Vianna da Motta - Ballada

Carlos Seixas - Toccata in D minor

José António Carlos de Seixas (1704 - 1742 ), was a portuguese composer, organist and harpsichordist.
Seixas was born in Coimbra. He succeeded his father as organist in 1718 at age fourteen, and two years later moved to Lisbon, where he gave harpsichord lessons and met Domenico Scarlatti, who was living in Portugal from 1721 to 1728. It is claimed that when the king's son, Dom António, arranged for Scarlatti to give Seixas harpsichord lessons, Scarlatti replied that it was Seixas who should give him lessons. Seixas later became organist in the court chapel and Lisbon cathedral as well as court composer. He was knighted in 1738 by the king João V.

Carlos Seixas

José António Carlos de Seixas (1704 - 1742 ), was a portuguese composer, organist and harpsichordist.

Seixas was born in Coimbra. He succeeded his father as organist in 1718 at age fourteen, and two years later moved to Lisbon, where he gave harpsichord lessons and met Domenico Scarlatti, who was living in Portugal from 1721 to 1728. It is claimed that when the king's son, Dom António, arranged for Scarlatti to give Seixas harpsichord lessons, Scarlatti replied that it was Seixas who should give him lessons. Seixas later became organist in the court chapel and Lisbon cathedral as well as court composer. He was knighted in 1738 by the king João V.

Seixas was influenced by the German Empfindsamer Stil (literally 'sensitive style'), but he also added his own portuguese style. Much of his work was destroyed in the earthquake that devastated Lisbon in 1755. Only three orchestral pieces and around 100 keyboard sonatas survived, plus a handful of choral works for liturgical use (much more conservative than what one would expect from his instrumental music).

Brasilakas No 2, André Lamounier

Brasilakas is one of the 10 pieces for piano. This work describes the singing of Amazonia’s birds in opposition with the frenetical cities rhythm. Tecnicaly, the accompaniment used ilustrates the cars movements and the city noises while the right hand represents the birds of the forests in a peaceful duel (melody) and agitated (harmony). 

 

André Lamounier

Pianist, arranger, instrumentalist, conductor and composer of many music styles, André Lamounier (Brasil) shows some of his compositions for piano, orchestra and singing. With over 500 songs written by him, among plays for ballet, opera, small, medium and big orchestras, his creation covers various kinds of music. His work goes from erudite to pop music and in some moments his music engages both styles. Concerts, sound tracks, documentaries, musicals, compositions for different instruments, singing for classical and pop music are part of the versatility of this musician that shows nimbleness, class, and above all, respect to the melody in any composition he works on. His main goal is to let the audience understand the lyricism and the exuberant way to express the feelings through the art of working with sensations. His tool... the music. Very respected in the Brazilian artistic world, Andre Lamounier has got critics signed by many directors from cultural institutions, such as: • Maestro Isaac Karabtchevsky • René Gouedic • José Arnaldo Fernandes da Costa Bello – Brazilian Music Conservatory Recently, he’s been creating sound tracks for movies and documentaries. André Lamounier brings to you moments of magic, involving sensations that only music can provide.

Sigismund Thalberg

Three Preludes, George Gershwin

George Gershwin

George Gershwin (1898 –1937) was an american pianist and

composer. He had a few piano teachers, but his main professor was Charles Hambitzer, who introduced him to classical music. Also he studied with Rubin Goldmark and Henry Cowell.

Gershwin stayed in Paris for a short period of time during which he applied to study composition with the famous instructor Nadia Boulanger. He admired Debussy and Ravel, as we find their influences in Gershwin’s music. Growing tired of the Parisian musical scene, Gershwin returned to the United States.

He was a composer with an extreme ability to manipulate forms of music into his own unique voice, mixing american music popular as jazz into the «classical style». Some his works includes Rhapsody in Blue, an American in Paris, and the opera Porg and Bessy.

75th anniversary of the death of composer George Gershwin

Gershwin isn't an unknown composer, but since this year is Gershwin's celebration, MusiDescobrir will record some of his works.

Vianna da Motta - Au bord du lac de Pena

Vianna da Motta

José Vianna da Motta (1868 – 1948) was a portuguese composer and pianist.

He started his musical studies in Conservatório Nacional (Lisbon).  With the support of king D. Fernando and Condessa d’Edla , he went to Berlin to continue his studies. He worked with Xaver Scharwenka, Philip Scharwenka and Carl Schaeffer. Also he worked with Franz Liszt and Hans Von Bullow.

Vianna da Motta was very renowed for his musical interpretations.  He was the first pianist to play all the Beethoven’s sonatas in Portugal.

As a composer, he wrote in a romantic style, being almost his works for piano. Some of his works includes Portuguese Rhpasodies, Ballade op. 16 and the symphonie À Pátria.

Alfredo Casella - Toccata

Alfredo Casella

Alfredo Casella (1883-1947) was an italian pianist and composer.

He was raised into a music family. His grandfather was the first celist in «São Carlos Theather» (Lisbon) and in Royal Chapel (Turim). His father, Carlo Casella, was a celist and his mother  was Casella’s first teacher,

In 1896, Casella went to Paris to follow his musical studies; he worked with Louis Diémer (piano) and Gabril Fauré (composition). During his Parisian period, Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky, and Manuel de Falla were acquaintances, and he was in contact with Ferruccio Busoni, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Strauss as well.

Altough he admired Debussy’s works, Casella pursued a more romantic vein.  He wrote for piano, orchestral and chamber music. Some of his best known compositions includes A Notte Alta, the Sonatina, Nove Pezzi, and the Six Studies, Op. 70, for piano

Nino Rota

Italian composer Nino Rota was born in Milan, 3 December 1911 and died in Rome, 10 April 1979. Rota grew up surrounded by music: His mother, Ernesta Rinaldi, was a pianist. He began composing at eight, establishing himself as a composer in 1923, with his oratorio L’Infanzia de S. Giovanni Battista. In the same year, he enters to the Milan Conservatory, where he studies with Giovanni Orefice among others. He moves to Rome in 1926 studying with Casella, graduating at the Conservatorio di S. Cecilia three years later. Between 1931 and 1932 he studies at the Curtis Institute of Philadelphia with Rosario Scalero and Fritz Reiner among others.

Rota befriends American composer Aaron Copland, also discovering the American popular song, cinema and the music of George Gershwin. Altogether, these elements will have a strong influence in Rota, like his passion for the Italian popular song and operetta.

He wrote soundtracks for directors as Renaldo Castellani, Mario Soldati, Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, Franco Zeffierelli and Francis Ford Coppolla and movies like La Dolce Vita, Il Casanova di Federico Fellini, La Strada, Il Gattopardo and The Godfather.

Rota writes in a vast variety of genres, sometimes writing with a clear and provocative clarity. Some works (like Ariodante, 1942) are written in a 19th-century style, others are authentic reminiscences of the operetta and the vaudeville. His works illustrate a easiness to produce images instantly, that Rota himself states they come from his familiarity with the rhythm of the movie making.

Fantasia in sol - Nino Rota

The Fantasia in Sol reveals some “Classicism”. Its structure revolves around a sonata-form, with a succession of themes (some pending to exotism), in a sort of “musical movie”, like the unfolding of scenes of a movie. A moment of apparent initial calm succeeds little by little a graduating of tension that is unleashed in a series of short rhythmic figures, reappearing a new “peaceful” theme, suggesting some sarcasm.