Music in dialog with history. This is what Berta Alves de Sousa – one of the first women to conduct an orchestra in Portugal – did when she premiered this work evocative of the 16th century Portuguese navigator at the Crystal Palace in 1950. At different times, Thomas Adès (2006) and Maurice Ravel (1914-1917) proposed diffuse impressions of Baroque music on the pretext of the figure of François Couperin, the most important French composer between Lully and Rameau. Adès recreated himself in a commotion of fragments. Ravel did so ironically, recalling lost friends from the First World War. Memories aside, it’s also an opportunity to get to know the winner of this year’s Francisco de Lacerda Composition Prize.
Cistermúsica Fronteiras
Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra
T. Adès Three Studies Inspired by Couperin
Berta Alves de Sousa Vasco da Gama, symphonic poem
Winner of the 3rd Edition of the Francisco de Lacerda Composition Prize
M. Ravel Le tombeau de Couperin
Conductor Bruno Borralhinho
Photo: Bruno Borralhinho ©BjoernKadenbach
