Santoro: Symphonies Nos 11 and 12

Santoro: Symphonies Nos 11 and 12

8.574406 (Naxos Records, CD)

DDD
FIRST RELEASE (11 November 2022)

Playing time: 69'15"
Tracks: 12
Booklet pages: 8
℗ 2022 Naxos Rights (Europe) Ltd
© 2022 Naxos Rights (Europe) Ltd
Main country of recording: Brazil
Country of manufacture: Germany
Reviewer: Gerald Fenech
Review of Santoro: Symphonies Nos 11 and 12 published on 8 December 2022

Goiás Philharmonic Orchestra
Neil Thomson, conductor

Cláudio Santoro (1919-1989):

Concerto Grosso for string quartet and orchestra (1980) (first recording)
1 Andante
2 Lento molto
3 Allegro vivo - Finale

Symphony No 11 (1984) (first recording)
4 Andante - Allegro
5 Allegro
6 Lento - Allegro vivo

Três Fragmentos sobre BACH (Three Fragments on BACH, 1985)
7 Adagio - Allegro moderato
8 Lento
9 Allegro vivo (ma non troppo)

Symphony No 12 (1987, revised 1988-89) (first recording)
10 Andante
11 Allegro
12 Allegro - Moderato

Cláudio Santoro's prolific output includes a cycle of fourteen symphonies that is widely recognised as the most significant of its kind from Brazil. All of the works in this programme come from Santoro's remarkable final decade, in which he allied more traditional and eclectic styles to his earlier experiments. Both the Concerto Grosso and the Three Fragments on BACH were written for student orchestras, but are nonetheless substantial pieces which show his command of writing for strings. The Eleventh Symphony is one of the densest and most dramatic of the cycle, its finale exploding into an evocation of the opening of Brahms' First Symphony, while the Twelfth Symphony is an unusual 'sinfonia concertante' for nine soloists and orchestra.

Recorded 27 November to 2 December 2019 at Centro Cultural Oscar Niemeyer, Goiânia, Brazil (tracks 1–3 and 7–9) and 25–30 April 2022 at Teatro Escola Basileu França, Goiânia, Brazil (tracks 4–6 and 10-12).