Galant Music in the Tropics: Music at the time of D. Pedro I of Brazil and IV of Portugal

Описание: The Croatian Baroque Ensemble, in a partnership with the Embassies of Portugal and Brazil, presents a concert centered on the musical context in Brazil and Portugal from the middle 18th to the beginning of the 19th centuries. Portugal and Brazil have a long, rich and quite interesting musical tradition that remains yet little known by the musicians and the audience.
The early 1800s were a most fascinating period in the political history of the two countries. In 1807-8, in a strategic retreat escaping from Napoleonic forces, the Portuguese Royal Family moved from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, together with the Royal Court, composed of about 15 thousand people. The 13-year period of Imperial rule from the tropics meant an impressive cultural revolution in the Empire and, above all, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, which was soon graced with a new Opera house, national library, botanical garden, and royal palace, as well as an imperial academy of fine arts. Some of the most talented musicians came from the Portuguese Royal Chapel, including Italian castratti.

Introducing the audience to this little-known period, this concert will focus on the figure of Dom Pedro de Bragança, who, besides being the crown prince of Portugal, declared the independence of Brazil, in 1822, becoming the first Monarch at the Brazilian Empire, and would later, in 1826, reign as King Pedro IV of Portugal. In addition to all his activities as monarch of two countries, Dom Pedro de Bragança had also received a rich music education, to the point of becoming himself a music afficionado and composer.

The present program deals with the musical context and background that enabled Pedro de Alcântara to be a fine musician, both in Lisbon and Rio de Janeiro. From instrumental baroque music by Carlos Seixas and Pedro António Avondano, the concert also presents galante style works, such as the Miserere by Nicolo Jommelli, from a copy dedicated to D. Pedro I, present at Rio de Janeiro National Library. The concert includes a solo motet by Nunes Garcia - the most important Brazilian composer at the court of D. João VI in Rio de Janeiro and a great Te Deum by João de Deus de Castro Lobo, a contemporary of D. Pedro, who albeit dying at young age, left a vast an amazing musical production, including some pieces that are still unknown to the general public.