Notícias

Jazz, original songs, fado and western classics

8 DECEMBER / friday / 9.30pm – TORRES VEDRAS CINE-THEATRE

9 DECEMBER / saturday / 9.30 p.m. – ALCOBAÇA CINE-THEATRE

Maria Mendes, voice

Nuno Côrte-Real, musical direction and synthesiser

ENSEMBLE DARCOS

In Wim Wenders’ acclaimed film Wings of Desire, an angel gives up his immortality in the face of a passion that consumes him. In this conflict between the divine and the ephemeral, eternity and life, the action takes place in the city of Berlin, still divided by a wall, immersed in an elegiac atmosphere. Paraphrasing this film, the concert Nas Asas do Indefinido presents a benevolent conflict between jazz, fado, original songs and classics of Western culture, an engaging musical fable in which the multiplicity of paths leads the listener not to the arrival but to the departure, in a purifying of the essence of what music is. Long based in Rotterdam, Maria Mendes is one of the most acclaimed voices in European jazz, standing out for making the Portuguese language her main vehicle for musical expression. The only Portuguese female artist to receive an American Grammy nomination, in 2020 she won the prestigious EDISON Jazz Awards, as well as a Latin Grammy nomination. Her recent foray into fado demonstrates kaleidoscopic qualities, seconded by Côrte-Real and the Ensemble Dar- cos, in an expected complicity between two musicians who have marked their musical career by an inquisitive and uncomplicated outlook, explosive in the way they cross styles and sound universes. On the Wings of the Undefined has as its unifying motif the theme of the 1st movement of Beetho- ven’s trio op.97 (1770-1827), an idée fixe that, contrary to the canonical definition, creates ethereal bridges through which we are all invited to circulate. If Wenders’ work is characterised by a static black and white, almost bordering on dystopia, it is the chromatic hues of each of the pieces featured in this concert that overlap, like a fairytale and utopian composition. As Fernando Pessoa wrote: “The dream is to see invisible forms / of imprecise distance, and, with sensitive / movements of hope and will (…)”.

17 NOVEMBER / friday / 21h30 AUDITORIUM OF THE CAC, Torres Vedras

18 NOVEMBER / Saturday / 19h00 Music at the University ANFITEATRO CHIMICO
National Museum of Natural History and Science, Lisbon

Sérgio Carolino, tuba

ENSEMBLE DARCOS

T. Marques (b. 1963)

This is not a Tuba
great concerto for solo tuba – absolute premiere –

D. Schvetz (b. 1978)

I. Moderato Tangabile
II. Brief Monologue
III. Pirilampo assim
Anne Victorino D’Almeida (b. 1978) – Quintet for Tuba and Strings

• absolute premiere – commissioned by Ensemble Darcos

E. Elgar (1857 – 1934)
String Quartet in E minor, op. 83
I. Allegro moderato
II. Piacevole (poco Andante)
III. Allegro molto

Patented in 1835 by Wilhelm Wieprecht (1802-1872) and Johann Moritz (1777-1840), the tuba is an extremely versatile instrument and its range of timbres and dynamics is absolutely remarkable. Only very recently has attention been drawn to its potential, and it is the target of increased attention by contemporary composers who see the tuba as one of the most eloquent instruments in the musical universe. It is not unreasonable to say that Sérgio Carolino has been one of its greatest champions. Internationally recognised as a tuba virtuoso, he has not only developed an absolute technical mastery, but has also embarked on a career based on the principle of versatility and the crossing of styles. This is not a Tuba is the suggestive name of the concert for solo tuba by Telmo Marques (b. 1963), in absolute premiere. Born in Porto and with a doctorate in Computer Music from the Portuguese Catholic University, Telmo Marques has long developed a close partnership with Sérgio Carolino, giving rise to a series of works in which the tuba plays a leading role. Based in Portugal since 1990, Daniel Schvetz (b. 1955) has been noted for his remarkable pedagogical work and for his diverse and appealing musical corpus. The 3 pieces, adapted for tuba and string quartet, are inspired by the tango of his native Argentina

Eduarda Melo, soprano

Nuno Côrte-Real, musical direction

ORCHESTRA OF TUSCANY

Programme:

N. Côrte-Real (b. 1971)

Songs of Love and Nature

H. Berlioz (1803 – 1869)

Les nuits d’été, op. 7
I. Villanelle
II. Le Spectre de la Rose
III. Sur les lagunes: lamento IV. Absense

V. Au cimetière: Claire de lune VI. L’île inconnue

L. van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)

Symphony No 8 in F major, op. 93

I. Allegro vivace e con brio
II. Allegretto scherzando

III. Tempo di minuetto

IV. Allegro vivace

The programme of this concert has the irresistible feel of a gentle summer breeze. And what better interpreters for this restrained delight than the Orchestra of Tuscany, founded in Florence in 1980, and soprano Eduarda Melo with her expressive and warm voice? From Nuno Côrte-Real (b. 1971) we will hear Songs of Love and Nature, op.42C, an arrangement for string orchestra of 3 original songs from Florbela’s Book, op.42, I. Exaltação, III. Os versos que te fiz and V. In a postcard.This is followed by Les nuits d’été, op.7 by Hector Berlioz (1803-1869), a cycle of 6 songs, composed between 1840-1841, making use of poems from the book La Comédie de la mort (1838) by his friend and neighbour Théophile Gautier (1811-1872). Originally written for voice and piano, the first song was orchestrated in 1843 and the remaining five in 1856. The title of the cycle, written by the composer, does not refer to any specific poem but seems to be a tribute to Shakespeare and his play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A true emotional cycle (even though it does not follow any narrative), love, innocence, abandonment, desire, remorse and passion lead the listener along a powerful lyrical arc, cradled by affectionate harmonies, which masterfully describes the pulse of the poems. Finally, Symphony No. 8, op.93, by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). Written between April and October 1812, it is a unique work in every respect.Seemingly conservative and good-humoured, with a slight Italian touch, given to the saints.

Traditional Portuguese dances revisited

30 SEPTEMBER / saturday / 21h30 THEATRE-CINE OF TORRES VEDRAS

N. Côrte-Real (b. 1971)
Folias (Novíssimo Cancioneiro – – Book Three)
absolute premiere

Nuno Côrte-Real, musical direction

Pedro Teixeira, choir conductor

CHOIR RICERCARE ENSEMBLE DARCOS

Long gone are the days when António Ferro’s Política do Espírito (1895-1956) produced an idealised image of popular art at the propagandistic service of the Estado Novo, emphasising the supposed identity unity of a nuanced rural universe. Over the last decades, music and dance, as expressions of the soul, representing the social identity of a community, in environments marked by poverty, idiosyncrasies of the male and female universe, interpenetration of the sacred and the profane, exclusively based on oral tradition, have been exposed to permanent mutation and recreation. This phenomenon, which has come to be called cosmopolitanism, starts from tradition, as a transmitted immaterial legacy, respected but changing, identity and authenticity, as genuine and unchanged.Thus, many composers have invoked external musical discourses, giving a superlative dimension to this identity heritage. After Book One, op.12 (which deals with repertoire from the north to the south of the country and also from Galicia) and Book Two, op.57 (entirely dedicated to the Alentejo cante from the city of Serpa), we have the absolute premiere of Book Three of the Novíssimo Cancioneiro by Nuno Côrte-Real (b. 1971), dedicated to traditional Portuguese dances.

8 SETEMBRO / Friday / 21h00

SALÃO NOBRE DA REITORIA DA UNIVERSIDADE NOVA DE LISBOA

Telmo Costa – clarinete

Nuno Côrte-Real – direção musical

ORQUESTRA SINFÓNICA DO CONSERVATÓRIO NACIONAL

Programme:

W. A . Mozart (1756 – 1791)

Concerto para Clarinete e orquestra, em Lá maior, K. 622

I. Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Rondo: Allegro

J. Haydn (1770 – 1827)
Sinfonia no 44 em Mi menor, “Luto”

I. Allegro con brio
II. Menuetto e Trio: Allegretto
III. Adagio
IV. Finale: Presto

Orchestra internships are high points in the lives of young instrumentalists. The pre-selection process, the masterclasses, the intensive rehearsals, refer to a professional reality that informs and shapes them, in a rewarding experience at all levels. The first edition of the Darcos Orchestral Training Course – Music School of Lisbon’s National Conservatory will feature award-winning young clarinetist Telmo Costa, and the works in concert are, according to Côrte-Real, an “elegiac evocation of the turbulent times that surround us. The Clarinet Concerto K.622 was premiered on October 16, 1791, in Prague, a few weeks after the death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), having been written at the request of his friend Anton Stadler (1753-1812), clarinetist of the Vienna imperial orchestra. Throughout three movements (the second was immortalized in the soundtrack of the film Africa Mine), Mozart bears witness to happiness and sadness, hope and resignation, the perception that, many times, these states do not represent different polarities, but simultaneous aspects of a deeper truth. A masterpiece of musical construction and rhetoric, with a highly emotive discourse, Symphony No. 44 by Joseph Haydn (1770-1827) was written between 1770-1771 for the court of Esterházy, where he was chapel master. It is part of the artistic movement known as Sturm und Drang, which manifested itself in the field of music through the use of minor tones, dissonance, chromaticism, and an appetite for contrasting dynamics, thus achieving dramatic changes of mood and intensity crescendos previously unheard of. This movement would lay the foundation for the Romantic conception of the symphony in the 19th century as musical drama.

JULY 14 / Friday / 21h30

ÁTRIO DA CÂMARA MUNICIPAL DE TORRES VEDRAS

2 FINALIST WORKS IN COMPETITION

C. Debussy (1862 – 1918)

Sonata no 2 para flute, viola and harp

I. Pastorale

II. Interlude

III. Finale

E. Carrapatoso (n. 1962)
Cinco canciones para ensemble y voz emocionada

I. Preludio de la noche

II. Canción (primera)

III. Rasgos
IV. Canción (segunda)

V. Pórtico

The first edition of the Darcos International Composition Prize is a transversal invitation to the community, without any age or language limit. In the wake of commissions to various composers, which have been a constant feature of the Darcos Musical Season, the challenge is now open to all those who make composition their métier. All the works in the competition have as their starting point the same musical effect of Cinco canciones para ensemble y voz emocionada, op.68, by Eurico Carrapatoso (b. 1962). Premiered on November 13, 2015, they resulted from a commission by the Lisbon Contemporary Music Group, and were dedicated to the memory of Jorge Peixinho (1940-1995) on the twentieth anniversary of his death. The sorrowful poetry of Federico García Lorca (1898-1936) gains an elegiac dimension in the affectionate lyricism drawn by Carrapatoso. To the emotional timbre of a middle-soprano, with its contrasting vocal nuances, unfolds an emotional instrumental counterpoint, full of character, true poetry without words. Close to this ambience is the sonata for flute, viola, and harp by Claude Debussy (1862-1918). In 1914, at the suggestion of the famous editor Jacques Durand (1865-1928) he started a cycle of 6 sonatas in honor of 6 French composers of the 18th century. XVIII CENTURY FRENCH COMPOSERS. However, the project was never completed because of Debussy’s death in 1918. The second of the Six sonatas for different instruments was composed in 1915, during World War I, and presents an emotionally ambiguous musical landscape. Sometimes melancholy, sometimes joyful, hazy and shimmering, it seems to fly over a world beyond emotion. Confronted with why these moods, Debussy would reply “I can’t say whether one should laugh or cry. Perhaps both at the same time?”.

Traditional Portuguese Children’s Songbook with story by Silvia Abreu

1 JUNE (Thursday), 19h30
Music at the University PUBLIC ROOM OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LISBON

3JUNE (Saturday), 16h00
MUSEUM OF MONEY, Lisbon

Various composers
A. Delgado (b. 1965)
Trio Camoniano
N. Côrte-Real (b. 1971)
Children’s Songbook “Lagarto Pintado”, op. 48

From the verses of Luís Vaz de Camões (c.1524-c.1580) to the traditional songbook of the Portuguese children’s universe, there seems to be an unbridgeable gap. On one side, the classical erudition of the poet, immersed in the melancholy of his sad fado. On the other, simple popular rhymes. But if in every child there is a poet, all the poets were children. And this double evocation eradicates one of the most recurrent traits of the human condition, the haunting of childlike innocence when faced with the difficult balance of what was done and left undone. The result of a commission from Trio Pangea to Alexandre Delgado (b.1965), Trio Camoniano was premiered at Casa da Música, Porto, on February 27, 2018. The title of the work comes from the fact that each movement has as subtitle a sorrowful verse from Camões: 1º With what voice will I cry my sad fate; 2º My mistakes, bad fortune, burning love; 3º Memória do meu bem cortado em flores. Composed in 2015 by Nuno Côrte-Real (b. 1971), the Cancioneiro Infantil Lagarto Pintado, op.48, assumes itself as a journey through the musical imaginary of many of the listeners, a small fable that derives, like a motto, from the texts of the various melodies summoned. In a luxuriant succession of elegantly interwoven musical ambiances, the harp ostinato of A Caminho de Viseu appears vaguely baroque, and the undulating motifs of Que Linda Falua recall the idyllic Mozartean trio Soave sia il vento. One senses echoes of Schubert lyricism, particularly in the introductions of Josezito, Ó Oliveira da Serra and Machadinha, to which is added the inspired Abertura-Final. Giving life to this work, with scenic conception by Catarina Rolo Salgueiro and implementation of the project by Diana Vaz, we find the Children’s Choir of the University of Lisbon. Founded in 2005 by Erica Mandillo, it has been internationally recognised for the quality and originality of its work, associating movement and theatrical gesture with an impeccable vocality.

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

APRIL 5 (wednesday ), 21h30
MARIA MATOS THEATER, Lisboa

Fados, traditional Afghan music, and two songs by Miguel Amaral (b. 1982) and Nuno Côrte-Real (b. 1971)

Marco Oliveira
voice
Miguel Amaral
portuguese guitar
Nuno Côrte-Real
musical direction and presentation
ENSEMBLE DARCOS
ANIMP – National Music Institute of Afghanistan
Süse Ribeiro
sound design

Founded in 2008, the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIMP) has been noted for its continuous work in safeguarding and transmitting the Afghan musical heritage, as well as promoting gender equality, of which the Zohra orchestra, composed of 35 women, stands out. When, on 15 August 2021, Kabul fell, music was banned by the Taliban regime. It fell to Portugal to welcome 273 refugees, including students and teachers from ANIMP. This act, of transcendental relevance, which did not receive due attention from the Portuguese civil society, made it possible to save not only human lives (especially of young girls) but also a threatened musical tradition. The cultural identity of a people is based, among other nuances, on the way it expresses itself musically. Although marked by its proximity to India and its centuries-old musical traditions, Afghan music has managed to develop its own idiom, dazzling in its distinctive nuances, which has attracted the attention of many across borders. Moreover, its impact on the younger Afghan generations has been decisive in facilitating intergenerational dialogue and the integration of women into a deeply oppressive and traditionally patriarchal society. In this intersection between musical traditions, between different languages, an intercultural dialogue is born, an itinerary that starting from music as a language common to all peoples, ends in the wonder of this encounter between many hands. Among the tinkling of rubabs, domburas and ghijaks (Afghan string instruments), we will listen to two premiere works: a fado by Miguel Amaral (b. 1982), young soloist of the Portuguese guitar and a song by Nuno Côrte-Real (b. 1971), written at the age of 19, in a “punk troubadour moment”, according to punk troubadour”, according to his own words.

Temporada Darcos presents IMPERADOR the most imposing and masterful piano concerto
by Ludwig van Beethoven

HUNGARY STATE OPERA ORCHESTRA , one of the oldest orchestras in Europe
NUNO CÔRTE-REAL, maestro
ANTÓNIO ROSADO, piano

8th March [Wednesday | 21:30]
Teatro-Cine de Torres Vedras

9th March [Thursday | 21:00]
Aula Magna of the Rectory of the University of Lisbon

Free Entry

The Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, founded by Ferenc Erkel (1810-1893), is one of the rare European ensembles with more than 180 years of continuous existence, having counted, among others, with the mythical Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) and Otto Klemperer (1885-1973) as titular maestros. Its presence among us is enriched by António Rosado, a major figure in the Portuguese musical universe, for his versatility, technical mastery and interpretative finesse. Written on the 8th March 1914, and published the following year, in the 2nd and last number of the magazine Orpheu, the poem Chuva Oblíqua by Fernando Pessoa is the starting point for Nuno Côrte-Real’s op.45. The languid spleen that runs through part VI of the poem, as well as the vivid memories of an evoked childhood, are musically taken over by a set of colours with an expressionist tendency. Piano and orchestra, sometimes in dialogue, sometimes in confrontation, in a succession of almost hypnotic atmospheres. Between June and August 1778, Mozart would write, in a single stroke, a monumental symphonic triptych deeply contrasting: symphonies no. 39, 40 and 41. Remarkable for its almost tragic emotional intensity (not by chance, it would be Mozart’s most played symphony during the Romantic period), and endowed with a melodic-harmonic apparatus equally languid, symphony no. 40 is one of the most inspired pages of Mozart’s production. Written between 1808-09, the piano concerto op.73 is the apotheosis of a creative period Beethoven called the Heroic. Just as the Symphony No. 3 (composed between 1802-04) would change the perception of what a symphony could be, the Concerto No. 5 rips the classical model to shreds, becoming the reference for the romantic generation that would follow. The virtuoso piano introduction leads into a long exposition by the orchestra, followed by a luxuriant dialogue between the two forces. Considered by many to be the most lyrical of Beethoven’s compositions, the 2nd movement presents a melody in the manner of a nocturne. The unspeakable atmospheres, of disarming musical tenderness, lead to the final exhilarating rondo. A mid-19th century critic would lapidary sum up “the most original, most inventive, most effective and most difficult of all concertos”.

Programme:

N. Côrte-Real (b. 1971)
The Whole Theatre is a White Wall of Music, op. 45

W. A . Mozart (1756 – 1791)
Symphony No. 40, in G minor, K. 550
I. Molto allegro
II. Andante
III. Menuetto: Allegretto
IV. Allegro assai

L. van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in E-flat Major, op. 73, “Emperor
I. Allegro
II. Adagio un poco mosso