The booklet notes were been written by the conductor and he comments that “Freitas Branco is the most important Portuguese composer of the first half of the twentieth century”. And he should know because he has recorded all of the works and is a recognised expert on the composer. However, I still cannot understand why an Irish orchestra, as good as they are, have been chosen to record them. The same goes for the Marco Polo CDs of the orchestral works of Joly Braga Santos (Freitas Branco’s pupil). Surely a Portuguese orchestra would do as good a job, and might even already know some of the music.

This, Freitas Branco’s Fourth and last symphony begins (like the Mass) with a Gregorian melody in unison, the Kyrie Eleison. It then launches out on a journey investing occasionally in other ‘plainchantey’ tunes but never repeating its opening. The first movement—which is eleven and a half minutes long—is a vast ternary structure once the Allegro kicks in but with the A section falling into several sections. Whilst listening I was asking myself if there is anything about this music which is especially Portuguese; certainly there’s nothing Spanish about it. My all too-brief excursions into Portugal—and I don’t mean just the Algarve but into the smaller towns and countryside of what is a very beautiful and varied landscape—have introduced me to a religious, noble and proud people—even more so I should imagine in Freitas Branco’s day. They are a nation full of colour and able to be festive despite their in-built passion and gravity. These characteristics can be sensed in this music. And as we embark on the second movement, an Adagio, we encounter another characteristic, that of an aching fervour which although calm has deep undercurrents of seriousness. This is a gentle episode building to a “majestic conclusion”.

The Scherzo, which follows, includes a tambourine reminding us of the dancing which one sees in villages all over the country especially in celebration of saint’s days. It is brief and acts as an introduction to the vast finale. This begins portentously and ends with a noble Elgarian chorale; after all St. George is Portugal’s patron saint as well! In between it moves through an almost pastoral allegro but with contrasting tempi surrounding it. This is often light, mysterious and fleetmore....

Review By Roger Hecht,American Record Guide,May 2011

Luís de Freitas Branco is a good composer and worth discovering. These two works are probably his most important, but the atmospheric music on the earlier discs of this series is enjoyable, too. The (Spanish) RTE Symphony Symphony and Naxos’s sound are both very good…Cassuto’s notes are clear and authoritative.

To read the complete review, please visit American Record Guide online.

The Symphony opens with a plainchant-like unison figure in the winds, with piano open fifth string responses—reminiscent, in some ways, of Paul Hindemith. In fact, the influence of Gregorian chant is constant throughout the work. The main section of the first movement is quick to unfold. Freitas Branco at sixty is not necessarily a different composer from Freitas Branco at twenty-three, but he has evolved into something more of a “romantic”. He goes from this large symphonic structure of a first movement (in a deceptively simple three-part ABA form, with stunning climaxes at strategic points) to an equally compelling slow movement based on an ostinato, or repeated figure. The Scherzo (Allegro vivace) is very nearly a throwback to the composer’s youth, but not quite; it starts out almost like a modernized Beethoven scherzo, leading to a fandango-like middle or trio section, and an abrupt ending. The Scherzo is the slowest of the four movements.

The Finale returns to what Mr Cassuto (who wrote the liner notes himself) calls a spirit of “monumentality”. It is an introduction and allegro which grows out of a ponderous, march-like theme. This Finale, in contrast to the third movement, is the longest of the four—lasting slightly over a quarter-hour and using the brass section in a way that sounds, at least to this reviewer, like something of a cross between Bruckner and the late British composer George Lloyd.

Vathek is a different piece. Though finished in 1913, it was not performed until 1950—and, according to Cassuto (who gave the first complete performance in the early 1960s, in Lisbon), in somewhat expurgated form. The variation that was omitted was No. 3 (Delight of the Eyes), which uses polychordal structures that almost anticipate the later work of William Schuman. Though a shorter work than the Symphony, Vathek is in some ways a bigger work—not only because it is scored for a much larger orchestra but because of its dimensions. Each of the five variations is an experience in itself, almost a complete piece. The form of the piece is an Introduction, a presentation of the theme, a three-minute bridge piece which Freitas Branco called Prologue, the variations (with programmatic French titles) and then an Epilogue, longer than any of the variations. Vathek was based on a French-language novel by the early nineteenth-century British writer William Beckford. The Variations are meant to depict the Caliph Vathek’s magnificent palace and its beauties and amenities. It is an outstanding example more....

Review By Robert Reilly,CatholiCity,December 2010

FREITAS BRANCO, L. de: Orchestral Works, Vol. 3 (Cassuto) – Symphony No. 3 / The Death of Manfred / Suite alentejana No. 2 8.572370
FREITAS BRANCO, L. de: Orchestral Works, Vol. 4 (Cassuto) – Symphony No. 4 / Vathek 8.572624