a fertile imagination. His sound-world is purely formalist,

of creative freedom. His music has sought to restore emotive

eschewing poetic musings. Instrumental music is his preferred

expressiveness and a human and communicative dimension

medium.

that, in his view, the hermetic art of the avant-gardes suppressed.

For Sérgio Azevedo, the creative act is an act of sharing, a fruitful

Melodic lyricism, an energetic and varied rhythmic writing, and

and open dialogue with the masters of the past.

harmony that favours consonance, are characteristics of his style.

V mlhách…1912 (“In the mists…1912”) refers to a 1912 piano

The language and musical grammar of the composer display a

piece by Janáček called In the mists. Azevedo begins with three

proximity to neoclassicism, because he composes according to

short fragments from the Janáček, and through reorganization

a dialectic of theme and variation and the principle of contrast;

and metamorphosis, constructs a new work. As the composer

he conceives of music as discourse and develops it in linear and

explains, “my music is not exclusive, but inclusive; I see it as a dialogue with the past, with the present and with a possible future; in this sense the use of fragments from other composers is not intended to be ironic quotation, as was done in the 1960s, or disruptive in relation to the material, or even intended to shock; this material is included in my own music in a natural

directional time; rhetorical eloquence and a discursive flow prevail; his music is all dynamism, mechanism, constructive operation, clear and well-defined lines, formal solidity. But Nuno Côrte-Real’s music has another, complementary, side: an expressiveness of a romantic kind; a decadent sensibility.

and dramatic way; my music seeks to blend different languages

The form is agitated, discontinuous, full of brusque changes

and different materials in an organic whole.”

of direction, sudden explosions and violent climaxes, rich in

The work of Nuno Côrte-Real (b. 1971) is not easy to classify,

tensions and theatrical effects.

for it excludes any trace of filiation with the defining principles

One of the most notable characteristics of Côrte-Real’s work is its

of the last 60 years. His path is singular and independent, a path

umbilical relationship to Portuguese culture, especially poetry.

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