This may be old news which was dealt with before I joined the list, but however... Joly Braga Santos (1924-1988) is a Portuguese composer whose fifth symphony I first encountered many years ago through a record club whose scattergun approach to releasing interesting music from a wide variety of labels was just the sort of thing a young(ish) music lover needed. The record club survived for about twenty years before being taken over by an outfit run by cowboys whose advertising routinely tells you how many tracks are on a CD of Beethoven symphonies (huge sigh). Last year, Marco Polo released the 5th coupled with #1, which latter revealed that Braga Santos had changed styles somewhere and #1 was written in a less aggressive and less dissonant style. Naturally, #5 didn't sound nearly as "modern" as it did in 1973. Shortly after, Marco Polo released #3 and #6 and presumably #2 and #4 will follow eventually. It's hard to provide any sort of handle on Braga Santos. Eclectic, yes - traces of Vaughan Williams, Debussy, Ravel, Sibelius, Copland, Walton and others, some lovely long-lined melodies, blazing brass chorales, exciting string writing. I've listened to all four of these symphonies a lot and have played them to friends who also like them. I've forgotten which list member coined "tingle" as a term for that feeling of excitement that some really special new music gives you, but Braga Santos does it for me in spades. If you want to put your toe in the water, I'd try #3. The day after I first heard this, I read a rave review in Fanfare (Jan-Feb, IIRC). In the meantime, my tongue's hanging out for Vol 3. Richard Pennycuick [log in to unmask]