31 May Monographic album of Fernando Lopes-Graça
N Studio Lisbon, together with the conductor and cellist Bruno Borralhinho, produced the monographic album of the portuguese composer, conductor and musicologist Fernando Lopes-Graça.
“In the essay “Sobre o conceito de música portuguesa” (On the concept of portuguese music) in 1941, Lopes-Graça defends an “ethnic-aesthetic” criterion, but insists that the decisive criterion is the aesthetic one, reconciling the specificity of traditional music with “the conquests of modern musical technique”. Hence, Lopes-Graça is interested above all in that which traditional music conserves of the “rustic”, by what is archaic in it, considered “rude” or “barbaric”, and that he even emphasizes in its harmonic, rhythmic, prosodic, expressive treatment, etc. His aesthetic vision as composer identifies precisely with these transgressive elements, after all inherent to his own demand for a modern musical language. In this way, Lopes-Graça breaks not only with the academic tradition in the approach of material of popular origin, but also with the notion of “portuguese music” or “national music” as it was conveyed by the mass culture with official endorsement. He counterposes to the given national identity an alternative national identity, an alterity.” by Mário Vieira de Carvalho
Recorded by N Studio Lisbon team at Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in November 2021 and Centro Cultural de Cascais in December 2021.
The album is available here:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mM3lwB1ER9k2H96Cr5c16J5oEk3GDT824
You can listen to an excerpt here: