Lopes-Graça em Pessoa | Song and Piano Recital
Composer Fernando Lopes-Graça (1906-1994) and poet Fernando Pessoa are two of the great names of 20th-century Portuguese culture. Yet the meeting point between their work remains little known to the wider public.
Between 1936 and 1987, Lopes-Graça wrote 27 songs based on poems by Pessoa and his heteronyms. The heteronyms are the distinct literary personas, such as Ricardo Reis and Álvaro de Campos, under which the poet wrote. Composed over more than five decades, these songs follow the composer through different stages of his artistic and political journey. They also reflect his ambition to create a Portuguese tradition of art song, or lied.
To mark the 120th anniversary of Lopes-Graça’s birth, the Museu da Música Portuguesa (Museum of Portuguese Music) – Casa Verdades de Faria presents “Lopes-Graça em Pessoa”, a recital by singer André Henriques and pianist Philippe Marques. The recital brings this remarkable collection of songs to life by performing it live in full, something that has never been done in the decades since it was written.
Music and poetry come together in songs that evoke the sea, love, pain and loneliness, as well as the “gentle stirrings of hope and will”.
Free admission, subject to venue capacity.
Information and reservations: +351 214 815 904 | mmp@cm-cascais.pt
Fernando Lopes-Graça (1906-1994)
Nove Odes de Ricardo Reis (1987)
Três Canções de Fernando Pessoa (1950)
Tomámos a Vila Depois de um Intenso Bombardeamento (1960)
Viagens na Minha Terra (1954)
R. Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Four Poems by Fredegond Shove (1925)
Fernando Lopes-Graça (1906-1994)
O Menino da Sua Mãe (1936)
Quatro Momentos de Álvaro de Campos (1987)
André Henriques graduated in Singing from the Conservatório Nacional in Lisbon. He then studied at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama on a Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation scholarship. His recent roles include:
- Don Giovanni, with the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa
- Macaco (A Canção do Bandido) and Lavrador (Trilogia das Barcas), at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos
- Enfermeiro Peres (Rigor Mortis) and Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), at Operafest Lisboa
- The bass-baritone part in Die Schöpfung, with the Gulbenkian Orchestra
- The Officer (The Penal Colony), at the Teatro São Luiz
In recital, he has performed Winterreise with Nuno Vieira de Almeida and songs set to poems by Camões with João Paulo Santos.
Philippe Marques graduated with top marks from the Conservatório Nacional and the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa. He performs regularly at many of Portugal’s leading venues, including the Teatro São Luiz, CCB, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, the Teatro da Trindade and the Theatro Circo. He has also performed in Brazil, France and the USA.
His discography includes around ten CDs, both solo and with chamber ensembles, among them a recording of J. D. Bomtempo’s complete piano sonatas. As a soloist, he has worked with several orchestras and conductors, including Vasco Pearce de Azevedo, Tiago Oliveira and Martim Sousa Tavares. He also appears regularly in recitals broadcast by RTP/Antena 2.
