Portuguese Music for Piano Duo

JOSÉ VIANA DA MOTA (1868-1948): Souvenirs, Op. 7, FERNANDO LOPES-GRAÇA (1906-1994): Melodias rústicas portuguesas (Book 3), ANTÓNIO VICTORINO D’ALMEIDA (b.1940): Balada, Op. 126, FERNANDO C. LAPA (b.1950): Storyboard*, SÉRGIO AZEVEDO (b.1968): Sonatina*. * - First Recordings.

Description: The album opens fittingly with a set of Portuguese folk melody treatments by Lopes-Graça, the third in his three-volume set being dedicated exclusively to piano four hands. Immediately, the national color welcomes listeners to the distinct ethnicity of Europe’s far southwestern corner, a historic and pre-historic crossroads for Celtic, Roman, Gothic and Moorish cultures. This is followed by the Sonatina of his student, Azevedo, bristling with the Neoclassicism he inherited from Lopes-Graça. Then to the wellspring, Viana da Mota’s Opus 7, singing with a Mendelssohnian lyricism, yet nonetheless tinged with the innate longing of the Portuguese soul. The expressionistic, effusive atonality of Lapa’s Storyboard returns the listener to the modern era, and to finish, Victorino d’Almeida’s heartfelt Ballad (for a child about to be born) embraces melody and tonality once again, from a post-modern vantage point. Luís Duarte, Lígia Madeira (piano).