For two discs of music by Fernando Lopes Graça (1906 93) to arrive for review simultaneously is a demonstration of the richness of all that is available on record. Powerful and single-minded, Lopes-Graça will also appeal to those who enjoy winkling out a treasure-hunt of influences. The ghosts of major figures from the 20th century haunt pages that are nonetheless transformed by a dedication to Portuguese folksong and dance, and by the composer’s own distinctive character. Artur Pizarro’s brilliant and urgently committed recital ranges widely through memories of Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Bartók, Debussy and Ravel. Spain, too, is recalled in the fierce rhythms of Falla’s Fantasía bética (the Allegro giusto from the Second Sonata) and yet all these influences are transmuted into music of a pungent singularity. And whether you warm to the way the Second Sonata’s finale swerves from earlier economy into intricacy, or the widely varied aphorisms of Ao fio dos anos e das horas (‘About years and hours’), you are struck at every turn by the composer’s compulsive and insistent voice.

Naxos gives us the complete works for violin and piano and solo violin, further evidence of both range and individuality. The Prelúdio e fuga and Esponsais for solo violin are cruelly exposed and demanding, their difficulties dispatched with unfailing assurance and eloquence by Bruno Monteiro. He is joined by João Paulo Santos elsewhere, a virtuoso partnership in the phantom chase of the Presto from the Second Sonata and in the Galop (Preludio, capricho e galope), where the composer comes close to relaxing into a jeu d’esprit, though not without a sardonic undertow. Both discs are well recorded (the Naxos very closely, though this adds to a sense of immediacy). Admittedly Lopes-Graça is an acquired taste but he is also a composer of a special integrity. Highly successful records, then, and not just for explorers of music off the beaten track.