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Frederico
De Freitas COMPLETE MUSIC FOR VIOLIN Carlos Damas violin 路 Jill Lawson piano Jian Hong violoncello
Frederico de Freitas (1902-1980) was an enormously versatile and imaginative musician. As well as a composer, he was a conductor (becoming principal conductor of the Portuguese National Radio Orchestra and founding, in 1940, the Lisbon Choral Society), a teacher (at the Centre for Gregorian Studies in Lisbon) and a music historian, writing articles for periodicals and encyclopaedias. He studied piano, violin, composition and theory at the Lisbon Conservatoire, and while he was there composed the remarkable, freely-structured Poema sobre Écloga de Virgílio for string orchestra. In 1926 he was awarded the National Composition Prize. Freitas is often seen now as a composer whose orientation was essentially nationalistic, towards folk music, and this was certainly to have a hugely important role in his work, especially in his compositions for the ballet, but the reality is that he does not fit comfortably into any stylistic category, which explains the fact that he has not historically been accorded as much attention as other Portuguese composers such as the older Luís de Freitas Branco (1890-1955), his contemporary Fernando Lopes-Graça (1906-1994) or the younger Joly Braga Santos (1924-88). Even today, he remains best known for works such as Ribatejo (1934), Dança da Menina Tonta (1941), Imagens da Terra e do Mar (1943) and Nazaré (1948), all except the first written for the Ballets Verde Gaio founded in 1940, and part of the great modern ballet project that was established in Portugal as part of the ideology of the “New State”. A good deal of the music Freitas wrote in the 1920s, however, notably the Sonata for violin and cello and the Nocturne for violin and piano, both composed in 1923, was perceived at the time as highly innovative and modern, especially on account of the use of bitonality and polyrhythms. Of the Sonata he later wrote, “Slowly, little by little, I began to discover the relation between ancient knowledge and the unrest of an utterly new modernity, daring, inconstant, even shocking, contrary to all the canons of consonance.” His style developed, however, over the course of the next two decades into something that one might describe as more “classical”, as may be heard in his Missa Solene (1940), written for the Lisbon Choral Society as something to 2
stand alongside the great oratorios of the past, which were the staples of the choir’s repertoire, but he never lost his interest in the techniques he had experimented with in earlier years. His output for the theatre (which includes the radio opera A Igreja do Mar, written in 1957) and the cinema was vast, and has until recently somewhat overshadowed his concert music, which he wrote for every conceivable genre, and which includes such outstanding works as the Quarteto Concertante for two violins, two cellos and string orchestra (1945), for which he won the Domingos Bomtempo Prize awarded by the National Radio. This recording, which surveys Freitas’s output for violin, includes two works that stand almost at opposite ends of his career: the Berceuse from 1922 and the Dança do Palhaço (“Dance of the Clown”) from 1964. The former explores the possibilities inherent in the traditional berceuse rhythm, expanding it and stretching it to make a superb miniature. Noteworthy too is the Gallic turn of the melodic writing, a kind of “augmented modality” (nobody, I think, would predict the harmonic direction of the final two bars) that makes this lullaby an ambiguous one indeed, and a precursor in many ways of the later music heard on this disc. The Dança is a far more straightforward work, a slightly drunken-sounding opening theme suggesting the clown’s antics. There is a more exploratory brief central section, and then the opening material returns; a perfect example of the way Freitas was able to turn musical simplicity to highly effective ends and that stood him in such good stead in the theatre and the cinema. At the centre of Freitas’s style is his great melodic imagination, but his outstanding ability as a contrapuntist is also enormously important. This is clearly evident in a work such as the extensive and wonderfully idiomatic Sonata for Violin and Cello, in which the soaring melodic lines (in both instruments) combine with a constant interplay between the two instruments that produces an unexpected richness of texture, couched in a bitonal idiom that Freitas himself described as “tending to destroy the common feeling of tonality between the two speakers”. In the “so3
called development”, he noted that, “all the elements enter into conflict (…) without any academic concerns about priority”. On the other hand, the second movement, the engaging and lively “Scherzo pitoresco”, shows why he was such a successful composer of lighter music; he described the theme as fandango-like”. The “Adagio non tanto”, not only creates a sense of yearning from the intertwining melodic tendrils of the two instruments, but also makes extensive use of double-stopping, creating very dense textures, before a resolution is achieved in the clearer, more sunlit world of the fourth movement, an “Allegro appassionato” in sonata form, which returns to the clearer textures of the second, though not without moments or reflection and drama, and also quotes once more the first theme of the first movement. Allegro Appassionato is also the title of a substantial work for violin and piano from the same year, originally intended to be a movement of a sonata. It shares many of the characteristics of the Sonata for Violin and Cello – a grand melodic sweep, an anguished, unstable chromaticism and alternations of textural density with moments of great clarity. Its opposite, so to speak, is the delicate Nocturno (also 1923), a work of evanescent beauty, evoking lines from the Portuguese poet, philosopher and political activist Antero de Quental (1842-91): “Spirit that passes when the wind/falls asleep on the sea and the moon rises … Like a distant song, sad and slow/that sails and subtly insinuates itself.” The “Gallicisms” of Freitas’s vocabulary here come into full play, the suggestions of whole-tone scales, augmented triads, floating harmonic chains and ethereal melody perfectly suggesting the “subtle insinuation” of the poem’s song; of this period, Freitas wrote that “Debussy guided my musical path with a light and a completely new beauty. I knew well the scores of Pelléas et Mélisande and Le martyre de st Sébastien, as well as the piano music and the Sonata for Violin and Piano. Similarly, I liked the music of Déodat de Séverac, that of Satie….” Freitas did write a complete three-movement sonata in 1946, and a highly impressive work it is, having a good deal in common with the outstanding Quarteto 4
Concertante of the previous year. Indeed, it is difficult not to see a reflection of he anguish of the war years in the dense, sometimes tortured writing to be found in both works. The opening theme of the first movement of the Sonata, “Allegro moderato”, really generates all its material; a floating, chromatic melodic-harmonic figure shared between violin and piano that expands into a long, yearning melody while the piano takes up the semiquaver movement of the violin’s first gesture. Even the brief schizophrenic section just under a quarter of the way through, alternating “tranquillo” and “agitato” indications, may be said to derive from this material: while Freitas revels in the fantastic, he is also extremely economical. The ternary-form second moment, “Adagio con molta espressione e sentiment”, is enigmatic, its floating opening gesture turning into an urgent, questing cantilena, and then sinking back once again into the unsettled music of the beginning. A springing dance-like movement ends the Sonata, its obsessiveness balanced by its harmonic adventurousness: only right at the end does the composer let us know unambiguously that the key is F. Impressionistic harmony and bitonality are employed in the elegant Tres peças sem importância (“Three Pieces of No Importance”), written for the renowned violinist Vasco Barbosa in 1954; they have in common with the Flute Concerto of the same year a fresh, lyrical quality far from the searching, labyrinthine quality of the works of a decade earlier. The first of the three pieces, entitled “Serenata perdida” (Lost serenade), is an ethereal, Debussyan movement of tremendous delicacy, while the second, “Música para funerais” (Music for funerals) exploits chromatic gestures of lament in traditionally incompatible keys, the piano part masquerading as a passacaglia, but serving instead to assist the gradual dissolution of the violin’s wisps of melody. The third, “Alla Zingarese”, is a stylized gypsy dance, largely in 5/4. These three “unimportant” pieces actually concentrate in a short space not only much of Freitas’s fluently attractive melodic style and harmonic originality, but his ability to portray a character in music, and with considerable humour. © Ivan Moody 5
Carlos Damas is a notable Portuguese violinist. During the last few years he has been grounding a brilliant international career. The Gramophone magazine describes Carlos Damas art with the following words: “Top technical marks…Portuguese violinist Carlos Damas boasts a clear, ringing tone and impressive dexterity.” The Strad magazine says: “… Portuguese virtuoso Carlos Damas is closer to the modern sensibilities and sound world of Thomas Zehetmair and Gidon Kremer…Damas with lightning technical reflexes and tonal flexibility…possesses a Szeryng-like finesse.” He was 15 years old when he made his first performance as a soloist, with Portuguese National Brodcasting Radio Symphony Orchestra. Lived in Paris where he had Jacqueline Lefèvre and Master Ivry Gitlis for teachers. During that time he met frequently with Sir Yehudi Menhuin, who gave him advice regarding not only the artistic milieu but also concerning violin playing. Carlos Damas premiered in Paris the Concerto for Violin and orchestra by the Portuguese composer Luís de Freitas Branco. In 1997, he was granted the privilege of being the only western musician invited to play at the Fifth Arts Festival of the People’s Republic of China. Mr. Damas was invited by UNESCO ((Melody Dialogue Association), to play as a soloist in several multicultural concerts, representing Portugal. Composer Sérgio Azevedo dedicated him one of his sonatas for solo violin, as well 6
the piece for violin and orchestra “Reflections on a Portuguese Lullaby”. Carlos Damas album, “Modern Solo Violin Music” was acclaimed by specialized worldwide critics and was awarded as best record by ARTEtv. His Fritz Kreisler album, was considered by TheStrad magazine as one of the best Kreisler cd’s available on the market. Among many other orchestras, Carlos Damas played as soloist with the Portuguese Symphony Radio Orchestra, Jeune Philarmonie du Val de Marne, Camerata de St. Severin, Orchestre Internationale de la Cité, Canton Symphony Orchestra, Macau Chamber Orchestra, Camerata of Madeira, Prague Philarmonic Orchestra, St. Luke’s Orchestra, Mission Chamber Orchestra. Performed as soloist in several famous concert halls as Salle Gaveau, Salle Cortot (Paris), Unesco Main Concert Hall, Calouste de Gulbenkian Foundation, Lee Hysan Concert Hall of Hong-Kong, Ville Louvigy Orchestre Philarmonique du Luxembourg. Carlos Damas has a Master in Musical Arts, is actually concluding a Phd in Psychology and Education of Music and is member of the Board of Direction at the National Academy of Advanced Orchestral Studies. www.carlosdamas.com
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The very talented pianist Jill Lawson was born in Mexico in 1974. She grew up in Belgium and has both the American and Portuguese nationality. She learned how to read music before she learned the alphabet. Today she speaks five languages fluently, but still prefers to communicate through music rather than through words. Her music provides her with a much richer vocabulary and it lies closer to her heart. Her life experiences in the last few years have helped to further enrich her range of interpretation abilities. She feels that her way of playing has become more natural, and because of this when performing she feels almost at one with the public. During her career Jill won several awards and distinctions. Second prize at the International Vianna da Motta Competition sent her career off to a flying start. She travelled all over the world performing at both large and small venues. Besides solo performances with international top orchestras she is also very fond of chamber music. Together with her brother she forms the duo Lawson & Lawson and works with several singers on a regular basis. At the Escola Superior de Artes Aplicadas in Castelo Branco she teaches piano and the course repertoire for singers. Jill’s piano education began when she was eight years old. She has studied, among other places, in Antwerp, and in Amsterdam with Jan Wijn and she completed her Masters in music at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore under Leon Fleisher and Ellen Mack. She has also attended several master classes with various master pianists 8
including Dimitri Bashkirov and Maria João Pires. Jill is planning an international comeback after a recent lull in activities during which she introduced more depth into her play. She will be recording the chamber music of Portuguese composer António Fragoso for Brilliant Classics and the complete sonatas for violin and piano of Hindemith also for Brilliant Classics. www.jilllawson.com
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Jian Hong was born in Tianjin, R.P. China, to a family of musicians, her father a violinist and her mother a singer. She began studying violin at the age of five with her father, then began learning cello three years later. She attended the Beijing Central Conservatory and became first cello of the Youth Orchestra of the R.P.C. under the guidance of maestro Muhai Tang. Later, she was sent by the Chinese government to Moscow to study at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, one of the musical world’s most acclaimed schools, where she studied and worked with Master Gavrich and participated in several master-classes run by Paul Tortellier. She worked with several orchestras in Sweden, establishing residence there and receiving Swedish nationality in 1997, before becoming first cello of the Macau Chamber Orchestra and a teacher at the Conservatory of Macau. Jian Hong plays regularly in chamber music groups and has performed concerts throughout Europe and Asia, as well as participating in the Macau Music Festival and the Festival of Arts of R.P. China. She has worked with the most important conductors of R.P. China, including Long Yu, Yuan Fang and Muhai Tang. In 2001, she established residence in Lisboa, Portugal, and became a cellist in the Metropolitan Orchestra of Lisbon and a teacher at the Superior National, working with internationally renowned conductors and musicians.
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Recording: 11-12 July 2014, Timbuktu Studios, Lisboa, Portugal Producer and mastering: Klaus Werner Sound Engineers: AndrÊ Fernandes and Nuno Costa Cover image: Painting of flirting people by F. Gomez Solano p & Š 2015 Brilliant Classics
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