Alvaro Cassuto hopefully will remake these pieces as part of his ongoing Marco Polo survey of this fine composer’s symphonies and other orchestral music. Not only can we expect better sonics, but also the playing of Portuguese orchestras has greatly improved since 1978 when these works were recorded. Still, Joly Braga Santos’ growing legion of admirers should hear this music, none of it “major”, but all of it wholly characteristic. The Three Symphonic Sketches display the same rugged, excitingly dissonant idiom that characterizes the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies. Santos’ earlier, modal style gives the Elegy both dignity and a certain grave lyricism, while the Symphonic Variations capture the composer exploiting Portuguese folk music through simple melodic transformations, stunningly orchestrated. As noted above, neither the playing nor the sound belongs in the first rank, and 33 minutes is very short measure for a CD; but the interpretations are authoritative.
