ANTÓNIO VICTORINO D'ALMEIDA - Sinfonia nº1

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ANTÓNIO VICTORINO D\'ALMEIDA

“Sinfonia nº1”, op. 21 (DEDICADA AO SPORT LISBOA E BENFICA)

“O Judeu”, op. 34

“Memórias de Amanhã”, op. 99

“Abertura Clássica”, op. 87

This cd joints four orchestral pieces of António Victorino D'Almeida, among which SINFONIA Nº1, dedicated to Sport Lisboa e Benfica.

Sinfonia Nº1 and Memórias do Amanhã were directed by António Victorino D'Almeida while O Judeu and Abertura Clássica were directed by Álvaro Cassuto.

Details:

ANTÓNIO VICTORINO D'ALMEIDA

“Sinfonia nº1”, op. 21

“O Judeu”, op. 34

“Memórias de Amanhã”, op. 99

“Abertura Clássica”, op. 87

The composition and the first edition of Symphony No. 1 was intended to celebrate the centennial of the great football club of Benfica and also the universality of the superbly conceived game of football – today, there are few true artists who have yet to succumb to its aesthetic fascination…

Symphony No. 1 (“Benfica”), op. 21, was basically constructed with memories of my childhood. It even uses some themes that come from that time, and that, for one reason or another, I never used, at least in pieces that had at some point existed as finished.

And it is for this reason that I gave it an opus number that does not coincide in any way with its definitive date of creation – and in chronological terms, it even conflicts with the opus numbers of the other works which make up this CD: O Judeu [The Jew], op. 34, Memórias de Amanhã [Memories of Tomorrow], op. 99, and Abertura Clássica [Classical Overture], op. 87.

Essentially, the theme of these four pieces is memory.

The memory of the nights which preceded the anxiously awaited Sunday when my father had promised to take me to the game – and also the memory of those diffuse moments, between dream and reality, that preceded falling asleep, in which my mind was already filled with images of the full stadium, the colorful scarves, the cardboard hats sold at the gate, the man who rented pillows to protect us from the cold of the stone benches, the burlesque show of arguments between fans of this or that team, the hollow sound of the kicks and that of the ball as it entered in the goal, rolling gently in the nets… 

That is the memory from the first movement.

In the second, I remember the speckling of broom shrubs that bordered the street along Mount Monsanto, in a contrast between the rustic tranquility of the landscape and the determined advance of the cars in search of a better space in the parking lots, also delineated at that time by long and aromatic lines of Eucalyptus trees…

Many times my mother came with us. She brought the dog “Cachucha” with her and she stayed in the car, listening to music, reading a book – and breathing the perfumed breeze that agitated the treetops, until the game had ended…

My terror was the chance of rain…And I remember one obstinately rainy morning when, having put aside the possibility of going to the game, we went to the Cathedral of Lisbon, where I had never been before…We stopped in front of the baptismal font, with its painted tiles containing the figure of St. Anthony, and my mother, noting my melancholic and uncomfortable air, took me to the edge of the railing and said to me:

“Look, ask St. Anthony for it to stop raining, since he sometimes does those sorts of things…”

When we left the Cathedral, the sun had unexpectedly begun to shine again, and we ended up going to the stadium – and that is the memory of the third movement.

And in the fourth movement, the great party of the game is duly described, the glory of that unique spectacle which always hold new surprises. 

The second piece, O Judeu, is also a memory, but in the sense of creating a fundamental warning: it is necessary and urgent not to forget what happened to figures like António José da Silva, the Jew – so that such ignominies never happen again.

The joy of life of a man whose profession it was to give happiness to others through street theater, is slowly and perversely destroyed, first through the suspicion of accusations, then by the interrogation and torture of the Inquisition, until the consummation of the crime, his death, burned at the stake.

It so happens that people’s memory is short…an innocent was murdered, his death was lamented, but time passes and all is forgotten: they pray for his soul and life goes on, as if nothing had happened…

A work commissioned by João Pereira Bastos for the Festival de Macau, Memórias de Amanhã, idealized yesterday – and evokes today...-what memory will be left from a five-hundred year relationship between two peoples, two cultures, two ways of feeling: the Chinese and the Portuguese?

On the Eastern side, it will be the retaking of a territory that never really stopped being theirs and the official sanctioning of the indisputable right to replant and develop thousand-year-old traditions: Macau is in China.

But on the Western side, it will be the longing sense of an announced separation and the seeing beforehand of what will inevitably become a human remembrance, an authentic emotion – and not only in an historical document. 

Finally, the Abertura Clássica was, in a way, a bet with someone who had forgotten that traditional Portuguese music is profoundly European and that it could be used as the basis for a compositional by any classical composer of any other country, namely by one Schubert… 

Here also, the memory of reality must not be lost.

They are compositions from different times, but in which I never hesitate to compose in my own way, with freedom, without reactionary prejudices from tonality or atonality, using the sounds, the timbres, the harmonies, the melodic designs, the consonances or the dissonances which best serve the ideas that I am trying to express.

It is obvious that this is not program music and is in no way destined to tell any sort of story; but this does not preclude the translation of ideas and emotions, since art is a language, and I consider it extremely regrettable when it is spoken in order to say nothing... 

The main characteristic of these four scores lies precisely in the way that they leap from one atmosphere to another without ever manifesting a rupture of stylistic unity, since – with the obvious exception of the acknowledged classicism of the last piece…- there is always a single style.

Whether you like it or not, - it is my style.

António Victorino D’Almeida

(translation: Fredrick Gifford)

“Sinfonia nº1”, op. 21 - (dedicada ao S. L. Benfica)

1 1º Andamento 07’12’’

2 2º Andamento 08’36’’

3 3º Andamento 05’45’’

4 4º Andamento 06’30’’

Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra

direcção: António Victorino D’Almeida

5 “O Judeu”, op. 34 18’08’’

Nova Filarmonia Portuguesa

direcção: Álvaro Cassuto

6 “Memórias de Amanhã”, op. 99 18’51’’

Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa

direcção: Álvaro Cassuto

7 “Abertura Clássica”, op. 87 11’48’’

Bruckner Orchester Linz

direcção: António Victorino D’Almeida

Total: 76’47’’

Ref.: NUM_1160