Fernando Lopes-Graca was arguably the greatest Portuguese composer of the second half of the 20th century. He absorbed successive stylistic influences, but the core of his musical impulses lay in the folk music of his native country, a feature especially evident in his songs. The originality and complexity of his harmonization, the vivid and communicative beauty of his sets of Christmas songs and the subtlety of his settings of Russian and Hungarian songs illustrate a complete mastery of this aspect of his multifaceted art. This is one in a small series of music by Fernando Lopes-Graca on Naxos. Upon its initial release, this album was a MusicWeb International ‘Recording of the Year’: “his generous release including his impressive Symphony is most welcome and is the best possible introduction to Lopes-Graca’s music so far. Both performances and recording are excellent.”