Culinnaria Portuguesa

A devoted disciple of Falla, Ernesto Halffter (less avant-garde a composer than his older brother Rodolfo or his more famous nephew Cristobal) gave up so much of his time and energy to the colossal task of making sense of, and completing, his mentor’s Atlantida that his own output remained modest, consisting chiefly of a chamber opera, ballets, concertos for violin and for guitar, and a handful of other works. The first of his Esquisses symphoniques (written before he was 20), the exuberant “Chanson du lanternier”, is heavily indebted to early Stravinsky: more individual (though with Debussian overtones) and very impressive both for its orchestral writing and its eloquence, is the second, “Paysage mort”. But it was his sizeable Sinfonietta, completed shortly afterwards in 1925, which really attracted attention at home and abroad. There have been three or four previous recordings of it (including the very last recording – on Spanish Columbia – made by the conductor Ataulfo Argenta), but none are currently in the catalogue.

A Camerata Lusitana e António Eustáquio apresentam-nos pela primeira vez uma transcrição para a guitarra portuguesa, que confirma as suas possibilidades expressivas como verdadeiro solista capaz de, à frente de uma orquestra de câmara, enfrentar obras de exigente virtuosismo do repertório da época barroca. Após décadas em que o seu papel se limitou essencialmente ao acompanhamento do fado de Lisboa e da canção coimbrã, e de uma primeira “idade de ouro” que Carlos Paredes personificou como ninguém mais, a guitarra portuguesa pode estar agora no início de um novo ciclo, que uma vez liberta da estreita conotação ao fado, a eleve ao estatuto de solista “erudito” e a um novo reconhecimento internacional.

Vinylogy label presents the new 5CD box set including 5 original albums of the great artists. All the recordings are digitally remastered in superb high quality sound by 32bit/44,1kHz sampling rate. Each of the discs are packed in a beautiful miniature LP paper sleeve. The best choice for music fans and collectors.