Fernando Lopes-Graça (1906-1994)
Divertimento, Op. 107 (1957)
Sinfonieta, Op. 220 ‘Homenagem a Haydn’ (1980)
Cinco Velhos Romances Portugueses, Op. 98 (1951–56)
Quatro Invenções, Op. 148 (1961)
Portuguese Symphony Orchestra/Bruno Borralhinho
rec. 2021, Lisbon, Portugal
NAXOS 8.574373 [63]
After working closely with Cassuto over his Braga Santos symphony series, Naxos have teamed up with Bruno Borralhinho to make the music of another 20th century Portuguese composer easily accessible. For a now somewhat dated impression you can turn to a Fernando Lopes-Graça feature review, but more up to date is the review of this composer’s promising symphony CD also on Naxos. There’s also a chamber music entry on Toccata.
This disc of three orchestral suites and one suite for solo cello introduces another facet of the composer’s creative life over three decades from the 1950s. The Divertimento, Op. 107 would slot in neatly alongside Poulenc’s Suite Francaise or the Moeran Sinfonietta or Janáček’s Lachian Dances. Seven short movements deliver characterful woodwind writing, quirky peppery harmony, marches and dances, some of which are mournful, as well as thoughtful and misty landscapes.
Of much more recent provenance is the Sinfonieta ‘Homenagem a Haydn’ where the writing is more hooded, drifting and mood thoughtful. There’s an ambivalence about this world and a sort of Rawsthorne-like harmony. The Cinco Velhos Romances Portugueses (from 1951–56) has more in common with the playful Divertimento and with the much earlier Britten-Berkeley Mont Juic suite. The Quatro Invenções (1961) are, in the composer’s words, an essentially atonal dramatic experience - display but not just virtuosity.
The booklet notes by Mário Vieira de Carvalho are in Portuguese and English.
Performances and recordings are full of conviction.
Rob Barnett
Previous review: Hubert Culot
