 50 mins a BIG work!) a spin tonight...

(Fairly) unknown composers can be inspiring! Keep up the good work.
P.

Ok, I have said it before but if anyone can resist the big tune in the Adagio of the 2nd then they must indeed have a hard heart! It just bowls me over each time I hear it. But then I suppose I am just a soft sentimentalist at heart

[Thom]

But then I suppose I am just a soft sentimentalist at heart

Those are mostly nice people 

[Christo]

Still on sale at Amazon.co.uk (for just about GBP 189  , but cheaper elsewhere; JPC even used to offer it for 5 Euros, not so long ago) is another Braga Santos disc from the late '90s that I think hasn't been mentioned here, yet.
                                                                                       

I bought it back in 1999, during my first Braga Santos fever, after having discovered his music via the Portugalsom series (Marco Polo only started theirs a couple of years later). It contains the Staccato brilhante, Divertimento no. 2, Concerto in D and Sinfonietta for - now all available in the Marco Polo series as well (and Cassuto's recordings are generally better too).

But it finishes with another early piece, that shows Braga Santos remarkable talent as a student. The Elegia a Vianna da Motta from 1948 is a heartfelt elegy for his once famous compatriot Vianna da Motta (a concert pianist, Liszt pupil, and friend of Busoni) of quite some substance, taking almost 10 minutes.

It's also availabe in a Portugalsom recording coupled with the Três Esboços Sinfónicos and Variações Sinfónicas Sobre Um Tema Alentejano - but the CD suffers from a very poor recording quality. That said, anyone with an interest in his later style, starting from the early 1960s, should not only try the Sinfonietta for Strings (1963), but even more so the Três Esboços Sinfónicos (Three Symphonic Sketches) from 1961, because this piece really represents the missing link between the early and late Braga Santos.

Perhaps I should post here some of these pieces from long deleted discs?

[Christo]

Just found a 2000 Musicweb review by Rob Barnett of all the (once) available Portugalsom recordings, with the one I mentioned among them:

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classRev/2000/apr00/santos.htm

                              

[Thom]

Perhaps I should post here some of these pieces from long deleted discs?

That would be nice, Christo! Thanks.

Thom

[vandermolen]

I would love to hear the Portugalsom recordings of Symphony 3 or 4.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I would love to hear the Portugalsom recordings of Symphony 3 or 4.

Great minds think alike...

[pjme]

Jezetha, I bought that CD some years ago in a small recordshop in Lisbon. Agreed, the recording is mediocre, but the music is indeed very fine.  Now, if we all write to the Concertgebouw....

P.

[Dundonnell]

Those are mostly nice people 

Aaaah Not for me to say

[Christo]

Great minds think alike...

... as do small ones. But I think - quess -  Peter is referring to the poor quality of the Portugalsom recording of the Fourth, which, however much praise it receives from Rob Barnett, isn't that special and indeed cannot compare with Cassuto's version with his Irish orchestra for Marco Polo. And btw the choral version of the final movement isn't a good idea either.

Portugalsom/Cassuto's Third however, with the LSO, is superb imho.

[vandermolen]

Portugalsom/Cassuto's Third however, with the LSO, is superb imho.

This is the one I especially want to hear.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

This is the one I especially want to hear.

Exactly - me too! The Third made an immediate impression on me. Having two interpretations would make me very happy.

[pjme]

... as do small ones. But I think - quess -  Peter is referring to the poor quality of the Portugalsom recording of the Fourth, which, however much praise it receives from Rob Barnett, isn't that special and indeed cannot compare with Cassuto's version with his Irish orchestra for Marco Polo. And btw the choral version of the final movement isn't a good idea either.

Portugalsom/Cassuto's Third however, with the LSO, is superb imho.

That's correct ( idem for the Alentejo vars.) .
I just finished listening to the second  mov.of symph.nr 2....Really lovely - lush & grand...Amazing ,he was only 23 when he wrote this. And he knows how to counter-balance the grandiloquence with sadness.

P.

[Dundonnell]

That's correct ( idem for the Alentejo vars.) .
I just finished listening to the second  mov.of symph.nr 2....Really lovely - lush & grand...Amazing ,he was only 23 when he wrote this. And he knows how to counter-balance the grandiloquence with sadness.

P.

"lovely", "lush", "grand", "grandiloquence", "sadness". Yes, all of these words are particularly apt. So glad that you liked it

[Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich]

A new convert: me! Bought No.4 and ordered now the rest of Amazon (partners), the Marco polo discs.

#4: - I love the andante most.
- the final movement sounds very british IMO. Reminds me of Holst Planets sometimes.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Welcome to our Joly Band of Braga Brothers, Wurstwasser!

[Harry]

Well I have most of them, so now to find time to play them, O, the choice I have is devastating

[vandermolen]

As one of the 'so-called Braga Santos experts' (Jezetha), I welcome you to the club too!

I am, at this very moment, greatly enjoying a newly released CD of Symphony No 2 by Braga Santos's teacher, Luis De Freitas Branco which, in places, does sound like the music of Braga Santos.