Artistic direction of Encontros Sonoros Atlânticos
Artistic direction of Encontros Sonoros Atlânticos and jury head of Francisco de Lacerda competition
The second edition of Encontros Sonoros Atlânticos, a music festival in Azores and Lisboa curated by Vasco Mendonça that turns the spotlight onto contemporary Portuguese creation, will take place between July and September 2022. This festival was created and is promoted by Associação Francisco de Lacerda, with the purpose of promoting Portuguese music, and features some of the most talented Portuguese musicians.
This year's festival also includes the first edition of the Francisco de Lacerda Composition Prize, the single largest composition competition in Portugal. With a money prize of 7500 euros, it features a jury of highly accomplished composers which include US-based Brazilian Felipe Lara and Portuguese Andreia Pinto Correia .
ONE OF FOUR PERIODS IN TIME
Stage music for ONE OF FOUR PERIODS IN TIME at the Ballet National de Marseille
On March 31st, new stage music by Mendonça will premiere in a new commission by the Ballet National de Marseille to coreographer Tânia Carvalho, ONE OF FOUR PERIODS IN TIME (ELLIPSIS). After Marseille, the production will be presented at the Theatre du Chatelêt, in Paris.
A BOX OF DARKNESS WITH A BIRD IN ITS HEART
Premiere A BOX OF DARKNESS WITH A BIRD IN ITS HEART in Baden-Baden
On October 25th, A BOX OF DARKNESS WITH A BIRD IN ITS HEART for violin solo, will premiere at Festspielhaus Baden-Baden by Ukrainian violinist Diana Tischenko. This piece is a co-commission of the Philharmonie de Paris and Casa da Música, as a part of the European Concert Hall Organisation's (ECHO) Rising Stars initiative. After the premiere in Baden-Baden, the piece will be performed in some of the most prestigious European venues, such as Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Barbican in London and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg.
Naxos Orchestral CD
''One of a rare breed of current composers whose personal style is instantly recognizable.''
Philip Scott | Fanfare, May 2020
''A seductive gateway to a musical universe with a profound dramatic awareness.''
Gonçalo Frota | Público, 13.12.19
'Takes us right to the cutting edge of modernity, yet retaining a reshaped form of tonality to create sounds that belong purely to Mendonca''
David Denton | David´s Review Corner, November 2019
"The extraordinary lives of Vasco Mendonça´s music"
Maria Augusta Gonçalves | Jornal de Letras, 15.01.20
Orchestral portrait CD released on NAXOS
Orchestral portrait CD released on NAXOS
A new CD dedicated to Vasco Mendonça´s orchestral music will be released in November 2019 by international label NAXOS. This orchestral portrait CD - generously supported by the ROLEX Institute, and co-produced by the Gulbenkian Foundation - will feature American conductor Benjamin Schwartz leading the Gulbenkian Orchestra, French pianist Roger Muraro, and will include the piano concerto STEP RIGHT UP (premiered in June 2018) plus two other orchestral pieces, GROUP TOGETHER, AVOID SPEECH (2012) and UNANSWERABLE LIGHT (2016, rev. 2017)
Watch here a short documentary on the recording sessions
"Piano for the new generations"
Artur Tavares | Carbon Uomo, 22.10.18
Portuguese Vasco Mendonça disembarks in Brazil to present his first piano concerto in Sala São Paulo.
Sala São Paulo presents, Nov 22 to 24, STEP RIGHT UP, the first piano concerto of Portuguese composer Vasco Mendonça. STEP RIGHT UP was commissioned by the Gulbenkian Foundation, in partnership with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (...).
STEP RIGHT UP is your first piano concerto. What was the challenge of composing such a piece, after devoting yourself in recent years to the composition of three chamber operas?
My interest in the concert genre, in particular the piano concerto, isn´t new. The initial dramatic tension of a concerto is always the opposition between man and the world. In a sense, one of the compositional challenges was to develop a consistent dramaturgy, in order to create an unstable and exciting relationship between piano and orchestra.
To what extent is the piano important in your operas, and how was it to have it as the central element in the composition of SRU?
Although my catalog does not have many piano works, it is an instrument that I feel very close to: the precision of the mechanism, the percussive character, its "orchestral" nature, all these characteristics place it within a very particular place in the instrumental pantheon. Apart from JERUSALEM, which is a particular piece, none of my operas has piano. In general, in chamber ensembles, it seems to me that the homogeneity of the piano somehow neutralizes the timbral diversity at the composer's disposal.
After touching the refugees issue in BOSCH BEACH, what was the inspiration for SRU? What does the composition deal with, what feelings and impressions do you express through this piano concert?
SRU is an interjection used to draw people to an attraction or a variety number, for example at countryside fairs. It pleases me because it evokes the communal nature of the artistic act, and it is associated with the idea of illusion. Each of the movements is a particular form of ritual, a millimetrically synchronized collective experience, with the precision of a Swiss watch.
The project sounds grand, and was conceived with the Gulbenkian Foundation, your longtime partner, and the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra. Is the connection between Brazil and Portugal also expressed in the piece (...)?
Not in a conscious manner. Oddly enough, after finishing the piece, I think there is a festive energy to it, and a way of using the percussion - an exteriority, so to speak - that perhaps has some affinities with Brazilian culture.
Another fundamental partner for this project was Rolex, which helped in your artistic development in recent years, through its Mentor & Protégé scheme. Can you tell me something about the time you´ve spent with the scheme?
The Rolex Mentor and Protégé scheme is a unique program, at all levels. First, it allows for two artists from different generations to be in contact for a period of time, supporting them generously, without any restriction, leaving to the artists the definition of what their shared course will be. Then, because it brings together different generations and cycles, it promotes the exchange between an ever larger group of exceptional artists, creating an artistic community of absolutely unique characteristics.
And what can you tell me about Kaija Saariaho? Has your musical style changed after the mentoring?
Kaija is a remarkable artist and person. To witness her availability and humbleness, during our time together, to all those around her, was inspiring. Just as it was inspiring to be exposed to a series of premieres and presentations of her music - whose aesthetics are substantially different from mine - allowing me to discover entry points for my own ideas in unexpected sound universes. I would not say that my style has changed, but it was certainly enriched. (...)
It will be the second time SRU is be presented, soon after its premiere in Portugal in June. How was the premiere? Will something change for the Brazilian performances?
The world premiere in Lisbon with [pianist] Roger Muraro and the Gulbenkian Orchestra was very gratifying. From what I know of OSESP and Giancarlo Guerrero, I anticipate a beautiful American premiere.
This concerto will be released on CD by Naxos. Will there be other performances (...)?
I would be very happy if that happened. At this point, contacts are being made to this effect.
What is your next project? Creating a piano concerto gave you the inspiration to work hard with another instrument, or will you return to the opera world?
I'm leaving the concert hall and entering the museum. My next work will be a multimedia piece for percussion, closer to the performance territory.
STEP RIGHT UP
"A great concert of contemporary music (...).
The catch was the world premiere of STEP RIGHT UP, Vasco Mendonça´s first piano concerto. What´s the meaning of a concerto today? It certainly is a different object from its counterpart in Haydn´s time (...)
Mendonça sees the piano as a black barrier that threatens the soloist´s effort in overtaking the orchestra´s soundscape. The relation between the piano and the orchestral mass is one of power, but also of politeness. No need to be afraid. The piano is a percussion apparatus like many other machines (...).
The orchestra is a multifaceted, sound producing, caleidoscopic machine. Mendonça takes advantadge of this mechanical precision and clarity in three movements that put to the test not only the pianist (the brilliant Roger Muraro), but also the conductor´s skills (the excelent Benjamin Schwartz) in order to manage the gigantic sound factory demanded by the composer. Heralded by the percussion, string attacks and hammered notes on the piano, STEP RIGHT UP develops with great clarity, rhythmically driven and releasing cascades of contagious energy. And if, at the beginning, some of the lyrical interventions seem shy and fleeting, they´re really preparing us for the assertive presence of th epiano in the last movement. In short, one of th emost exciting premieres I have listened to in the last few years. The good newa is that STEP RIGHT UP is being recorded this week for a CD of orchestral music entirely dedicated to the composer. I will listen to it many times, as I´m sure I´ll discover many surprises I may have missed at this first hearing.(...)" Jorge Calado | Expresso, 22.06.18
"Gulbenkian´s season finale has displayed the works of three composers of the same generation, coming from different countries and with strong creative personalities . (...)
The result is a fine example of present time´s vitality in musical creation, and of the strong communicating power contemporary music can have with the audience (...)
In STEP RIGHT UP, Mendonça treats the orchestra as a global instrument (...) the portuguese composer chooses the centrality of rhythmical and percussive elements, (...) in an intrincate web of relations that requires a precise rhytmical and dynamic coordenation.
(...) Particularly in the first and last movements (since the second is more introspective, exploring darker and more delicate atmospheres) an incisive materiality of the sound is achieved, traversed by a visceral energy, echoing the piece´s title and the evocation of African rituals (...)
The percussive character of the piano dominates most of the piece, sometimes through brief musical gestures demanding a milimetric coordination with the orchestral forces. Despite this anti-romantic treatment of the piano and its relation to the orchestra, it stands as a virtuoso piece, where Roger Muraro was able to show his multifaceted qualities, in a strong performance of a work that is set to be a highlight in Vasco Mendonça´s catalogue, whose career is obtaining a growing international visibility (...)." Cristina Fernandes | Publico, 20.06.18
"Vasco Mendonça´s new adventure for piano and orchestra"
Pedro Boléo | Publico, 15.06.18
STEP RIGHT UP can be translated as "gather round", or "come and see", as if summoning the audience for a show. An inviting title to the new piece by Vasco Mendonça, premiering tonight at the Main Hall of the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. Vasco Mendonça is a Portuguese composer with a meteoric career. Gulbenkian Foundation presents him as "a composer who is already an essential voice in Portuguese and European contemporary music". He recently won the Rolex Mentor and Protegé Arts Initiative (with Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho), a program that gives young artists the chance to develop new projects, while having their music performed all over the world. Among these projects is the recording of a solo album with orchestral works. Gulbenkian and its artistic director, Risto Nieminen, supported and welcomed the idea, commissioning this piano concerto, and including it in a major concert dedicated to contemporary music - (...) a partnership with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (...).
"When I spoke with Risto, I told him I liked the idea of composing a piano concerto, and he approved of it," Mendonça tells us in the foyer of the Gulbenkian Foundation. "It's my first concerto," he says. Then the question arose as to who would be the soloist: "I had seen Roger Muraro playing the Ravel concerto, and I immediately thought about him. Also, he knew Messiaen, and plays his music frequently. I studied with a student of Messiaen [George Benjamin] - there is an interesting genealogy here as well ..." It all worked out, and pianist Muraro accepted the challenge.
THE INSIDE OF A CLOCK
"I'm a terrible pianist, but I´m very fond of the piano," says VM, dwelling into his aesthetic ideas for SRU: "The concertante format is an enigma - two entities that both are and aren´t together. For me, the orchestra and the piano are precision mechanisms, and the piano is in itself a machine of orchestral nature, by register, scope, volume, dynamic agility, everything. On the other hand, the orchestra is a like a kaleidoscope, and that opens up a sea of possibilities. In a way, one can be seen as extension of the other, and this dramatic idea nourished the form of the piece: expansion, precision and timing." VM seems enthusiastic about this project, and that is clear in rehearsal, as he, score in hand, is clarifying passages and answering questions by the conductor and the orchestra: "There are always small adjustments, clarifications. It is necessary to shape the music, the material, like a potter." Everything needs to be perfectly synchronized, like a clock: rhythmic and dynamic difficulties have to do with precision requirements - if we can make everything fit properly, it´s like seeing the inside of a clock. I think there's poetry in that. "
For VM, composing a piano concerto doesn´t mean carrying the whole of history of the piano and the concerto. "I´m not that connected to the romantic piano," says the composer. "The history of the instrument, and of the concerto form, is so rich that it can become paralyzing. So I had to think about what kind piano I really wanted, how to best articulate the ideas that interest me for my music. I wanted to be sincere, personal and consistent, without worrying too much about the idea of the concerto. "And this to get to "the dramatic opposition between the piano and the group, where the piano is like a master of ceremonies, a black shape in the middle of the orchestra". In his program notes, the composer explains that each of the three movements searches for "a different balance between the piano and the orchestra, an unstable dramatic relationship between almost equals." Almost...
The title STEP RIGHT UP refers to a typical expression used in countryside circuses, mostly in the US. "It means 'everybody get together', which is an interjection that I find quite beautiful. It relates to street music, which is particularly obvious in the first and last movements, where there is a sort of 'outdoorsy' character to the music. And there's also this idea of people coming together to share a moment. I see music and the arts as a form of empathy, a way of communicating with others."
STEP RIGHT UP will be recorded for future edition on a portrait CD. "I delayed recording a CD under my name, perhaps for a certain modesty in taking that step," he confesses. "But there is also a practical reason: to record an orchestral CD is a homeric task because of the costs, so I am very grateful to Gulbenkian, who has made the orchestra and the venue available for a week. And I was fortunate to have the support of Rolex. So I put the two together, the concerto premiere and the record, which means I´ll be able to do it in the best possible conditions, with an excellent conductor, an excellent orchestra, and an excellent soloist. With technical means to make a solid project."
Jornal de Negócios
Lúcia Crespo | A minha Economia, 15.06.18
At his parents', Vasco Mendonca listened to jazz and classical music. Then he brought a guitar from friend's house and "tragedy" struck. The composer, pointed out as an essential voice in Portuguese and European contemporary music, realized then that it was through musical harmony he was best able to express himself. He then studied Jazz at the Hot Club, classical music at Escola Superior de Musica de Lisboa, did a masters degree in Composition in Amsterdam, supervised by Klaas de Vries, and studied in London with composer George Benjamin. It was there that he composed the opera JERUSALEM, based on the book by Gonçalo M. Tavares, and staged by Luís Miguel Cintra. In 2004, he received the Lopes Graça Composition Prize, and was the first Young Composer in Residence at Casa da Música.
"The piano is an immense instrument, it can be so many things: an instrument of percussion, a music box - and I´m very fond of this mechanical quality. For me, the piano isn´t so much that romantic instrument, full of pathos and lyricism. I appreciate its more classical, crystalline objectivity, connected to the keyboard instruments that preceded it, like the harpsichord. I see the piano as a sort of harpsichord in steroids. I like its clarity, I like the word clarity and I always try that my ideas are as clear as possible when proposing something. When there is no master plan, a kind of overall idea, we risk becoming derivative, inconsistent.
I see myself more as a craftsman than as an artist. I like to focus on craftsmanship, like a potter or a sculptor working slowly. There´s a good expression for that in english,"through-composing": to go on composing, bar after bar - but always with a master plan at the back of my head.
I do not have any musicians in my family. My father is a doctor, my mother a Philosophy teacher, but both are music lovers, and and there´s always been music at my house, especially jazz and music. One day, as a teenager, I went to a friend´s house, and there was a guitar there. I took it with me, I started trying out some chords and became completely consumed by the experience. It was not the result of a conscious desire, it just happened to me almost like a tragedy, in the Greek sense. I´ve always wanted to be connected to the arts, I wanted to be a film director first, and then a writer, but I felt that this desire was not matched by a particular talent. With music, I realized it came quite easy and naturally, and that it was a way of channeling things I needed to express and wasn´t able to do it otherwise.
Before entering college, my most striking contact with contemporary music was with Messiaen and Stravinsky. I remember thinking that I had no idea what that music was, it seemed like a distant planet, and this strangeness awakened my desire to explore this planet, to drill into it and understand its genealogy.
My transition from jazz to contemporary music was more or less equivalent to the leap I made from light music to jazz. At one point, I felt that I could be a bit limited and I looked for some novelty and variety in jazz, and then I also struggled with the repetition of formulas in jazz, so I went looking for music that was less pre-determined. And when I entered college, I had access to an incredible wealth of composers. I also looked for them, because even now contemporary music is still a kind of UFO. There is the great canonical repertoire and then there is contemporary music.
The contemporary composer is still an invisible figure. And it is invisible because the music is invisible. It virtually does not exist in the media.
Classical music audiences tend to be a bit conservative and seek some comfort by listening to the 20th version of a piece, performed by great stars. Me and my colleagues in contemporary music feel a greater affinity with audiences who are looking for adventure. The same people that go to an exposition of conceptual art or that are willing to try a new gastronomic combination. The people who are always looking for something alive, who live the present and are not scared if Björk releases a very strange record, and really different from her last one. They appreciate the new because they feel challenged. I don't think people need to be "initiated" in contemporary music, audiences are much smarter than we sometimes think. More sensitive. Children have amazing reactions to contemporary music because they aren´t prejudiced, as no one should.
After college, I went to Holland to do my masters in Composition, under the guidance of Klaas de Vries. In Portugal, it was hard to have an orchestra available to play the students' pieces. In Amsterdam, there are a number of professional groups that do so and the city is a kind of "el dorado" for music students. I was there for two years and then I came back.
I did part of my PhD in London. And from London, I was able to create a network of contacts that allowed me to work in several European countries, especially in France, the Netherlands and Belgium. In fact, Lisbon is two or three hours away from any European capital. Tomorrow, for example, I have a rehearsal in Paris, and I come and go the same day.
We must value local talent, but it is clear that there has to be a circulation of the artists, and I have had a lot of opportunities abroad. Most of my work in recent years has been abroad. It would be difficult to work just in Portugal, where only two or three institutions regularly commission new work.
Sometimes, when I hear the argument about culture´s economic sustainability, I am afraid this argument is being used as a kind of detour from the maindiscussion. To ensure cultural diversity, there must always be deficitary structures. For example, most opera houses are maintained by political decision or because there are patrons that allow for the existence of a form of human cultural expression that guarantees us another kind of value, be it civilizational or aesthetic."
"The complicated relationship between the piano and the orchestra, as seen by Vasco Mendonça"
Bernardo Mariano | Diario de Noticias, 15.06.18
The name is unusual, at the least. Vasco Mendonça explains: "It relates to the idea of outdoor music, a gathering of people attending a show. It means something like "Gather round, come and see! ". An interjection addressed to the public, with the piano, in this case, as the master of ceremonies."
This title already expresses the character of STEP RIGHT UP, VM´s first concerto for solo instrument and orchestra, premiering this friday at Gulbenkian. The work is part of the SP-LX partnership, established between the Gulbenkian Foundation and the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, and will have its Brazilian premiere at the end of November, also with Roger Muraro, but conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero.
Facing the fabulously rich heritage of the piano concerto, Vasco is quite candid: "If I had to take into account the genealogy of the format I was writing for, I probably hadn´t made it past the first bar...". But he nevertheless did his homework first: "Over the course of three months, I listened to a substantial number of contemporary piano concertos - and those with which I felt closer to were obviously the ones that used the piano in way that was closer to my own ideas (...)". He then had to trust in his own instinct: "For me, the advantage of having piano and orchestra in a concertante format is the underlying tension between these two "dramatis personae" - and you can actually create something from it, you´re not starting from scratch. And that is already kind of liberating in itself". And further: "I thought of everything the piano can become, from a sound wall full of romantic pathos to the crystalline clarity of the Classical style. And I prefer to see the piano almost like a music box; a sort of music machine . A 'character' that "allows itself brief moments of lyricism", although these are "exceptions to the essential virile character of this work." He goes so far as to define his creation as "relentless", insofar as, as he puts it, "it is a really loud piece, quite assertive, and with the character of street music. "
Within this framework, the 2nd movement "has a more interior, nocturnal character, with a degree of nostalgia in the material, evokes a more traditional role of the instrument". The whole piece ended up adopting a "very traditional" fast-slow-fast structure: "It was clear to me that I had to start in a certain way, and it was also clear that it would have to have a circular nature. For the sake of "contrast in the 2nd movement, I ended up quite naturally with a traditional structure."
We are thus faced with a work in which "two fantastic musical machines - the piano and the orchestra - confront each other, they sometimes communicate, sometimes not; sometimes converge, and sometimes take different paths." A relationship that is governed by "instability and unpredictability", rooted in a certain "strangeness" between the two: "The piano does not really belong to that party taking place on stage, and it's never its own 'orchestra', but it may come to liven up the party in its unique way.
And facing the piano is a massive orchestra: "It is a symphony orchestra, a force I´ve written for before in a number of occasions. (…)" The difference, here, will be in the dimension of the percussion ensemble: "I ´ve always liked to use abundant percussion, I think it is a way of subverting - or amplifying, if you like - the orchestral vocabulary; it´s a chance to use sounds that aren´t usually found in that world. It´s like a blank page you can write freely in".
And within this ensemble, he adds "subsection" of bizarre instrumental combinations: "There is a water gong, African talking drums, steel drums, pebbles, crotales on timpani skin to be played with a bow and the pedal..." - you have to see (and hear) it! But Vasco justifies this arsenal: "as a listener, it pleases me to suddenly hear something and to think: 'where did that sound come from? …" Nevertheless, he says, "the percussion is almost always integrated in the texture, used for coloristic effects, as well as a few more independent gestures related with African percussion."
The following week, performers and composer will meet again on the stage of the Grand Auditorium for a week of recording sessions. Vasco couldn´t be happier about this: "It was a fortunate confluence of situations: on the one hand, the Rolex Arts Initiative, which I was involved in two years ago, accepted my proposal for a portrait CD; on the other, the full support of the Gulbenkian Orchestra, without to which this CD would not be have been possible!" The CD will be released on Naxos, "possibly in 2019" and the recorded works are "this concerto, of course; a piece I did in 2012 for the Gulbenkian Orchestra ('GROUP TOGETHER, AVOID SPEECH'), which is a kind of concerto grosso; and the piece UNANSWERABLE LIGHT, written for Casa da Música in 2015. I feel these three pieces are a good showcase of my orchestral writing at this point."
"Composing is a gesture"
Luciana Leiderfarb | Expresso, 09.06.18
At 41, Vasco Mendonça is one of the most active Portuguese composers - who found himself, he says, when he assumed the role of a craftsman. (...) This friday, Gulbenkian Orchestra premieres his first piano concert, STEP RIGHT UP, which will be played again in November in Brazil by the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, a co-commission of both institutions, (...) and recorded by Naxos as a part of his first orchestral portrait CD.
We met him at his studio in Lisbon: a piano, scattered scores, notes, a b&w photo, chaos on his desk. And a piece of paper that was the "embryo" of the third movement, the musical gesture from where everything started.
How did you arrive at this Concerto?
It's a two-step project, a co-commission from Gulbenkian Foundation and the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, which will also be part of my first monographic record for Naxos, with just orchestral music. Also, two years ago I was involved in the Rolex Arts Initiative, and one of the prizes was the financing of a project.(...)
This is the first time you´ve approached this musical form. What sets it apart from the rest?
As a composer, I am interested only in the piano concerto. Even if the piano isn´t incredibly present in my catalogue, I´ve always felt very close to it. In this case, I focused less on the romantic pathos of the piano than on its mechanics, on the piano as a musical machine, as percussion, and on its relation with the keyboard instruments that preceded it.
Do you see the modern piano as the point of arrival of a genealogy?
Maybe. Because it was the idea of a machine that led me to ornamentation, in the traditional, almost baroque sense - although presented through a contemporary filter. If we pay close attention when listening to a harpsichord, we´re able to hear the noises of a precision mechanism. What remains is this huge meta-percussion. Also, I was also being pestered by ghosts of African percussion, and decide to allow them to appear throughout the piece.
How does that get along with the orchestra?
The idea was to take the common identity of the orchestra and the piano as precision machines. I have always been interested in synchronism, articulation, arabesque - here linked to the notion of parade and procession. The name of the piece is "Step Right Up," an American expression use to gather people around. The piano is a sort of MC that throws stuff at the orchestra, and I hope to have achieved an unstable relationship between them - not necessarily a dialogue. From a visual perspective, the pianist is there and at the same time remains isolated, separated from the orchestra (...)
You have written (...) a lot of music for the stage. What took you there?
Opera has always moved me a lot. There is something unique about its artificiality. Singing is usually associated with extreme acts - great happiness, pain, or lamentation, and there is something profoundly excessive in opera that brings us to the limit of human experience. Music is a self-reflexive art, a reflection of the world in second or third instance, and the connection between theater and music allows it to be anchored it in the real world. On the other hand, I am moved by the presence of the singer on stage. In terms of risk, Luis Miguel Cintra compared singing to driving a Formula 1. An actor who misses a line can improvise. A singer who misses a beat takes him and the whole room behind him. It is immensely fragile and delicate.
How do you get an identity as a composer?
By trial and error. The world of contemporary music is a world with an elitist burden. Some music of the last 50 years has a strong intellectual component. At first I had difficulty articulating this need to rationalize everything with the search of my own voice; what I liked and what I wanted to do with the rules, with what you´re supposed to expect from a contemporary composer. And then there was a moment when that changed, from a thinker to an artisan. Realizing this craftsmanship aspect freed me immensely, challenged my tendency to rationalize with the ultimate question: how does this work as an aesthetic object? We don´t listen to rules, we´re looking to be touched and challenged.
Can you identify the moment where it changed?
It had to do with a practical question. In 2011 I had two demanding requests: a big orchestral piece for the 50th anniversary of the Gulbenkian Orchestra, and an opera commission from Aix-en-Provence festival. Suddenly, I had this crazy schedule, and virtually no time to over-think. And I thought: I have to write music in a sincere, controlled and serious way. And by way of circumstances, something was eventually released.
How does a musical idea appear?
The question is that you need to be constantly focusing and un-focusing. An idea comes to mind, you imagine this music in your head, sometimes even record yourself singing it, so you won´t forget its character. But then the process of organizing it for 70+ instruments, while keeping its initial freshness and interest - that´s hard work.
I was going to compare it with the poet's craft, but multiplied by a hundred. Is that so?
It is more elaborate, although it has to have the same freshness, the same spontaneity. But yes, and sometimes I get quite attached to the poetic images of authors I´m fond of. Writing a piece can sometimes begin as the materialization of a feeling. Years ago I discovered Philip Larkin - the soundscape of my piece "Unanswerable Light" is a response to him.
You´ve also departed from Cortázar and Bosch.
I am naturally drawn to borderline manifestations. It is when we are at the extreme of our existence, be it suffering or happiness, that we are more human. The story of Cortazar ["The House Taken"] is a tale of excess, of two people refusing to leave a house in danger. Choosing not to live, in order to avoid the world. (...)
How do you react to a work being premiered and then forgotten?
It's devastating. It is harmful for everyone involved. There are masterpieces that were played once and not even recorded, a graveyard of scores waiting to be rediscovered. Because the work will die if it´s not played. We rarely have solid performance of contemporary pieces, it´s mostly the more or less stressful version of the premiere. My big question is: why can't contemporary music have a greater presence in people's lives?
And what´s your answer?
The feeling I have is that the ritual closeness - same orchestras, the same halls - between the canonical and contemporary repertoires may be inhibiting to the typical concert hall audience: the need for comfort provided by the 100th version of Beethoven's 5th tends to be sabotaged by a universe of contemporary creation that is increasingly eclectic and less reverential to great European erudite tradition. Therefore, perhaps the audiences in theory more distant from classical music (those looking for new stuff in light music, pop, dance music) are more willing to be confronted with a more contemporary repertoire. And, being difficult to bring them into the traditional concert hall, I would like to think that it is not impossible.
You´re optimistic, then.
I am. The worst thing you can say to me is, "I don´t really know much about music, but I really liked your piece." There is an element of self-censorship here, of those who think that, because they are laymen, their opinion does not count. We have to accept that there is be an instinctive connection to any kind of music, the same as in the plastic arts, or in film. (...)
BOSCH BEACH
" (...) In musical terms, Bosch Beach is at the very highest level (...) Mendonça’s dark, restrained and sometimes plaintive tone (...)" Bernard Uske | Frankfurter Rundschau, 13.10.16
" (...) the exquisite score of Mendonça (...) Jorge Calado | Expresso, 15.10.16
" (...) the exciting score of Mendonça gives counteraction. Together with the musicians of the Asko|Schoenberg, he offers some thrilling percussive writing and gloomy bass lines. (...) Evelyne Coussens | Theaterkrant, 30.10.16
" (...) the main strenght of the piece resides precisely in Mendonça´s music. Besides his achievement of the timbrical diversity defined by his instrumentation of the piece, he knew how to create several layers (expressive characters) for his music: from superficiality to thickness, from dazzling brightness to pungency, the latter in changing hues of clearness.(...) The vocal lines are personalized, being clear a particular enjoyment in writing for the countertenor (...). An actractive and stimulating score. (...) Bernardo Mariano | Diario de Noticias, 24.10.16
" (...) the particular use of raw percussion and wailing didgeridoos creates a rather menacing atmosphere" Peter Pim Windhost | Omroep Brabant, 12.10.16
"An opera for Gulbenkian Orchestra to play with stones"
Isabel Salema | Publico, 20.09.16
When Vasco Mendonça was invited by the Foundation Bosch 500 to compose the music for this chamber opera (...), the librettist had already been already chosen.
We are in an oasis, Club Med-type, where two men and a woman spend their holidays on a beach surrounded by horror (...). "It is a series of episodes, typifications of things that can happen during a decadent holiday, based on drink dancing, and doing as much sex as possible." Bosch in the XXI century: a paradise, a beach in the Mediterranean, which after all is hell, Lampedusa.
Already in his third chamber opera, VM acknowledges he likes to work with the voice and with theater. "Opera has the advantage of joining these two elements".(...)
Unlike The House Taken Over, his second chamber opera (...), here there isn´t an increasingly tense musical narrative. " Given the nature of the libretto, it was counterproductive to try and create a narrative musical drama, a story through music." The composer took the episodic nature of the piece and established an opposition between what is happening at the resort, between that which is sung, histrionic, euphoric, and that which is associated with horror, more ritualized, almost sacred. For the resort episodes, he uses historical archetypes, such as the trio, the lament or the aria, while instrumental, voiceless moments are given to horror, a kind of trance induction.
"The libretto presented me with three monsters: people who sing, dance and copulate while others die next to them. And what happens is that we immediately distance ourselves from them. That to me was relatively problematic in the libretto, because from the moment that there is a judgment and a condemnation, we can go all home quietly, thinking we are not like that. And I am always a bit afraid to adress topical issues in my work." The challenge was to look at these monsters, and find out how similar they are to us. And this challenge", explains Vasco Mendonça, "was left out to music."
"Music is a powerful language. As Samuel Beckett said, music always wins. I can take any word, for example an obscenity, and easily change it into a lyrical moment." This was ultimately his dramaturgical counterpart to the libretto. "Creating a sort of snake that sometimes redeems the characters. But does not attempt to exonerate them."
Each composer, says VM, has its own way of putting a text to music. "When we compose an opera there are always changes that have to do with prosody, number of syllables, stress, the very nature of consonants. I tried to adjust a few things in the text to fit the type of vocal writing I was interested in doing: privileging simple grammatical constructions and short words. " The economy, he adds, is for me the most important feature of a libretto, because "music, adding an abstract dimension, easily compromises the understanding of the text."
The unusual instruments are back: the didgeridoo and the melodica, for one. But this time even stranger objects - stones and papers. None of them are particularly associated with an environment. "The use of these instruments isn´t dramatic, but has to do mainly with timbral research. If we start from the traditional forces and add unusual elements, this enriches the timbral vocabulary." (...)