Armando Jose Fernandes: Violinkonzert on CD

Der Komponist Armando José Fernandes (1906–1983) war eine der zentralen Figuren der außerhalb seiner Heimat wenig beachteten portugiesischen Musikszene des 20. Jahrhunderts. Sein Landsmann Carlos Damas hat für die vorliegende CD zwei zentrale Werke Fernandes aufgenommen: die Violinsonate (aus dem Jahre 1946) und das Violinkonzert (1948). Begleitet wird der in Lissabon und Paris (u. a. von Yehudi Menuhin) ausgebildete Violinist von der polnischen Pianistin Anna Tomasik und dem Mission Chamber Orchestra aus San Jose (USA) unter der Leitung von Emily Ray. Die mit großer Finesse geschriebenen neoklassizistischen Werke sind eine echte Entdeckung.

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Armando José Fernandes was a celebrated composer, musician and radio broadcaster in 20th-century Portugal. He was an integral member of the ‘Grupo dos Quatro’ – alongside Jorge Croner de Vasconcelos, Fernando Lopes-Graça and Pedro do Prado – which exerted substantial influential over Portuguese music in the mid-1900s. The tonal ambiguity of Fernandes’ Violin Sonata is established right at the start by the simultaneous use of both major and minor chords. The dance-like first movement, Allegro, gives way to a lilting Andante and gentle Larghetto, with the work eventually culminating in a Presto finale. The Violin Concerto owes much to the Gallic influence of Ravel and Debussy, with a memorable double-dotted motif opening the work. So exceptional is the music of the final rondo that this alone suffices in calling for the long-overdue revival of Fernandes’ oeuvre. Violinist Carlos Damas made his solo debut aged just 15 with the Portuguese National Broadcasting Radio Symphony Orchestra. Among his more recent achievements is the release of an hugely successful CD featuring the works of Fritz Kreisler, which has been praised by The Strad as one of the best Kreisler discs on the market.