Raízes (Portuguese for ‘roots’) features new works commissioned by the Matosinhos String Quartet, in which composers were invited to write works inspired by melodies, dances and stories from Portuguese traditional folklore. Returning to their heritage in North Portugal, Eurico Carrapatoso and Fernando C. Lapa both draw inspiration from Mirandese landscapes, dances and melodies. Telmo Marques’s Ilhas Afortunadas alludes to the mythologies surrounding the islands of the Azores and Madeira, and Sérgio Azevedo pays homage to Fernando Lopes-Graça and Béla Bartók’s pioneering work recording folk music in the field with his Popularuskia I.

This new album of premiere recordings by the excellent Matosinhos String Quartet teaches us that there is much more to the Portuguese folk music tradition than Fado, introducing to us the melodic richness and energy of Mirandese or Northeastern Portuguese dances and songs. Together with the timeless atmosphere of the Portuguese islands and a grateful homage to the founding work of traditional music preserved by Lopes-Graça and Bartók, this is a string quartet programme like no other.