There has not been much of a symphonic tradition in Portugal, but this century has thrown up two symphonists of some significance – Luis de Freitas Branco (brother of the conductor Pedro), who is absent from the catalogues, and, more importantly, his pupil Joly Braga Santos, whose own protege Alvaro Cassuto is opening our eyes and ears to his stature. His First and Fifth Symphonies (Marco Polo, 7/98) came as something of a revelation: here again we have one work from each of his two contrasting compositional periods.

If you have got this far, you will already have an idea of what awaits you in the music of Braga Santos. So I would just give a brief summary about the composer. He lived from 1924 to 1988 where he died as a result of a stroke. Although he was composing through the middle of the 20th century, for much of the time he avoided the musical trends of the period, obviously thinking there was still more that could be said within a tonal framework. Around 1960 he changed his style of composition, exploring the musical trends that had been occurring during his life. He wrote his first four symphonies in a short period between the ages of 22 and 27. These are all a product of his tonal period, and to any lover of the Romantic Symphony, all four are deserving of being in their collection.