Orquestra Gulbenkian and Drumming - Grupo de Percussão
with Matchume Zango (Timbila de Moçambique)
Pedro Neves (conductor)
18 Jun 2011 - 21:30
Open-Air Amphitheatre
Admission 18 €
Classical music is the property of the western upper classes and represents the highest expression of all musical traditions created by man. Is this true? Not really. In music, as in life, everything is interconnected. To consider our own culture, more precisely a small part of it, as the icing on the cake is not only ignorant, but absurd. The roots and tentacles of classical music spread far and wide.
This concert, performed by a symphony orchestra and percussion group, takes us on a journey through space and time. Steve Reich sets the tone: a drum is beaten by a man. This could be the first sound of wood being cut for the fireplace. Then another man joins in, responding to the first – and we have communication, we have music. Music that, from its roots in Africa, has developed through time in a very diversified way. It's very simple. It may have become more complex in Xenakis' 'formalised music', based on the elaborate calculation of mathematical probabilities. But we do not hear algorithms, we hear sounds and combinations of sounds and rhythms. After all, Xenakis was a romantic who also loved Brahms.
In this concert, performed under night skies, we are embraced by the sounds moving around us, aroused by the origins of music and a vision of the unknown. You can call it the future if you want.
Program
Steve Reich: Drumming: Part I
Marlos Nobre: Concerto N.º 2 para Percussão e Orquestra, OPUS 109a (2011)
Sem Autor: Timbila, Música Africana para Percussão
Iannis Xenakis: Pithoprakta
Gyorgy Ligeti: Romanian Concerto