Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa continues its itinerant bet on decentralisation. After Caldas da Rainha, this Thursday, OML will take the Sinfonia Eroica to Águeda on Saturday, in a very special concert for the conductor Pedro Neves, who returns to his home town.
“Yes, it is a visit to my origins”. This is how Pedro Neves, maestro of Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra and artistic director of Metropolitana, faces the trip to Águeda, where on Saturday, at 21h30, OML will perform at the Arts Centre.
The Symphony No. 3, Op. 55, Eroica, by Beethoven, is the highlight of the programme, which also includes the Overture Coriolano, Op. 62 by the German composer and the premiere of the work In Paradisum – Nam qui morietur solus, by Luís Cardoso, composer also born in Águeda.
“It is a journey that I like to take frequently, revisiting the path travelled, solidifying the vertebral column, so that it gains more strength and energy for the challenges of the present and the future”, says Pedro Neves. The maestro recalls that it was in Travassô, a parish in the municipality of Águeda, that he had his first contacts with music. “The April 12th Philharmonic Orchestra was where everything started. Today, only one word makes sense and translates the feeling of those memories: gratitude”, he continues.
The fact that OML is sponsoring the premiere of a work by the composer Luís Cardoso is justified. “It is our simple homage to this town that treats music so well, creating human beings capable, through art, of being better every day”.
The Councillor for Culture of Águeda City Hall does not hide her happiness to see the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra performing live. “For us, it is a great pride to have OML in a performance at the Arts Centre. But even more when it is conducted by a local son like Pedro Neves. Pedro is a very special person, with unique characteristics, who has made a remarkable career and that makes us very happy”, says Elsa Corga.
The mayor also praises the “talent and personality” of the composer Luís Cardoso, who will have his work premiered by OML: “Luís Cardoso is a very dear person to all of us. He is very talented and has created works of great quality, which is another relevant factor for the Saturday night concert”.