Pedro de Freitas Branco (1896–1963) was a Portuguese conductor and composer.
Life and career
Branco was born in Lisbon, and studied music with Tomás Vaz de Borba and Luís de Freitas Branco (his elder brother). He founded the Portuguese Opera Company in 1926, and conducted the state symphony orchestra from 1934.
Branco made his Paris debut in 1932 in a concert of Maurice Ravel's music at the Salle Pleyel conducting Daphnis et Chloé, Pavane pour une infante defunte, Rapsodie espagnole, La valse and Boléro. At the same concert Ravel conducted the premiere of his G major Piano Concerto. He was not a good conductor,Nichols, p. 92 and when the concerto was recorded soon after the premiere, his name appeared as conductor on the label of the disc and in advertisements,Columbia advertisement,The Gramophone, Volume 10, p. xv; and Weaver, Paul. "Record Reviews", Music Educators Journal, November 1934. but in fact Branco conducted the orchestra under Ravel's supervision at the recording sessions.Orenstein, p. 536
By the 1940s Branco was regarded as the leading conductor in Lisbon."Music in the Peninsula", The Times, 9 January 1942, p. 6 In 1943 he conducted at the Venice Biennale. He guest conducted in several other European countries including France, Germany, Spain and Britain.Kennedy, Michael, and Joyce Bourne Kennedy "Freitas Branco, Pedro de",The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, Oxford University Press, 2007. Retrieved 20 June 2020
The singer Astra Desmond praised Branco for "his magnificent musicianship, his immersion in the spirit and style of whatever composer he is playing, his boundless enthusiasm and complete selflessness". The Times observed that he was at his finest in "music of great textual brilliance, notably in the work of Berlioz, Stravinsky and Richard Strauss.
Death Branco died in Lisbon in 1963, aged 66."Obituary", The Times, 26 March 1963, p. 14
Recordings Recordings conducted by Branco include: Beethoven – Violin Concerto (David Oistrakh, soloist) Falla – El amor brujo Falla – El retablo de maese Pedro Falla – El sombrero de tres picos, Suite no. 2 Hindemith – Overture Neues vom Tage Ravel – Alborada del gracioso Ravel – Boléro Ravel – La valse Ravel – Pavane pour une infante defunte Ravel – Piano Concerto in G major (Marguerite Long, soloist) Ravel – Valses nobles et sentimentales Roussel – Suite in F Schumann – Symphony No 2 Stravinsky – The Rite of Spring Tchaikovsky – Violin Concerto (David Oistrakh, soloist) Vaughan Williams – Symphony No. 9 Weber – Overture Der Freischütz Source: WorldCat."Pedro de Freitas Branco", WorldCat. Retrieved 20 June 2020
References and sources References
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