Lisbon Early Music debuts in April in Lisbon’s churches – New Baroque Music cycle between April 18th and 28th – Music

Promoted by Divino Sospiro, a baroque orchestra founded in 2004 and with artistic direction by Massimo Mazzeo, the cycle proposes an itinerary through the European and Portuguese musical heritage of sacred music from the 19th century. XVIII, in period churches in Lisbon.

Always at 8:30 pm, the first three concerts of the Lisboa Música Antiga cycle take place at Capela da Bemposta, starting on April 18th.

In this first concert, German countertenor Andreas Scholl and Bosnian guitarist and lute player Edin Karamazov present a program consisting of songs from the English Baroque to Handel, and compositions by Edin Karamazov.

On April 19th, Friday, Arte Mínima presents a program that puts two very different 17th century musical universes into dialogue.

In this second concert of the Lisboa Música Antiga cycle, Arte Mínima is made up of Nuno Raimundo (tenor), Luís Neiva (bass), Carlos Sánchez, Emma Crumpton, Moisés Maroto, Rita Rodríguez, and Sára Simény (flutes) and Pedro Sousa Silva ( flutes and direction).

In the program, the instrumental polyphony of Leonora Duarte (1610-1678), of a domestic, feminine, instrumental and Protestant nature, will alternate with the austerity of the cathedral sounds of Matins for Holy Week, which narrate episodes from the last days of Christ.

Saturday, April 20th, is the turn of the Americantiga Ensemble and soloists from the Orquestra Barroca de Mateus to present Mozart’s Requiem at the Cathedral of Évora. This original program consists of a historical Portuguese version of Mozart’s famous Requiem for four singers, solo cello, two bassoons and organ, according to manuscripts from the first years of the 20th century. XIX found in the Cathedral of Évora and transcribed by Ricardo Bernardes.

With artistic direction by Ricardo Bernardes, the Americantiga Ensemble and the Soloists of the Orquestra Barroca de Mateus are made up, in this concert, of Mariana Castello-Branco (soprano), Arthur Filemon (alto), Frederico Projecto (tenor), Hugo de Oliveira (bass ), Pedro Massarrão (baroque cello), Nathaniel Harrison (baroque bassoon), Joana Almeida (baroque bassoon), Duncan Fox (double bass) and Sérgio Silva (organ).

The Lisboa Música Antiga cycle continues the following week, on April 26th, Friday, with the fourth concert taking place at the Convento dos Cardaes, a living convent that welcomes Divino Sospiro for a program around the composer Benedetto Marcello, one of the most representative musicians of 19th century Venice. XVIII. Due to its artistic and historical value, the work proposed in the program deserves to be heard again.

With artistic direction by Massimo Mazzeo, Divino Sospiro performs in this concert with Teodoro Baú (viola de Gamba), Francesco Tomasi (teorba), Lucia Di Nicola (harpsichord) and is accompanied by soprano Mariana Castello Branco.

And 30 years after having performed in Lisbon as an organist, the famous Dutch maestro Ton Koopman returns to the city on April 27th, in his first and truest vocation, for a concert at the Basilica of the Martyrs, the penultimate of the Lisbon Early Music cycle. .

The last time Lisbon was able to attend an organ concert by Ton Koopman was in 1994, at the inauguration after restoration of the great Iberian organ, the work of António Xavier Machado e Cerveira, which dominates the high choir of the Basilica of the Martyrs, in Chiado.

Ton Koopman will once again sit on that same organ, with which he has always maintained an affectionate and fascinating connection, to present a program that is a kaleidoscopic journey through the incomparable possibilities of this “king of musical instruments”.

Lisboa Música Antiga closes the cycle on April 28th, with a new opportunity to listen to Mozart’s Requiem from the Cathedral of Évora, again by the same formation of the Americantiga Ensemble and soloists from the Orquestra Barroca de Mateus, and now at the Igreja do Sacramento.