Claudio Santoro (1919–1989) was one of Brazil’s most eminent and influential composers. Over a 50-year period, he wrote a cycle of 14 symphonies that is widely acclaimed as the most significant cycle of its kind ever written in Brazil. The two selected works in this inaugural volume of the first complete recording of his symphonies focus on the 1950s, a period when Santoro sought a more direct and communicative idiom using Brazilian elements. His use of folk-based material is nonetheless highly creative, sometimes indeed abstract, as in key moments of Symphony no.5. Symphony no.7 is one of his most complex and intense works, a celebration of his country’s new capital Brasília in music of striking modernity.

Claudio Santoro was one of the most restless and versatile musicians of our time – a prodigy, inspired creator and brilliant interpreter, dynamic organizer, lucid educator and researcher. This new release is first in a new cycle of Santoro’s complete symphonies.

‘The Music of Brazil’ series is set to be a 30-disc survey of Brazilian music, a joint project between Naxos and the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, probably the most comprehensive of its type on disc. Previous releases include Alberto Nepomuceno’s Symphony in G minor and Série brasileira (8574067), named one of the ‘Best Classical Recordings of 2019’ by WQXR (New York).

Other discs in the series include Guitar and Harmonica Concertos by Villa-Lobos (8574018), the first volume in Guarnieris’s complete Chôros (8574197), and Almeida Prado’s Piano Concerto no.1, Aurora and Concerto Fribourgeois (8574225) which received a Latin GRAMMY nomination.

Also available are Villa-Lobos’s Complete Symphonies performed by the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and conductor Isaac Karabtchevsky (6-disc box on 8506039). It was enthusiastically received by Gramophone: ‘Isaac Karabtchevsky directs secure and consistently colourful performances and the sound is excellent, as is necessary given the composer’s wide-ranging orchestrations.’