A. Fragoso (1897-1918)
Petite Suite
1. Prelude
2. Berceuse
3. Dance
Nocturne in des-majeur
J.G. Daddi (1813-1887)
Tarantelle
Chant du gondolier, barcarolle
J. Vianna da Motta (1868-1948)
Adeus minha terra, barcarola [Farewell, my village, barcarolle]
Balada sobre duas Melodias Portuguesas [ballade on two Portuguese melodies], op. 16
A. Napoleão (1852-1917)
Légend (Legend from Beira) op.39
T. Marques (1963–)
5 preludes
In memoriam Alexander Scriabin
In memoriam Dmitri Shostakovich
In memoriam Carl Nielsen
In memoriam Frederico Mompou
In memoriam Sergei Prokofiev
F. Lucena Pais (2004-)
Hommage aan Camões *world premiere
This program offers us a perspective on Portuguese piano music from the great age of Romanticism to the present day. It revolves around two axes: the first is a tribute to Luís de Camões on the occasion of his 500th birthday, with a work by Francisco Lucena Pais, which will have its world premiere at this recital. It was written especially for this recital. The second axis is that of the Legends from the Portuguese province of Beira, a work composed around 1890 by the virtuoso pianist from Porto, Alfredo Napoleão. It is inspired by the Third Canto of the epic poem "Os Lusíadas," written by Camões—more concretely, the tragic story of Inês de Castro. And since these composers are also virtuoso pianists, this program also features works by João Guilherme Daddi, an extraordinary pianist; António Fragoso, a brilliant composer who died prematurely from influenza; and Vianna da Motta, a major figure in Portuguese music and culture. The five preludes dedicated to António Oliveira by Talmo Marques will be performed.
António Oliveira began his music studies at the Music Academy of Vilar do Paraíso. He earned his Bachelor's degree at the Porto University of Music and Performing Arts. As part of the Socrates/Erasmus program, he studied at the Hochschule der Kunst in Berlin. He continued his studies at the Hartt School, University of Hartford, Connecticut, USA, where he earned a Master of Music degree with the grade 10 in the class of Luiz de Moura Castro. He completed his studies with Helena Sá e Costa, Jaime Mota, Pedro Burmester, Mikail Pethukov, Carla Giudici, and Emanuel Ax. He received an honorable mention at the Maria Campina Competition and was a finalist in the Emerson String Quartet Competition.
Back in Portugal, he was accepted after a public selection process at the Porto Conservatory of Music, where he taught piano and coordinated the keyboard department. He was also a pianist with the Porto House Music Theatre. His career took him to Spain, France, Germany, Finland, Turkey, Canada, and the United States. He has played in important concert halls and festivals in Portugal and has recorded music for Portuguese radio RTP and RDP Antena2. He has recorded two CDs of 21st-century Portuguese music with clarinetist António Rosa. This duo, Projecto XXI, won the prize for best chamber music group at the 2007 Lleida Music Festival. He is the founder of PORTriO with clarinetist Filipe Pereira and violist Hugo Diogo. Their first CD was released in October 2013. He has conducted piano masterclasses at the Vila do Conde Conservatory of Music, the São João da Madeira Academy of Music, the Ateneu Comercial in Porto, the Viseu Conservatory of Music, the IKFEM Festival in Tui/Valença, and the Instituto Gregoriano in Lisbon. With soprano Ana Barros, he premiered and recorded the works Cicuta and Sept Épigrammes de Platon by composer António Chagas Rosa.
His discography includes three solo CDs: "Chopin & Liszt," "Ravel & Janacék," and "Schumann & Rachmaninoff," which have been well received by both audiences and critics. Rui Vieira Nery wrote about "Chopin & Liszt":
I listened with great pleasure to this new CD by a pianist from Porto, António Oliveira, whom I was unfamiliar with. Everything on the CD is excellent, especially some of Liszt's magnificent "Petrarch Sonnets," which compelled me to stop working and held my attention from beginning to end. In his biography, I saw that he was a student of Sofia Lourenço, Luiz Moura Castro, and Laszlo Simon, and that sound training is clearly evident, with a full and rounded sonority and an impressive legacy in terms of thematic design. Definitely worth listening.
"Schumann & Rachmaninoff" was awarded the silver medal for Outstanding Achievement at the 2023 Global Music Awards. António Oliveira gave the world premiere of composer Telmo Marques's Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra. He recorded Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra as a guest on the "Música Maestro" program, presented by conductor Rui Massena, for the RTP. He has performed solo with the Orquestra Sinfónica de Cascais, the Orquestra Clássica do Centro, the Orquestra Clássica da Madeira, the Orquestra do Norte, the Orquestra Sinfónica da ESART, and with Fundação Orquestra Estúdio under the baton of conductors Nikolay Lalov, Sérgio Alapont, Rui Massena, Sandor Gyudi, and Miguel Graça Moura. He received his doctorate in Educational Sciences summa cum laude from the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, with the highest honors.
More information: Oliveira
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