FERNANDO LOPES-GRAÇA (1908-1993): Symphony, Suite Rústica No. 1, December Poem, Festival March.

Description: Continuing the duplication of old Portugalsom repertoire in spanking new recordings at budget-price, Naxos and Cassuto offer us Lopes-Graça's only symphony, a neo-classical work in Stravinskian mold form 1944 whose outer movements uses themes inspired by Portuguese folk music (the final movement is a big Passacaglia, for those of you into that genre). The six-movement suite (1950) uses traditional Portuguese material for brief treatment. Darker, more somber and without folk material at all is the ten-minute December Poem of 1961 and the 1954 Festival March is a bit more militant than its title might suggest. Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Álvaro Cassuto.