Heures Romantiques, Op

Chula is a percussive Portuguese folk dance dating back at least to the 18th century and inspiring in Vianna da Motta music of rhythmic vitality. The set is completed by the Valsa Caprichosa, which lives up to its name, the waltz’s momentum toyed with during a succession of subtly shifting tempi and moods.

Catalan composer and critic Xavier Montsalvatge was one of the most important Spanish composers of the 20th century, studying in Barcelona and winning all of his country’s offi cial composition prizes. A theatrical temperament attracted him to genres such as ballet and he collaborated with prominent singers including Victoria de los Ángeles and Montserrat Caballé, but he also cultivated a compositional language that embraced an array of forms and styles. An early interest in twelve-tone techniques and Wagner gave way to the infl uence of Olivier Messiaen and Georges Auric, with both of whom he was in regular contact, and he later absorbed the techniques of the avant-garde.

Many of Montsalvatge’s works were written after the Spanish Civil War and show the modernist infl uence of his early teachers incorporated into his own individual voice; he was also a devoted admirer of Manuel de Falla, but balanced his desire to promote distinctive Spanish qualities in his music with a fi erce, humanist intellect. Montsalvatge was adamant in resisting twee depictions of Spanish and its related cultures, explaining that he sought “to free myself from [regional] accents and Andalusian fl avour, the window to a picturesque style that horrifi es me”. Montsalvatge was particularly drawn to Cuban music, which he brought into a number of his works, and his compositional procedures extended to ethnomusicology as he transcribed and adapted the music of the coastal people of Catalonia. He said of this meticulous process that “... to write down the melodies and the lyrics of what I wanted to select was very hard for me and put to test all my experience. At that time the magnetophone didn’t exist (or had not reached us yet) and we had to write it down by dictation from each of the interpretations”.

In common with his fellow Catalan composer Federico Mompou, Montsalvatge combined childlike, naïve melodies with chromatic harmonies in a number of his pieces. The Sonatine pour Yvette (1962), composed for his daughter, is a fi ne example of this approach, blending diatonic melodies that evoke nursery rhymes or children’s games with sliding chromatic triads in the left hand and propulsive syncopation. The result is vividly colourful in a way that reveals Messiaen’s infl uence in particular; the dream-like second movement gives way to a fi endishly quick fi nale that playfully quotes Mozart’s ‘Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman’ theme, and this good humour characterises the remainder of the movement, which ends with a witty fl ourish.

Joanna Wyld

I was born in northern Portugal and started my formal musical training at age 12 at the Academia de Música de S. Pio X in my hometown of Vila do Conde. Before that, I attended a small music community school founded by the Parish’s priest whose main goals were to keep the kids away from the streets and have someone to play at the church’s services. I was far from knowing that those practices would give me rather crucial knowledge and tools for my future. When I was 15 or 16, playing the famous A major Intermezzo by Brahms at a lesson with legendary pianist Vitaly Margulis, he wisely explained that our fi ngers should work as ten pencils of different colours: the magic starts when we mix them. These words still echo in my mind to this day. That was a turning point and I realised that I needed more than two to three hours a week of practice! My studies led me to the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa with Tania Achot and to the University of Kansas, where I studied for nearly a decade with the person who played the most signifi cant role in my artistic life: Sequeira Costa. There were several other teachers who also moulded my musical personality: Helena Sá e Costa, Luiz de Moura Castro, Andrei Diev, Vladimir Viardo, Aldo Ciccolini, Paul BaduraSkoda and Dmitri Bashkirov. After completing my Doctorate in the USA, I settled in Lisbon, where I began teaching. I’m currently the Head of the Piano Department of the National Academy of Orchestral Studies – Metropolitana. Most of my music studies were only possible due to the huge efforts of my parents and through several scholarships, particularly from the Gulbenkian Foundation and the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia. I believe that my late, untraditional introduction to music created a healthier relationship between myself and the piano. I don’t feel bad if I go one week (or three!) without playing. I know it will always be there for me, but I enjoy many other things, especially spending time with my children Clara and Duarte and my wife Alice.

Paulo Oliveira

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Sendo este o meu álbum de estreia, quis mergulhar nas minhas raízes e expressar os meus sentimentos e pensamentos da forma mais genuína e autêntica. Este programa representa uma viagem pela música ibérica para piano, com compositores e obras que, de alguma forma, marcaram o meu percurso artístico. Começa e termina com duas obras de construção mais formal, funcionando como alicerces de todo o programa: as Sonatinas de Armando José Fernandes e Xavier Montsalvatge. Num estilo mais livre, as suites nacionalistas de Isaac Albéniz (España) e José Vianna da Motta (Cenas Portuguesas) representam imagens, paisagens, danças ou cenas típicas do quotidiano ibérico. Tendo dois compositores de cada país, senti a necessidade de procurar um elo entre eles: um elemento que criasse uma ponte entre as duas culturas. Ninguém melhor do que Pedro Blanco representa a fusão entre a música espanhola e portuguesa para piano. Nascido em Espanha, onde formou a sua personalidade musical e artística, mudou-se para Portugal, passando aí grande parte da sua curta vida adulta. Realizou importantes intercâmbios culturais entre os dois países, assumindo um papel fulcral na criação e desenvolvimento de um Iberianismo cultural contemporâneo. As três peças de Pedro Blanco incluídas neste álbum têm a particularidade de serem dedicadas a artistas portugueses. Sequeira Costa é tido como um dos grandes intérpretes da música ibérica para piano. Os anos que passei sob a sua orientação e a sua abordagem muito particular a este repertório, deixaram uma profunda marca na minha forma de tocar. Recordo-o no momento em que partilho esta gravação com vocês.

Paulo Oliveira