Freitas Branco: Symphony No. 2

Luís de Freitas Branco was the towering figure in Portugese music during the first half of the 20th Century.

This second disc of a four-volume series of Freitas Branco’s orchestral works features his Second Symphony which combines elements as disparate as Gregorian chant, the boisterous spirit of a Brucknerian scherzo and the influence of Franck and Debussy into a superbly integrated Romantic work.

His tone poem After a reading of Guerra Junqueiro was inspired by Richard Strauss, whose opulent orchestrations it echoes. Artificial Paradises, an eerie piece inspired by de Quincy’s Confessions of an Opium Eater, is regarded as Freitas Branco’s masterpiece par excellence.

Alexandre Da Costa is a young Montréal-based violinist who has taken the international concert stage by storm. His debut ATMA recording is a salute to his roots and features music by two Portuguese composers, Armando José Fernandes and Luís de Freitas Branco. The latter’s Sinfonia is representative of the Neoclassical style that contributed to a renaissance in Portuguese concert music. Fernandes’ violin concerto was composed in 1948 and is the perfect vehicle to demonstrate Da Costa’s superb talent. Winner of many prestigious national and international first prizes Da Costa’s career is soaring, with recent engagements with several European and Canadian orchestras, including the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.