Joly Braga Santos(1924-88)

[ewk]

Hi all,

I know this is a very old topic but I think it might be appropriate to hold thins together.
I discovered Braga Santos' symphonies a while ago and was absolutely blown away by No. 4, especially by the finale (this tune!).
Some days ago, I started to listen to them again and this time, I'm discovering the ultimate engergy that BS' rhythms have. So I googled around a bit and found this page about those alternative recordings from Strauss Portugalsom: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2000/apr00/santos.htm
Does anyone know these recordings? The interesting thing about their No. 4 is that they seem to use the choral version of the finale? Can anyone tell how this sounds? I remember that in the description of the now deleted upload of No. 4 (I think by Goldie), I read that the chorus didn't make much of a sense in the finale? Any impressions of that?

Sebastian

[LateRomantic75]

I don't own the Portugalsom recordings, but I own all the Marco Polo ones and agree with you on the quality of Braga Santos' music. The Fourth Symphony is an outright masterpiece and a superbly moving work, with the Second and Third not following far behind. The epic sweep and life-affirming quality of his earlier music is quite endearing. His later music, which would, of course, be outside the remit of this forum, is much less appealing, powerful and memorable.

[Archimus]

Try also his Concerto for Strings.  When I first heard it I thought it was Vaughan Williams...

[Gerhard Griesel]

This thread has prompted me to listen to bits of BS' symphonies on YouTube, and I agree with the positive comments. To buy from Amazon is out of the question, as their shipping cost to South Africa raises the cost of a CD to up to two days' wages. The downloads I could find seem to be copies of the commercial recordings found on Amazon. Does anyone know of legal downloads of BS' symphonies that may be available?

[LateRomantic75]

Glad you are enjoying Braga Santos' superb symphonies, Gerhard! As to legal downloads, classicalmusiconline.net has all six symphonies available for DL. It also appears that iTunes has most of the Marco Polo/Naxos recordings of BS' music in mp3 format.

[alberto]

I assure fans of Braga-Santos that his not large output for soprano and piano makes iteresting and playful listening (on esoteric Portuguese label Tradisom, 2006 release; Elsa Saque sop., Nuno Vieira de Almeida piano).