Joly Braga Santos

[Dundonnell]

Right, I have just ordered this CD and will be holding you personally responsible if it sounds like 'Ein Heldenleben' 

No...nothing like 'Ein Heldenleben'

And if it did no doubt your 'scream' will be heard from Rotherfield as far as Perth

[karlhenning]

excellent Karl 

[ With apologies to Edvard Christianovich ]

[Dundonnell]

[ With apologies to Edvard Christianovich ]

Eeeeekkkk!!

[karlhenning]

 

[Brian]

[ With apologies to Edvard Christianovich ]

Would that be Edvard Munchopovich or Munchakovich?

[Dundonnell]

Please don't encourage him, Brian

It is enough to put up with this mild form of Bostonian eccentricity in 'What are you listening to?' without him exporting it into these more rarified circles

[karlhenning]

I'm feeling the love!

Back on topic . . . I'd be keen to do a re-survey of my Braga Santos collection, only . . . I've got to let this Maksim Dmitriyevich / Kirill Petrovich parallel survey run its course!

[karlhenning]

Back on topic . . . I'd be keen to do a re-survey of my Braga Santos collection. . .

Very much enjoying the Cello Concerto/Staccato brilhante disc!

[karlhenning]

TTT (it's lonely work, but . . . .)

[vandermolen]

I have just tracked down (on American Amazon site) the CD below, which I am very curious to hear. It is my favourite BS symphony, along with No 3.  Rob Barnett on the Musicweb was very enthusiastic about it (and I am interested to hear it complete with chorus - as with Miaskovsky's 6th Symphony there is an optional chorus at the end). Trawling back through all 15 pages of this thread I see that Christo regards the Marco Polo version as far better - but I like this symphony so much I am sure that I will enjoy a different take on it. Now I need to track down the Portugalsom LSO performance of Symphony No 3!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I have just tracked down (on American Amazon site) the CD below, which I am very curious to hear. It is my favourite BS symphony, along with No 3.  Rob Barnett on the Musicweb was very enthusiastic about it (and I am interested to hear it complete with chorus - as with Miaskovsky's 6th Symphony there is an optional chorus at the end). Trawling back through all 15 pages of this thread I see that Christo regards the Marco Polo version as far better - but I like this symphony so much I am sure that I will enjoy a different take on it. Now I need to track down the Portugalsom LSO performance of Symphony No 3!

Hi, Jeffrey! In an email to me Christo blasted the "Rumanian choir of castrati"... So there's the reason for his preference!

[vandermolen]

Hi, Jeffrey! In an email to me Christo blasted the "Rumanian choir of castrati"... So there's the reason for his preference!

Hi Johan, I can't wait to hear them!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Hi Johan, I can't wait to hear them!

And I can't wait to hear your verdict...

[vandermolen]

I have now received and listened, several times, to the Portugalsom Strauss recording of BS Symphony No 4 (Silva Pereira conducting the Roumanian Radio and TV SO and 'George Enescu Choir') - and what an interesting experience.  The performance is quite different to that of Alvaro Cassuto with the NSO of Ireland on Marco Polo. For one thing it is considerably shorter (47'31 as opposed to 53'05 on Marco Polo). This gave the Symphony a greater sense of urgency than the Cassuto performance and there was a stronger rhythmic drive throughout the work.  The wonderful tune which appears helfway through the second movement was, paradoxically, give a very expansive treatment, which reminded me of the great tune at the end of the first movement of Vaughan Williams's 6th Symphony. These are the virtues of the performance.

On the debit side, the recording is a little 'boxed-in' - I noticed this more in the first movement - but it was not a problem.. The Marco Polo recording is more expansive with greater depth.  Having said this the Portugalsom CD allowed me to hear more percussion and brass.  But basically, all goes very well - until the sudden appearance of the 'George Enescu Choir' in the last movement, singing a 'Hymn to Youth'. This, to me, doesn't seem to work at all and is the chief drawback in this version.  Cassuto on Marco Polo wisely dispenses with the optional chorus at the end, as a consequence of which, his version is the one to go for (there is no real choice anyway as the Portugalsom recordings have more or less disappeared). Also the Marco Polo CD has an excellent coupling - the Symphonic Variations.  In a sense the business with the chorus struck me as the opposite experience to that which occurrs at the end of Miaskovsky's epic 6th Symphony - there, the optional intones a deeply moving end to the work (Svetlanov's recording on Olympia/Warner box set dispenses with the chorus, probably for financial reasons, and this detracts from what is otherwise an excellent performance - I am so much looking forward to hearing this work in London next April).

But, back to Braga Santos - I am delighted to have tracked down the Portugalsom recording for the reasons stated above but, the Marco Polo version is the one to have!

[vandermolen]

Sorry, my clever attempt to paste the two CD covers went horribly wrong 

[Guido]

Hmm... I've just tried Symphonies Nos. 1, 2 and 4. Lot's of lovely stuff moment to moment, but I find his music deeply unsatisfying - fast movements tend to be very slow moving harmonically and rely on interesting rhythmic features and catchy tunes to maintain interest - for me they don't. The slow movements are sort of lacking in argument or direction - no real sense of tension/release/arrival etc. In this it's like film music (not bad on it's own, but I'm not sure I can take it in such large expanses!). I thought I'd like him more given how much praise he seems to get here from people whose musical tastes is similar to mine, but I'm not sure he's for me.

Maybe I'm missing something.  

(I do really like the Nocturne and Staccato Brilliante which are both charming and lovely)

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Hmm... I've just tried Symphonies Nos. 1, 2 and 4. Lot's of lovely stuff moment to moment, but I find his music deeply unsatisfying - fast movements tend to be very slow moving harmonically and rely on interesting rhythmic features and catchy tunes to maintain interest - for me they don't. The slow movements are sort of lacking in argument or direction - no real sense of tension/release/arrival etc. In this it's like film music (not bad on it's own, but I'm not sure I can take it in such large expanses!). I thought I'd like him more given how much praise he seems to get here from people whose musical tastes is similar to mine, but I'm not sure he's for me.

Maybe I'm missing something.  

(I do really like the Nocturne and Staccato Brilliante which are both charming and lovely)

Hm, it's a long time ago I listened to Braga Santos. When I find the time, I'll revisit the symphonies, Guido, and see what I am hearing now.

[vandermolen]

Thanks to Carlos I now have a recording of the Portugalsom version of Braga Santos Symphony No 3 with Alvaro Cassuto conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. Johan (Christo) is right - this is an even greater than the fine one on Marco Polo (same conductor but different orchestra). The Symphony comes across more powerfully and there is more eloquence in the lyrical passages. The opening of the last movement reminded me of Rimsky Korsakov's 'Russian Easter Festival Overture' - one of the very first pieces of classical music that I liked. Cassuto's LSO recording of Braga Santos's Third symphony has a more expansive and epic quality to it than the later recording. Now it definitely ranks with Symphony No 4 as my very favourite JBS works and in fact one of the great 20th century symphonies.

I am very pleased that a London based orchestra played the music of this great, neglected composer so eloquently. This performance needs to be back in circulation.

[Christo]

Thanks to Carlos I now have a recording of the Portugalsom version of Braga Santos Symphony No 3 with Alvaro Cassuto conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. Johan (Christo) is right - this is an even greater than the fine one on Marco Polo (same conductor but different orchestra). The Symphony comes across more powerfully and there is more eloquence in the lyrical passages. The opening of the last movement reminded me of Rimsky Korsakov's 'Russian Easter Festival Overture' - one of the very first pieces of classical music that I liked. Cassuto's LSO recording of Braga Santos's Third symphony has a more expansive and epic quality to it than the later recording. Now it definitely ranks with Symphony No 4 as my very favourite JBS works and in fact one of the great 20th century symphonies.

I am very pleased that a London based orchestra played the music of this great, neglected composer so eloquently. This performance needs to be back in circulation.

Hi Jeffrey, good news! And a very good sunday morning too! Hope to be playing this version too, later today. (And one day, after I'm settled here and I find out again how to do it technically, I hope to send you some of the promised copied cds as well ;-)

[vandermolen]

Hi Jeffrey, good news! And a very good sunday morning too! Hope to be playing this version too, later today. (And one day, after I'm settled here and I find out again how to do it technically, I hope to send you some of the promised copied cds as well ;-)

Good morning Johan!  

And very best wishes for your new home. I guess that you needed a bigger place, with many rooms, to accomodate your (smuggled-in) CD collection  .

No rush for the copies. The Diepenbrock you very kindly gave me has given me much pleasure (espec. the 'Marysas' piece - not sure about spellings as CD not to hand).

Very best wishes

Jeffrey