Marco Polo/Naxos gave us the magnificent symphonies of Portuguese composer Joly Braga Santos, and now Naxos is following that up with the release of the orchestral works of his teacher, Luis de Freitas Branco (1890–1955), including his Four Symphonies. The most recent CDs include Symphony No. 3, The Death of Manfred, and Suite Alentejana No. 2 (8.572370), as well as Symphony No. 4 and Vathek – Symphonic Poem (8.572624), both under the inspired direction of Álvaro Cassuto, with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra. The late Romantic Third Symphony is so immediately appealing I suggest you start with it.

The Third Symphony was completed in 1944, although he began composing it 14 years earlier. It is typical of what I have discerned to be Freitas Branco’s style, which might be described as “a little bit of this and a little bit of that.” The composer clearly was wide-eared during his formative years and adulthood, and listening to this symphony, one thinks “that sounds like Bruckner,” or “this sounds like Respighi,” or Nielsen, or what have you. I’m certainly not suggesting that Freitas Branco copied anyone. I’m merely saying that, in the absence of a distinctive style of his own, the whole of European classical music—its more conservative branches, anyway—is just an arm’s length away. That said, the first movement opens strikingly, and manages to remain striking, in spite of its discursiveness. (At 18:21, it is by far the longest of the four movements.) The remaining three movements are not quite on that level, but are by no means boring or bad. Freitas Branco’s melodic ideas are at least good, if not great, and he manages them well, so no one should go home unhappy.

His take on Byron’s anti-hero dates from 1906. Freitas Branco wrote a dramatic symphony called Manfred during this same period, but The Death of Manfred is an independent work. This 10-minute orchestral work has not been recorded until now, and as far as I am concerned, that is no great loss. Of mood there is plenty, but there is little of real substance here: In one ear and out the other. Schumann and Tchaikovsky handled Manfred with greater skill.

The attractive Suite Alentejana No. 1 was included on Naxos’s/Cassuto’s first Freitas Branco CD (8.570765), and the second, from 1927, is presented here, to close this CD. It is in three movements. A thoughtful, pastoral Preludio is followed by a brief, even more low-key Intermezzo, and the suite ends with a colorful Final. It is only in this work—and in the Final in particular—that one becomes acutely aware that one is listening to the work of a composer from the Iberian peninsula.

I don’t doubt conductor Cassuto’s affinity for this music—he wrote the booklet notes—nor his skill as a conductor. The Irish orchestra (like Cassuto, repeaters from the previous two volumes) plays these works gamely, and with more than adequate execution. In short, everything about this CD is satisfactormore....

Review By Christophe Huss,Le Devoir,September 2010

Il est heureux que les grandes oeuvres orchestrales postromantiques refassent surface, que ce soient les symphonies de Casella, Schmidt, Atterberg et Freitas Branco, ou les poèmes symphoniques de Reznicek. Naxos prend la suite de Marco Polo, qui avait réalisé un travail intéressant sur le patrimoine musical portugais, notamment les deux têtes d'affiche: le patriarche Luis de Freitas Branco (1890–1955) et son disciple Joly Braga Santos. Chez nous, Alexandre da Costa avait enregistré en première mondiale le Concerto pour violon de Freitas Branco pour XXI et Jesus Amigo avait gravé sa 2e Symphonie pour ATMA. La 3e Symphonie, de 1944, est plus tendue et profuse; moins lisible. Mais la force expressive du compositeur reste omniprésente. Le CD vaut aussi pour la première mondiale d'une magnifique élégie: La Mort de Manfred.

Here we have a spectrum of his music from early to late. The Death of Manfred was written in 1905 and 1906 along with his first orchestral work Manfred, Dramatic Symphony for Soloists, Chorus, and Orchestra. This is a single movement work scored for pairs of violins, violas, and cellos, all muted, and an unmuted double bass. It is, of course, a single slow movement based on a feeling of suffering. It is really quite attractive.

The Suite Alentejana 2 from 1927 is the most immediately attractive of the three works here. It is in three movements based on the rich folklore of Alentejo, a region southeast of Lisbon where the composer had a large ranch and did much of his composing. The themes vary from a slow I to a quicker II and a brilliant III, which may remind some of Rimsky-Korsakoff’s Capriccio Espagnol. This is a wonderful folk music suite.

Freitas Branco began writing the symphony in 1930 and finished it in 1944. It is a massive work lasting 46 minutes. I begins with an adagio that reminds some of Bruckner; and it is followed by an allegro that is a majestic orchestral unison, which, in turn, leads into a second theme with a slower tempo. Many other themes are introduced. II is much less complex and is a lento in sonata form. III is in ABA form. The scheme is similar to III of Brahms’s Symphony 1. IV begins furiously and moves to a sonata form, ending with a lento section and a long coda.

Alvaro Cassuto leads the Spanish orchestra very well, and Naxos supplies a decent recording and good notes. People who are willing to be a little adventurous should enjoy this.