Search - Pedro de Freitas Branco :: Rarissimes: Falla, L'Amour Sorcier - Turina, Cant

Your Fleeting Chance to hear Portugal's Best Conductor

Doug - Haydn Fan | California | 05/22/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This EMI issue is one of a couple featuring Pedro de Freitas Branco, a composer and conductor from Portugal. Now completely forgotten outside of Iberia, de Freitas Branco was a remarkable figure in the musical culture of Portugal from the late twenties forward. A promising soloist as pianist, he gradually turned to conducting. In the late twenties while still a very young man he came to the attention of Maurice Ravel, who appreciated de Freitas Branco's work in preparing and conducting the French composer's works in concert and for recordings. He then led the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra and became its director in 1934. De Freitas Branco championed contemporary music and revealed a tremendous gift for clarifying complex modern music. He led the first performance of Wozzeck at the San Carlo Opera House, and continued to promote difficult works throughout his life.



De Freitas Branco was not purely a composer of modern music, he left examples from many ages, but certainly it is his work in contemporary music that interests us most today. He could achieve remarkable work in non-Ibierian music - see his recording of the Vaughn Williams symphony - but it's in his native music he truly shines. He brings forth both a great deal of poetry with tremendous passion - when allied to his sound musical taste the results are always captivating.



This recording captures a superb realization of De Falla's sensational El amor brujo, with some of the finest rythmic control coupled with an exquisite balancing of De Falla's melodic fragments. Those who believe this work can not be performed better than by Stokowski - admittedly pretty fabulous - El Amor Brujo/ 3 Cornered Hat/ Nights in the Gardens of Spain should give this version a try. French EMI has done a outstanding job in remastering the original sources, and despite the lack of stereo this is a gripping exciting rendition.



The Ravel selections are also splendid. This recording originally was issued in America on long-playing record as a winner of the Grand Prix du disque. Here the sounds of the LP are improved and we don't have to struggle with the surface noise endemic to a fifty year old worn record. Among the selections the Bolero has achieved a mythical underground status. De Freitas Branco paces the work slowly and without the usual crescendo at the end. While I miss the colors of modern stereo recordings for all the solos there's no denying the majesty of the conclusion, with a singularly right echt Spanish fanfare by the brass. A musical finish worthy of El Cid himself! My memory must have failed me a bit on the other Ravel works, for I had no idea this Alborado del gracioso could remotely compete with such scintillating performances as Reiner or Martionon with Chicago, or Monteux with San Francisco. Yet compete it certainly does; this is the musical equivalent of a string of firecrackers exploding and showering the air in percussion. The lack of stereo does hurt, but there's an amazing amount of detail, and the work is presented as a serious modern work, and not just an showpiece for orchestra. I was also impressed by the La Valse, very powerful and dramatic.



The selections by Joaquin Turnia are done with great panache and coupled with the De Falls El Amor Brujo were also awarded a Grand Prix de disque. Yet it is the De Falla and Ravel that mark this CD issue as special and historic. At a reasonable price you are buying two CDs of a rare little heard conductor of great skill with direct ties to Ravel and Spanish modern music. Despite the lack of stereo I think this is a CD worth considering.



"