Welcome news for admirers of Joly Braga Santos (JBS) is that Toccata Classics will release on 5th December a box set of three CDs which, in two hundred minutes, provides a comprehensive recital of the composer´s chamber music. The array of quartets, sextets and pieces for piano, violin and practically all orchestral instruments are competently performed by twenty artists accompanied by the Lopes-Graça quartet.

However, it is as a composer of six symphonies, three operas, a ballet and many shorter pieces that he earned his reputation as having been “the most outstanding Portuguese orchestral composer of the 20th century”.

Born in 1924, JBS received his musical education at the Lisbon Conservatory, where he was a disciple of Luis Freitas Branco, the leading composer of the preceding generation. The first four symphonies were written quite rapidly between the ages of 22 and 27 and were first performed in Lisbon by the Portuguese Radio Symphony Orchestra with great success. The later 5th and 6th symphonies were not completed until JBS was in his forties and show a marked difference in style, having been influenced by his frequent travels abroad which brought contact with musical modernism. In England, his mentors included E.J. Moeran and Ralph Vaughan Williams; it was from the latter that he received guidance in the use of counterpoint.

JBS´s accessibility made him many friends among his contemporary musicians not least of whom was Álvaro Cassuto who notably conducted practically all of the orchestras which performed his compositions in Europe and the USA. Most of the recordings were on the Marco Polo/Naxos label. Perhaps the best of these for an introduction to the range of JBS´s music is “Alfama” (Cat. 8.572815) performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. It spans the period from 1954 to 1976 and includes three symphonic works, the elegy in memory of Vianna da Motto and an arrangement of the Ballet Suite consisting of nine dances performed by fishwives, longshoremen, sailors and local boys and girls. A second recording (Cat. 8.223879) by the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra demonstrates the mature changes in style over a twenty-year period in the 1st symphony (which was dedicated to the memory of the heroes and martyrs of WWII) and the 5th titled Virtus Lusitaniae (the Virtue of Lusitania).

A close contender for the title of Portuguese musician of the 20th century is Fernando Lopes-Graça (FLG), whose active life of 88 years produced a vast musical compendium as composer, conductor, critic, historian and author. He was born in the year 1906 in Tomar, where he commenced his career as a pianist in the Ciné-Teatro. From there, he entered the Lisbon Conservatory and, like JBS, received his tuition from the composer Luis Freitas Branco (1890-1955) whose brother Pedro was later to conduct the works of both prodigies. His other mentors included Tomás Borba, José Viana da Mota and Adriano Merea, who, collectively, were representative of the paucity of professional musicians in Portugal pre-WWII

FLG graduated to Coimbra, where he became a respected teacher of piano and found his literary talent as a writer for magazines such as Vertice and for political advocation which led him to the Democratic Unity Movement. This was opposed to the new regime of the Estado Novo which had followed the golpe of 1926. The activity led to membership of the Communist Party in the 1940s and, inevitably, his being made subject to stringent restrictions such as the removal of his licence to teach in public schools, the banning of public performance of his prolific musical output and restrictions on travel.

Despite this, he spent the three years 1937/9 at the Sorbonne in Paris where he established lasting relations with many established musicians such as Charles Koechin and Paul-Marie Masson. With their encouragement he started his lifetime work of creating harmonisations for voice and piano from traditional Portuguese folk music. On his return to Lisbon, these which were acceptable to the Salazar regime as being in praise of nationalism. However, until 1974, there followed a “cat and mouse” relationship with State censors which stifled the performance of much of FLG´s work in Portugal despite his growing international fame.

After the Carnation Revolution, for which he was considered a musical hero, recognition came swiftly and, before his death in 1994, the last years of his life were honoured with the award of many distinctions and the recording of his vast repertoire. In my collection of Portuguese music, I have a prized CD dating from 1980 on the now defunct Portugal Som label of The Tragic History of the Sea (1960 version) as sung by the baritone Oliveira Lopes backed by the Hungarian Radio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra! However, less hiss and crackle will be found on the recent issues listed in the catalogues of Naxos, Toccata and other recording companies..

In July 2018, the Grand Piano label launched a sponsored recording of “Travels in my Homeland” with nineteen pieces of traditional Portuguese melodies played by pianist Joana Gama. On the same CD one can also hear “Fireplace: Memories and Affections” which consists of thirteen tracks on this theme as composed by Amílcar Vasque-Dias, who, being born in 1945, usefully represents the post-war Generation of Portuguese musicians, many of whom belonged to the Darmstadt movement. This was particularly active in the period 1965 to 1985 in bringingthe avant-garde to the forefront of European modernism. Largely experimental, the many collaborations have met with only limited success but their contribution to contemporary music is being evaluated.

Here are some recommendations of recent recordings which include the works of many contemporary artists. All are available as CD, download or Presto streaming service.

Portuguese Music for Cello and Orchestra. Featuring Bruno Borralhinho and the Gulbenkian Orchestra conducted by Pedro Neves. Naxos cat. 8573461.

Bows Up! Portuguese Music for Strings. António Fragoso, Sérgio Azevedo and JBS performed by the Camarata Atlantica. Naxos cat. 8579105.

Raizes. Portuguese Chamber Music. Eurico Carrapatoso, Fernando Lapa, Telmo Marques and Sérgio Azevedo. Naxos cat. 8579114

Portuguese Classical Masterpieces: 150 minutes of thirty selected piano concertos, Violin sonatas and Opera. Various national and European orchestras and artists. Naxos cat. 900719 (special projects)

By Roberto Cavaleiro - Tomar 09 November 2025