For his first concert as Principal Conductor, Martim Sousa Tavares proposes a programme which contains some of the main guiding principles of what will be the artistic and musical orientation of the Orquestra Clássica do Sul for the next triennium.
Firstly, the Principal Conductor intends the OCS to relate to its time, its space, as well as its community. This vision has been present since January 2023, with the concert programmes chosen to open the year, for the Three Kings' Day concert or in chamber music, with evident diversity and equity between authors whose music we now discover and remember.
It is in this perspective that the concert opens with The Unanswered Question by Charles Ives, one of the most paradigmatic and profound works of modernism. One of those that will stand the test of time. A score that makes us question the state of things, just as art can and knows how to do so well.
Then, without interruption, Ives' music will turn into Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, by the British Ralph Vaughan Williams. Here, the message is different. It is about the importance of preserving the connection to the past, keeping traditions alive through a fresh look. In the coming years, OCS will be characterised by an organic relationship with the music of all times, bringing a fresh approach to what, for other orchestras, might be routine and more of the same. Basically, "seeing all things new", as Ignatius of Loyola said, and as Vaughan Williams did by transforming this almost 500-year-old music into something new and surprising, which we always listen as if for the first time.
Finally, the celebration. Because music is also a meeting ritual and seeing a live orchestra should be a reason to rejoice. The work chosen for this purpose is Beethoven's Fourth Symphony, music of excellence that crosses the most varied states of the human psyche, leading listeners on a journey that will end high-spirited by the virtuosity of the OCS musicians, who are, all the time, the main characters in the story of excellence that OCS has been telling for over 20 years.
Programme
CHARLES IVES (1874-1954)
The Unanswered Question
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958)
Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis
(Break)
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major, Op. 60
60 minutes, Duration
Orquestra Clássica do Sul
Martim Sousa Tavares, Chief Conductor
05/02 (sunday)
FARO
Teatro das Figuras
6 pm
Tickets: 10€ > www.bol.pt
Informations: T: 289 888 100
Orquestra Clássica do Sul e Teatro das Figuras , Organization
____
MARTIM SOUSA TAVARES - CHIEF CONDUCTOR
Martim Sousa Tavares was born in Lisbon in 1991.
Graduated in Music Science and Orchestral Conducting between Lisbon, Milan, and Chicago, he completed his academic path with honours and Fulbright and Eckstein Foundation scholarships.
He founded in 2014 in Brescia the Orchestra di Maggio, followed in 2019 by the Orquestra Sem Fronteiras, based in Idanha-a-Nova and which has performed in over 100 venues between Portugal, Spain, and Brazil, having won in 2022 the Charlemagne Youth Prize of the European Parliament and the Mirpuri Foundation music award.
He is the chief conductor of Orquestra Clássica do Sul since January 2023 and his recent activity includes concerts with the Romanian National Radio Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras and Orquestra do Norte.
He is very active in the field of cultural communication, having signed more than 150 programmes in RTP2, RTP Palco and Antena 2. In the Observador newspaper he maintains a newsletter and a weekly podcast: the most listened to in Portugal in the field of music.
He collaborates regularly with the theatre and, as an author, the following works stand out: the music for Vita & Virginia, presented at Teatro São Luiz in 2021, the children's opera O Anel do Unicórnio, premiered in 2021 and presented in seven cities, and Uma Outra Bela Adormecida, based on the short story by Agustina Bessa-Luís, in a co-production of Teatro Nacional de São João, Lu.Ca - Teatro Luís de Camões, Cineteatro Louletano and Centro Cultural Raiano which will premier in January 2023.
In the field of artistic direction, he conceived A Boca do Lobo, a classical music cycle at Lux-Frágil, took over the coordination of the cultural programme of Aveiro's application to become the European capital of culture in 2027 and will be the director of the Sintra Festival from 2023.
