Post-Scriptum

Amazon.com's Best of 2001
When Cristina Branco sings, she makes the pleasures of heartbreak and the aching beauty of desperation seem like something to long for. Her smooth alto has a timeless, haunted quality, marked by a vibrato that sounds like it's stifling a torrent of grief. Her emotive reading of fado classics has brought new life to the genre, a ballad form often called the Portuguese blues. Fado, like the blues, was born when African workers in Portugal adapted the guitar to their own music. The term probably comes from the Portuguese fadiado--"tired"--because this mournful, minor-key music was usually heard in the ghetto after sundown. When Europeans adopted fado they added elaborate lyrics to a style already full of unfulfilled passion. Branco's yearning vocals here are complemented by the melancholic work of guitarists Alexandre Silva and Custódio Castelo, who add unbearable tension to songs already dripping with overwrought emotion. --j. poet

Tracks:

Ai Vida
Manto De Acucenas
Post-Scriptum
Toada Em Realejo
Palavras Proibidas
Abalara
Nao Oicas A Minha Voz
Sem Abrir Caminhos
Preludio
Aspiracao
Primavera
Lisboa De Paixoes
Ausente

Amazon.com's Best of 2001

When Cristina Branco sings, she makes the pleasures of heartbreak and the aching beauty of desperation seem like something to long for. Her smooth alto has a timeless, haunted quality, marked by a vibrato that sounds like it's stifling a torrent of grief. Her emotive reading of fado classics has brought new life to the genre, a ballad form often called the Portuguese blues. Fado, like the blues, was born when African workers in Portugal adapted the guitar to their own music. The term probably comes from the Portuguese fadiado--"tired"--because this mournful, minor-key music was usually heard in the ghetto after sundown. When Europeans adopted fado they added elaborate lyrics to a style already full of unfulfilled passion. Branco's yearning vocals here are complemented by the melancholic work of guitarists Alexandre Silva and Custódio Castelo, who add unbearable tension to songs already dripping with overwrought emotion. --j. poet

Customer Reviews:

serenity and passion .......2005-09-17

It is unfortunate that such a gifted singer as Cristina Branco ends up compared to Amalia Rodrigues, or that her singing style is reduced to a category--fado. In fact, since the 80s, a number of new singers have appeared in Portugal who, while not repudiating the fado tradition, have done much to move it beyond the frozen state to which it had been reduced as Portugal's main official cultural export during the Salazar dictatorship. Unlike many fado singers, these younger artists are far better trained, sometimes abroad (listen to Carlos do Carmo, their predecessor, and in a sense spiritual father), and they have all incorporated a much more open sensibility. Listen to Camane, for instance, and you'll find the male equivalent of Cristina Branco: a voice so pure it hurts at times. The first song on this record is beautiful, but the last one is bound to make any Portuguese person cry. That tired cultural saw--saudade--is never mentioned, but the song is suffused with it, and absence lingers in one's mind and under one's skin long after the last note of the piano acompaniment has died out.

The Heart of a Woman.......2002-05-30

Cristina Branco's earthy and emotional vocalization will transport you to another place far, far away and deep inside your own soul. Close your eyes; imagine yourself pedaling an old bike down the back streets of Lisbon on a hot afternoon; stretch out on the white beaches and connect with the heart of a woman whose language you don't speak, whose country you do not know. Indeed, Branco transcends language, culture and gender and touches you. She is not faint, delicate or obvious-- the music is poetic, romatic, emotional and inspired. You will enjoy Post-Scriptum, you will come back to Fado.

Profound with literary depth and passion.......2002-04-08

"Post-Scriptum" gives us an almost literary depth and passion to what might seem on the front-side a delicate collection of mere Portuguese ballads. I am glad to have found this CD.

This is best listened to in summer-time, with open windows so that Branco's beautiful serenedical voice wafts out toward your neighbors. You might've heard on her on NPR, but the CD's crisp-clean freshness does what radio cannot do, and that is to bring the artist into your living room.

Delightful, and yet there is a sobriety in her voice. Romantic -- she might be the woman you fell in love with years ago, and all you have now is her songs charming you in your head. Fans of Pablo Neruda's or Victor Hugo's love poetry might find "Post-Scriptum" a fine choice.

My personal favorite is "Preludio." There is some which reminds me of Django Reinhardt in the guitar.

I regret I know no Portuguese, and for those who do know the language, I expect the CD to be that much more valuable.

I fully recommend "Post-Scriptum" by Cristina Branco.

Anthony Trendl

Try the first song........2002-03-25

I bought this cd mainly because the opening tune "ai vida" is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard, and like a picture is worth a thousand words. The rest of the album while likeable, does not and probably cannot compare, so it is on this strength alone that I highly recommend C.B. on cd.

Heart Rending.......2001-12-19

I happened to be in Lisbon shortly after Amalia Rodriques died in the Fall of 1999. I received a short course in Fado at that time. It was memorable. Needless to say upon my return home I bought & listened to a broad selection of Amalia's work. Now that she's gone I'm thankful for the talent of Christina Branco. Fado is a salve for the harshness of our lives. Very recently a young friend of mine was killed riding her bike home from work. I found this album was a welcome way for me to grieve. Such a treasure.

Boulez: Le Visage Nuptial; Le Soleil des Eaux; Figures, Doubles, Prismes

Average customer rating:

Boulez: Le Visage Nuptial; Le Soleil des Eaux; Figures, Doubles, Prismes

Manufacturer: Elektra / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Choruses | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000005E7B
Release Date: 1992-05-07

Valentin Silvestrov: Dedication (Symphony for Violin & Orchestra) / Post Scriptum (Sonata for Violin & Piano) - Gidon Kremer / Munich Philharmonic

Average customer rating:

Provocative works
An intense new voice

Valentin Silvestrov: Dedication (Symphony for Violin & Orchestra) / Post Scriptum (Sonata for Violin & Piano) - Gidon Kremer / Munich Philharmonic
Valentin Vasil'yevich Silvestrov , Roman Kofman , Gidon Kremer , Vadim Sakharov , and Munich Philharmonic
Manufacturer: Elektra / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000000SRY
Release Date: 1997-04-15

Tracks:

Dedication, Sym: I. Allegro Moderato Con Moto
Dedication, Sym: I. Moderato
Dedication, Sym: II. Moderato Con Moto
Dedication, Sym: II. Andantino
Dedication, Sym: III. Allegretto
Dedication, Sym: III. Andante
Dedication, Sym: III. Moderato
Post Scriptum, Son: I. Largo-Allegro-Allegretto - Gidon Kremer/Vadim Sacharov
Post Scriptum, Son: II. Andantino - Gidon Kremer/Vadim Sacharov
Post Scriptum: Son: III. Allegro Vivace - Gidon Kremer/Vadim Sacharov

Amazon.com

Valentin Silvestrov (b. 1937) has only come into his own only since the late 1970s. Before then, his music tended to follow in the wake of Shostakovich and Schnittke. His true voice emerged with Symphony No. 5 (1980-81). And it's here, in full measure, in Dedication: Symphony for Violin and Orchestra, a 1990-91 work for Gidon Kremer, the soloist here. Silvestrov, like Schnittke, is a polystylist; but unlike Schnittke, he keeps a constant tonal undercurrent beneath the more overt language of the orchestra which can be, at any time, tonal, atonal, serial, or anarchic. It's quite hypnotizing. Check this guy out. --Paul Cook

Customer Reviews:

Provocative works.......2003-03-29

Silvestrov's music is deeply spiritual and to this listener passionate and philosophic. Like Gubaidulina, Kancheli, Ustvolskaya, Saariaho, and others, they eschew pretensions and, like some sort of mediums, transcend emotion and time with their compositions. Highly recommended

An intense new voice.......2001-12-03

Though this composer was unknown to me, I know from previous experience that I can trust Gidon Kremer's taste in contemporary music. Indeed, we all owe him an enormous debt for his continued efforts to bring new music to light. The pieces by Silvestrov on this recording are quite extraordinary. They sound to my ear something like a cross between Mahler, Schnittke, and a bit of Part. Kremer describes them as an attempt to "awaken romanticism to a new life." I found the music beautiful, touching, and disturbing. A great recording. Check it out.