On Friday 13th and Saturday 14th October the Brazilian pianist Gilda Oswaldo Cruz will be playing for us in Tincleton. These days she lives primarily in Portugal and will be flying in from Lisbon especially to perform for us.
Gilda is a Brazilian pianist, born in Rio de Janeiro, where she began her musical studies. After graduating at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, she finished the virtuosity course at the Musik Hochschule in Vienna, Austria. Shortly afterwards she got the first prize at the Elena Rombro-Stepanow International Competition held in that institution. After further studies in Barcelona, Spain, she continued her concert career in Europe and South America. She lives presently in Lisbon, Portugal, and specializes in making Brazilian music known abroad.
Her first album dedicated to piano works by Claudio Santoro (1919-1989), the most important Brazilian composer of his generation, was issued in Rio de Janeiro by Biscoitofino in 2001, obtaining excellent reviews. Music critic Dante Pignatari wrote about it in Bravo!, a São Paulo-based magazine dedicated to the arts: “The pianist does not take liberties with the score, showing a mature and penetrating understanding of the works. Her performance allies faithfulness with great expressivity, phrases being articulated by ample gestures and driven by precisely drawn durations and rhythms. The structures are shown with clarity and technical ease. With this pianist, Santoro’s work finds an interpreter of his same “obstinacy”.
Her second album, dedicated to the same composer, offers the first performance of unpublished masterworks by Amazon-born Santoro. This CD has been released and successfully presented in Rio de Janeiro.
Gilda Oswaldo Cruz has played chamber music in Spain, Portugal and France in concerts with the Catalan cellist Josep Bassal and the Swiss percussionist Martin Hug. She has taught courses at the Universidade de Campinas and at the Musik Hochschule in Stuttgart.
Here some brief quotations from her reviews:
“The new album of Gilda Oswaldo Cruz is important for its sense of purpose and the exact mixture of emotion and virtuosity that she shows in the interpretation of these works. A very precise performance, with a clear stylistic difference between the different phases of Santoro’s creative periods.
– Lauro Machado Coelho, O Estado de São Paulo
“Gilda Oswaldo Cruz has a notable power of construction and a great luminosity in the representation of musical structures. She is a virtuose, able to create subtle animic states and express poetic sound visions.”
– Wiener Kurier, Vienna
“Expressive warmth, a vital temperament and a sense of rhythm: these are the basic notes of her musical score”.
– La Vanguardia (Barcelona)
PROGRAMME NOTES
Two great masters dedicated themselves to writing works for young beginners in the art of piano playing: J.S.Bach and Robert Schumann. Centuries have passed, but these works are still the standard literature for all those who are being initiated in the instrument. Seldom heard in concert halls, these miniatures are gems of concentrated beauty and pedagogical insight.
Josef Haydn’s genius was widely acclaimed in England during his lifetime. For this recital the soloist has chosen one of the last Sonatas of his creation, one whose first movement is full of humour and ingeniosity. After a second movement of meditative introspection, built as variations on a theme, comes the last Minuet, reminiscent of a peasant’s dance.
Claudio Santoro, born in Amazonas and considered to be the greatest Brazilian composer of his generation, which followed the one dominated by Villa-Lobos, started by writing atonal music according the doctrine of the Second School of Vienna. Being a devoted follower of the Brazilian communist party (illegal at the time), he obeyed the criticism by the party, formulated during a famous Congress in Prague, in 1948, which denounced atonal music as being not suited to the improvement of the worker’s mind. So he started writing beautiful nationalist-inspired pieces, but never disowned his first tendency: till the end of his life he wrote atonal compositions as well. His 12 Preludes are contemporaneous with the bossa-nova movement, while the Balada, dedicated to the great pianist Nelson Freire, is written as an atonal tour de force, full of lyric inspiration and fiery rythmical drive.
The Balade of Chopin op.28 will perhaps allow the hearers to guess what these two last pieces have in common, besides their title.
(by Gilda Oswaldo Cruz)
PROGRAMME
J.S.Bach (1685-1750) Six pieces for Beginners
Little Prelude BWV940
Little Prelude BWV939
Invention 4 BWV775
Sinfonia 2 BWV 788
Sinfonia 11 BWV797
Invention 14 BWV785
Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Four pieces from the Album for the Youth op.68
*** Very slow
Remembrance
Winter Time
A Stranger
Josef Haydn (1732-1809) Sonata E flat major Hob:XVI:49
Allegro
Adagio e cantabile
Finale: Tempo di Minuet
– interval –
Claudio Santoro (1919-1989) 12 Prelúdios
Balada
F.F.Chopin (1810-1849) Balade in g minor op.23
Special terms : due to Covid-19 may apply, approximately as follows, though we reserve the right to update them if this all starts up again:
– Pre booking and prepayment only. All guests must give contact etc details.
– Seating may be allocated by us in advance. We may flex exact mix depending on demand and any constraints. Ask quickly if you have a larger party.
– We will give refunds if we need to cancel the concert for whatever reason. We will not refund if you need to cancel as that would disadvantage the musician(s), unless we can resell your seat.
– You must respect our Covid social distancing requirements, which will in turn comply with Government requirements. For the time being this means that no particular restrictions are anticipated unless Covid restrictions are reintroduced by Government.
– As usual drinks & nibbles will be served, but exactly how and where will depend on the weather.
– All concerts start playing at 8pm. Please arrive after 7:30pm.
– Tickets £15 each.
– To order tickets please email Tincleton Gallery or call Tincleton Gallery on 01305 848909