ANTONIO VICTORINO D'ALMEIDA (b.1940): String Quartet, Op. 148, FERNANDO LOPES-GRAÇA (1906-1994): 14 Anotações, Suite Rústica No. 2.

Description: D'Almeida's chamber music is considerably more abstract sounding than his orchestral works; this quartet recalls the neo-classicism of Stravinsky or Prokofiev where rhythmic vitality and harmonic ambiguity fill a void left by the absence of traditional tonality. Ditto for Lopes-Graça's little eight-minute set of "annotations" while the Suite Rústica (of the same year, 1966), inspired by Portuguese folk-music traditions is more closely related to the similarly influenced quartets of Bartók. Quarteto Lopes-Graça.