César Guerra-Peixe (1914-93) was, as well as a prolific composer, a great promoter of Brazilian folk music, and carried out extensive research on it. He spent time working with serial techniques but his dissatisfaction with these led him to work with folk material in his own music, which is what this recording highlights. Both Symphonic Suites date from 1955 and are structured identically, with a moderately paced opening movement and reflective third preceding rumbustious second and fourth movements.

One of the highlights here is definitely the brilliantly colourful second movement of the Suite No 1, ‘Jongo’, a name referring to an Afro-Brazilian dance. It is anything but a patronising picture postcard: Guerra-Peixe’s compositional vocabulary is deeply informed at all levels by the dance’s rhythmic structure and he is a tremendous orchestrator. The third movement is also haunting. Entitled ‘Recomenda de almas’ (better known in Portugal as ‘Encomenda das Almas’), this movement, with dense harmonies and mysterious solo melodies, is based on the Roman Catholic ritual of prayers during Lent for souls in Purgatory, and involved processions and costumes as well as singing.

It is also the second and third movements of the Suite No 2 that I find most impressive. ‘Dança de cabocolinhos’ sounds like a great machine, or locomotive, launching into unstoppable motion, while the mournful ‘Aboiado’ refers to wordless unaccompanied songs intoned by Brazilian cattle herders. The two suites are separated by Roda de amigos, from 1979. Its four movements are enchanting character pieces, portraying musician friends of the composer. Neil Thomson leads some sparkling performances from the Goiás Philharmonic, and the engineering allows instrumental detail (particularly in Roda de amigos) to shine through.