FREITAS BRANCO

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December 2010
ÁLVARO CASSUTO
FREITAS BRANCO
FREITAS BRANCO: Symphony No. 4
RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra • Álvaro Cassuto
This fourth volume in Naxos’s critically acclaimed series of Portuguese
composer Luís de Freitas Branco’s orchestral music juxtaposes his
magnificent Symphonic Poem in the form of variations on an Oriental
Theme, Vathek, with his final symphony, an appealing masterpiece that
combines Neo-classical stylishness with late Romantic richness. Álvaro
Cassuto, Portugal’s finest living conductor and an authority on the
classical music of his country, is an ideal interpreter of this eminently
satisfying yet unaccountably neglected repertoire.
Booklet notes in English
Catalogue Number: 8.572624
Total Playing Time: 76:23
Listen on www.naxos.com
Also Available:
Catalogue No.: 8.572370
UPC: 747313237074
Catalogue No.: 8.572059
UPC: 747313205974
© Copyright 2010 Naxos Right International Limited
Catalogue No.: 8.570765
UPC: 747313076574
Catalogue No.: 8.225233
UPC: 636943523322
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December 2010
ÁLVARO CASSUTO
talks to Jeremy Siepmann
Á
lvaro Cassuto, widely acclaimed as Portugal’s foremost conductor,
has long since proved himself a citizen of the world. Born to
German parents in Oporto in 1938, he feels equally comfortable in
the Latin and Germanic traditions. Educated in Portugal, Austria and
Germany, and resident for 18 years in the United States, he is both a
conductor and a composer, as well as holding a degree in Law from
the University of Lisbon. Associated in his early 20s with some of the
most influential composers of the 20th century, his conducting teachers
included the legendary Herbert von Karajan. After serving as Leopold
Stokowski’s assistant with the American Symphony Orchestra in New
York, winning the coveted Koussevitsky Prize and making his debut
with the Philadelphia Orchestra, he conducted numerous orchestras,
including the National Orchestra of New York, of which he was Music
Director, as well as serving as professor of music at the University
of California. In 1986, Cassuto was invited to return to Portugal,
where he founded the New Portuguese Philharmonica and in 1993 the
Portuguese Symphony Orchestra. Outside Portugal he has appeared
with the London Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic, the London
Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and dozens of others around
the world.
He is a serious man who doesn’t take himself too seriously. Conversation
with him is liberally nourished with laughter, often self-deprecating; he
has a keen sense of irony, and an unshakeable sense of purpose.
His entry into the world of professional music, however, was
unspectacular. We’re used, in the world of instrumentalists, to pianists of
5 or 6, violinists ditto, flautists in their teens etc. But prodigy conductors
(let’s say pre-teens) are very rare. ‘Yes they are. And I certainly wasn’t
one of them! I learned to play piano and violin as a child, but without
any professional goal or ambition. When I was a teenager, though, my
interest in music focused on the orchestra as an instrument, and on
composition. I studied music theory and developed a great interest
in the avant-garde, concentrating on the 12-tone technique.’ And for
characteristically rational reasons: ‘When I started composing, most
Portuguese composers were pretty traditionalist. They knew about
Bartók, Stravinsky and Prokofiev, but the Second Viennese School was
totally outside their sphere of interest or experience. So I thought that
someone should look into that, and I became very interested. There
was still something very revolutionary about it, at least in this area of
Europe. So, since no one else seemed interested, I became Portugal’s
first 12-tone composer! I went to study in Darmstadt, in Germany,
which was the Mecca for new music at that time (this was the late
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1950s), I attended all the courses there for two summers, and studied
with Stockhausen, Boulez, Luigi Nono, and Messiaen, all of which, of
course, was tremendously exciting. And in 1959 (I was then 20), I had
my first work performed.’
The principal influence on Cassuto the conductor could hardly have
been more different: the afore-mentioned Herbert von Karajan.
‘Karajan influenced me enormously - well before I actually studied with
him. But it was an influence of a very special kind. It was principally
the style, the character, that I most admired in his performances, both
recorded and live. The incredible vitality - and the sound that he got
from an orchestra. I didn’t find anything like this in any other conductor
I knew. I went to all of his concerts that I could when I was studying
in Germany. And even later, as much as 20 years later when I was in
New York, I remember him conducting all four Brahms symphonies in
concerts at Carnegie Hall. The sounds that he got out of an orchestra
were simply overwhelming. This is something that no-one can teach
anybody. He taught by influencing someone rather than by actually
explaining things. As many great conductors have said, the technique
of “time beating” can be learnt in a couple of hours. But the technique
of “conducting” takes a life-time.
‘So much depends on the kinds of orchestras one’s working with.
When I started my career I got a chance to conduct the Philadelphia
Orchestra, but it was too soon. I wasn’t ready for a great orchestra.
I’d conducted mostly in Portugal, and with orchestras of lesser
quality, where you have to spend time correcting wrong notes, wrong
dynamics, wrong phrasings, and all kinds of technical things. But
as you progress through life and conduct better orchestras, you can
afford to take for granted that the musicians know what to do; you
don’t waste time, and you don’t interfere with the musicians. You have
confidence that they know what to do on their own. I remember, in this
connection, attending a rehearsal of Karajan conducting Beethoven’s
Fifth Symphony, with the Berlin Philharmonic, many years ago. I was
sitting with his assistant, who was also my conducting teacher at the
Berlin Conservatory. Karajan would sometimes stop the orchestra
and simply say to them “Once more”. The orchestra would play, but
Karajan asked for nothing specific; didn’t ask them to change anything
in particular, didn’t make any suggestions at all. “Once more” was
all he’d say. Then, sometimes, he would give very general directions,
saying, maybe just “Development Section”. Some of the orchestra
would start in one place, some in another, and eventually they would
all come together. Needless to say, this puzzled me very much, and I
Álvaro Cassuto talks to Jeremy Siepmann | 2
KEY RELEASES
asked my teacher to explain. “Why doesn’t he just tell them what’s
wrong? I mean, isn’t he wasting an awful lot of time?” And my teacher
said “Oh no, no, no. You don’t understand. He doesn’t want to tell the
musicians how to play; he wants them to find it out by themselves.
The initiative must come from the musicians themselves, not from him
imposing anything on them.” And I think that’s really something very
wise. To develop a way of handling an orchestra so that the musicians
themselves take the initiative in doing what you want them to do,
without you having to say “No, no, no, no, no! That’s not at all what
I want you to do. I want it another way altogether.” That way you get
a negative result from the orchestra, because the musicians feel that
they were in the wrong. They feel criticised and demeaned. So you
have to turn things around. This can’t work, of course, when you’re
conducting an orchestra for the first time. As I said, it’s something that
has to be developed. But even with a new orchestra, the conductor must
find some way of building their self-confidence. And this is the kind of
thing I mean when I say that learning the art of the conductor, the art of
the conductor’s technique, is really a lifetime’s pursuit.’
Our conversation turned to the composers he’s been championing on
Naxos – not only Freitas Branco but also Joly Braga Santos, the latter
on the Marco Polo label. Are they, I wondered, household names in
Portugal? Or has Cassuto himself been responsible for bringing them
to the attention of Portuguese audiences?
They are household names, yet their music is rarely played. This is a
serious problem. We have a saying in Portugal that “No house Saint
produces miracles”, reflecting the fact that the Portuguese, in certain
important ways, don’t sufficiently believe in themselves, feeling that
anything good must come from abroad. So while Mahler, Stravinsky
and all the international modern composers are performed in Portugal,
Portuguese composers are neglected. Actually, I think this is something
that happens to all small countries, For instance, how many Swiss,
how many Dutch composers can one name off the top of one’s head?
How many Danish composers, apart from Nielsen? And how many of
these have achieved international renown? It’s very strange. I’m not in
a position to analyse this phenomenon, but it exists, and it’s harmful
when it comes to the international distribution of good music. Only now
are the works of Freitas Branco being printed in proper scores, with
individual copies of the parts. And this is the result of our recordings,
all of them made using manuscripts, badly written by copyists and
full of mistakes that needed correcting. This state of affairs obviously
hasn’t helped the cause of Freitas Branco abroad. Who wants to work
in these conditions? My great hope, of course, is that the combination
of our recordings and Naxos’s fantastic international distribution will
continue to make this music more familiar. A number of conductors
and orchestras around the world have now shown a real interest in
this repertoire, and many people feel that the time has come for it to
be published, in reputable editions, and brought to the attention of
audiences everywhere. And I must say, it’s very gratifying to see these
results taking place.
Is recording a process that he actively enjoys? I do, very much. But
there’s a big difference between recording and performing something
in public. When recording a work you can do it one section at a time,
really concentrating on the technical issues that these three or four
or five minutes of music contain. In a concert, of course, these are
easily absorbed into the much bigger framework of the composition
as a whole. The kind of fine tuning that goes on in a studio isn’t
possible in concert. It’s a wonderful thing, in the studio, to really
concentrate on everything and get it as near as possible to the way
you ideally want it. In a concert, sometimes this is lost, because there
everything is important, everything demands your attention. Of course
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December 2010
there’s the handicap that the sound in a recording is never the same
as in a live performance. And in a concert there’s always that element
of improvisation, the chance of doing something on the spur of the
moment. It might work or it might not but it’s one of those exciting
features of performance that hardly ever happens in the studio. I enjoy
recording very much because it accords very much with my way of
thinking and offers the chance of achieving perfection, or as close to it
as possible. When things go wrong in a public concert there’s nothing
you can do about it.
In the case of Freitas Branco, how would Cassuto describe him? In
terms of style and emotional/dramatic/psychological characteristics.
Does he occupy a significant place in the story of 20th-century music?
‘He certainly occupies a significant place in the story of 20th Century
“Portuguese” music, but in international terms, his importance is
naturally “obscured” by such giants as Stravinsky and Shostakovich.
But doesn’t this happen to most composers who happen not to be the
“number one” of their time? In emotional/dramatic/psychological
characteristics, he was a late Romantic with a clear preference for
“Classicism”. This reveals itself mainly in form. The music falls into
specific patterns, maybe Sonata forms, variation form, whatever,
and it’s all very clearly constructed - built like a cathedral. You get
a good sense of balance and structure, and he also uses the orchestra
in a very compact, Romantic-Classical way, like Brahms or Dvořák
or Tchaikovsky, rather than like Webern or even Schoenberg, or the
neoclassical Stravinsky.
What, for Cassuto, are Freitas Branco’s finest works? And what makes
them so? What are their greatest qualities? ‘Two works spring to mind
immediately: his tone poem Vathek and his Fourth Symphony, both
of which, as it happens, are included in the December 2010 Naxos
release. Their greatest qualities are those which basically mark all great
works: inspiration, and the exact relation between the music and the
form, the architecture. I’ve been familiar with Freitas Branco’s music
throughout my professional life. As a matter of fact, at my first concert,
when I was 22, I conducted the premiere of the complete Vathek - in
1961, almost half a century after it was written! My happiest discovery
this year was to find it a much better work than I thought it was in my
youth. 50 years after not understanding it, I now feel I really do. I’ve
come to know and recognise lots in it that I didn’t see or hear before –
in terms of sheer quality, and my abilities to perceive it. Of course time
doesn’t always have that effect. There are some pieces - the Grosse
Fuge of Beethoven, for instance - which I feel absolutely confident
I’ll never understand. Not even if I live another 50 years. But I’m well
aware that the problem is mine not Beethoven’s!
‘Coming back to Freitas Branco, though, I feel that with this recording
project I’m doing something very important for the music of my
country. And I feel very honoured and happy to have this wonderful
collaboration with Naxos. It’s very rewarding indeed, and something I
could not have done if I’d remained in the United States.’
In itself, along with so much else, it has justified his decision to return
home. Since when he has never looked back.
Jeremy Siepmann is an internationally acclaimed writer, musician, teacher,
broadcaster and editor.
Álvaro Cassuto talks to Jeremy Siepmann | 3
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December 2010
Critical acclaim for the previous recordings in the series
Freitas Branco Symphony No. 3:
“We have to thank the outstanding Portuguese conductor, Alvaro Cassuto, for this the third volume in the composer’s orchestral
music. Stunningly recorded” – David’s Review Corner
Freitas Branco Symphony No. 2:
“As in previous issues in this series, Álvaro Cassuto is the ideal exponent of his countryman’s music, and the sound that Naxos gets in
Dublin remains some of the finest on offer from this label. Excellent on all fronts!” - ClassicsToday.com
“Cassuto, an expert in his native repertoire, conducts fine and nuanced readings of these works, while the Irish musicians are recorded
cleanly…A top recommendation”. - Fanfare
“When it comes to Braga Santos and Freitas Branco, Cassuto now is the conductor of choice” - Classical Net
“As in volume one, Portugal’s finest living conductor Álvaro Cassuto leads the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland in
magnificent performances of everything here. They certainly beat out what little competition there is for the symphony, as does the
Naxos bill of fare. ... you’ll find this disc a most enjoyable listen”. - Recommended - Classical Lost and Found
“The sound is from the top drawer of the premiere league, and I strongly commend the disc to you” – David’s Review Corner
Freitas Branco Symphony No. 1:
“(Cassuto) not only an authority on the Portuguese school, but he projects his knowledge of the composers and their various idioms
with unfailing enthusiasm and stylishness, making this latest release an easy recommendation”. – ClassicsToday.com
RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra
The RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra plays a central rôle in classical music in Ireland, through
live performance, broadcast and touring. Previous international tours have visited Britain, France,
Germany, Holland, Belgium, Austria, Hong Kong and the United States. As an integral part of RTÉ
(Ireland’s Public Service Broadcaster), the orchestra reaches a great number of listeners through its
weekly broadcasts on RTÉ lyric fm and through its association with the European Broadcasting Union
(EBU). In addition to its annual subscription season, Horizons contemporary music series, summer
concerts series, residencies and national tours, the orchestra continues to make a name for itself
internationally through its recordings with Naxos, Marco Polo and on the RTÉ label. In 2004 the RTÉ
NSO won the Orchestra and Concerto: CD Première category of the Critics’ Awards in the 2004 Cannes
Classical Awards for its recording of Joly Braga Santos’s Symphony No. 4 (Marco Polo 8.225233) under
conductor Álvaro Cassuto. In 2005, Gerald Barry’s opera The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant was released
on the RTÉ label to considerable acclaim. This has been followed by recordings of works of Raymond
Deane, Seóirse Bodley and Deirdre Gribbin. Highlights of recent seasons have included Ireland’s first
complete Mahler symphony cycle, as well as complete cycles of Shostakovich, Bruckner, Prokofiev,
Beethoven and Schumann symphonies, a Brahmsfest, a Stravinsky retrospective and the orchestral
song-cycles of Mahler. In September 2010 a new artistic team began with Alan Buribayev as Principal
Conductor, Hannu Lintu as Principal Guest Conductor, and the Dublin pianist, Finghin Collins, as
Associate Artist. Full details of all upcoming RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra concerts are available
on www.rte.ie/performinggroups/nationalsymphonyorchestra
Álvaro Cassuto
Á
lvaro Cassuto is Portugal’s foremost conductor. He has been Music Director of the Portuguese
National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the University of California Symphony Orchestra, the
Rhode Island Philharmonic, the National Orchestra of New York, the Nova Filarmonia Portuguesa, the
Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Raanana Symphony Orchestra, the Algarve Orchestra, and
the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra. Born in Porto, he studied in Lisbon, and after establishing himself
as one of the most promising young composers of the avant-garde of the early 1960s, he went on to
study conducting with Herbert van Karajan in Berlin. After graduating in Law from the University of
Lisbon in 1964, he obtained his conducting degree in Vienna. A recipient of the Koussevitzky Prize
among many other honours, he has enjoyed a career of high international acclaim. He has been a
frequent guest of many leading orchestras, including the London Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic,
the London Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and dozens of others across the world. In 2009,
on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his career, the President of Portugal bestowed on him the
degree of Grand Officer of the Military Order of Sant’Iago da Espada. He has an extensive discography
with a variety of orchestras and for different labels, among which a highly successful ongoing series for
Naxos, dedicated to some of Portugal’s most important composers.
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