29 APRIL (saturday), 19h00
Music at the University – ANFITEATRO CHIMICO, MUSEU NACIONAL DE HISTÓRIA NATURAL E DA CIÊNCIA, Lisboa
30 APRIL (sunday), 17h00
QUINTA DA ALMIARA, Torres Vedras
Vicente Alberola / clarinet
ENSEMBLE DARCOS
Vicente Alberola is one of the most respected musicians of his generation. A clarinettist gifted with unique interpretative qualities, the first soloist of the prestigious Mahler Chamber Orchestra has, in recent years, been establishing himself as a conductor, particularly in the field of opera. Regarded as the pioneer of Russian chamber music, Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936) devoted a large part of his compositional energy to this genre. The Five Novellets, op.156, were written in 1885 for the famous musical evenings of the magnate Mitrofan Belyayev (1836-1904), where the intellectual elite of St Petersburg gathered every Friday. Although Glazunov did not conceive them as a whole, their success with the public led the composer to publish them as a suite for string quartet. Born on the island of São Miguel, Sara Ross (b. 1989) is an artist of enormous eclecticism, where to her musical capacities as a composer one must add staging and commitment to socially inclusive artistic projects. This eclecticism also reveals itself in a profoundly lyrical musical language, wrapped in a magical harmonic palette. His String Quartet, making its world première, is the result of a commission from the Darcos Ensemble. Fascinated by the musical qualities of clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld (1865-1907), Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) wrote in the summer of 1891, in Bad Ischl, two fundamental works for clarinet, the trio op.114 and the quintet op.115. The latter was premiered on the 24th November 1891, in Meiningen, by Mülhfeld and the Joachim Quartet, led by the outstanding violinist Joseph Joachim (1831-1907), a close friend of Brahms. Divided into four movements, with a markedly retrospective and melancholic tendency, the quintet op.115 is one of the last instrumental works written by the composer.
Programme:
A. Glazunov (1865 – 1936)
Cinco Novelletes, suite para quarteto de cordas, op. 156
I. Allegretto alla Spagnuola
II. Allegro con brio
III. Andante “interludium in modo antico”
IV. Allegretto
V. Allegretto all’Ungharese
S. Ross (n. 1989)
Quarteto de Cordas
– estreia absoluta – encomenda Ensemble Darcos
J. Brahms (1833 – 1897)
Quinteto para clarinete e cordas, em Si menor, op. 115
I. Allegretto
II. Adagio
III. Andantino
IV. Finale: Con moto