PROGRAMS

Clarinet Meets Fado

The Voice of Lisbon Reimagined

  • Frederico Valério (1913–1982)
    Amália (c.1951) – ~4 min

    Maximiano de Sousa “Max” (1918–1980)
    Noite (c.1950) – ~3 min

    Frederico Valério (1913–1982)
    Não Sei Porque Te Foste Embora (c.1952) – ~4 min

    Maximiano de Sousa “Max” (1918–1980)
    Vielas de Alfama (1956) – ~3 min

    Jaime Santos (1909–1982)
    Alamares (c.1956) – ~3 min

    Sidney Bechet (1897–1959)
    Petite Fleur (1952) – ~4 min

    Frederico de Brito (1894–1977)
    Fado Errado (c.1960/1970) – ~3 min

    Casimiro Ramos (1898–1969)
    Fado Três Bairros (c.1936) – ~3 min

    José Fontes Rocha (1926–2011)
    Quentes e Boas (c.1970) – ~3 min

    Mário Moniz Pereira (1921–2016)
    Penso Sempre Em Ti / Valeu a Pena (c.1973/1964) – ~4 min

    Armandinho (1891–1946)
    Variações sobre o Fado Lopes (c.1961) – ~5 min

    Paulo de Carvalho (b. 1947)
    Os Putos (c.1977) – ~3 min

    Raúl Portela (1909–1977)
    Lisboa Antiga (1937) – ~3 min

    Raúl Ferrão (1890–1953)
    Noite de Santo António (c.1950) – ~3 min

  • Some cities are inseparable from their music.

    Vienna has the waltz. Buenos Aires has the tango. Lisbon has fado.

    For nearly two centuries, fado has given voice to the Portuguese soul. Born in the streets, taverns, and neighbourhoods of Lisbon, it speaks of longing, memory, love, loss, departure, and return. It is music that carries the emotional history of a city and, in many ways, of a nation.

    At the heart of this tradition stands the human voice. Yet in Clarinet Meets Fado, that voice is transformed.

    The clarinet—an instrument often described as the closest to the human voice—steps into the role traditionally occupied by the singer. Not to imitate, but to reimagine. Its extraordinary expressive range allows it to whisper, sigh, lament, celebrate, and sing with remarkable intimacy, while the guitars preserve the unmistakable rhythmic and harmonic language that lies at the heart of fado.

    The result is neither a classical arrangement of popular music nor a departure from tradition. Rather, it is a new perspective on a living cultural heritage. Familiar melodies emerge in a different light, revealing details, colours, and emotional nuances that often remain hidden behind words. Freed from text, the music speaks directly through sound itself.

    The program brings together three distinguished Portuguese musicians: clarinetist Vítor Fernandes, alongside guitarists Artur Caldeira and Daniel Paredes, artists whose careers embrace both the classical concert stage and Portugal’s rich musical traditions. Together, they create a performance that is at once intimate and virtuosic, rooted in tradition yet open to reinvention.

    Featuring beloved songs associated with Amália Rodrigues, Maximiano de Sousa “Max,” Armandinho, Jaime Santos, and other iconic figures of Portuguese music, Clarinet Meets Fado invites audiences into a world of extraordinary emotional depth and beauty. It offers listeners both a journey through Portugal’s cultural memory and a fresh encounter with one of Europe’s most distinctive musical traditions.

    More than a concert, it is an invitation to experience Lisbon—not as a place on a map, but as a sound, a feeling, and a state of mind.

  • Amália – Frederico Valério (c. 1951)

    Written for the legendary Amália Rodrigues, this song reflects the profound artistic partnership between singer and composer that helped shape the international image of Portuguese fado during the twentieth century. Valério's melodies combine elegance and emotional directness, qualities that made many of his songs enduring classics.

    Noite – Maximiano de Sousa “Max” (c. 1950)

    One of the most beloved voices of Portuguese popular song, Max became synonymous with the fado-canção tradition. Noite captures the intimate atmosphere and lyrical nostalgia that characterize much of his repertoire.

    Não Sei Porque Te Foste Embora – Frederico Valério (c. 1952)

    A poignant example of Valério's gift for melodic storytelling, this song explores themes of absence, longing, and memory that lie at the heart of Portuguese musical expression.

    Vielas de Alfama – Maximiano de Sousa “Max” (1956)

    Named after Lisbon's historic Alfama district, this work evokes the narrow streets and vibrant spirit of one of the city's most iconic neighbourhoods, often regarded as the birthplace of fado.

    Alamares – Jaime Santos (c. 1956)

    Jaime Santos was among the most influential guitarists in the history of fado. His compositions helped define the instrumental language of the genre and remain central to the repertoire of Portuguese guitarists today.

    Petite Fleur – Sidney Bechet (1952)

    Originally written by the pioneering jazz clarinettist Sidney Bechet, Petite Fleur became one of the most recognizable melodies of the twentieth century. Its lyrical simplicity and gentle melancholy create a natural bridge between jazz and the emotional world of fado.

    Fado Errado – Frederico de Brito

    Frederico de Brito was one of the great poet-composers of fado. His songs remain admired for their expressive depth and strong connection to Lisbon's cultural identity.

    Fado Três Bairros – Casimiro Ramos (1936)

    One of the best-known traditional fados, this piece celebrates three historic Lisbon neighbourhoods closely associated with the development of the genre.

    Quentes e Boas – José Fontes Rocha

    A distinguished guitarist and frequent collaborator of Amália Rodrigues, José Fontes Rocha contributed significantly to the evolution of modern fado accompaniment.

    Penso Sempre Em Ti / Valeu a Pena – Mário Moniz Pereira

    Known internationally as a celebrated athletics coach and poet, Moniz Pereira also wrote some of the most beloved songs in the Portuguese repertoire, combining simplicity, lyricism, and emotional sincerity.

    Variações sobre o Fado Lopes – Armandinho

    Armandinho remains one of the most revered figures in the history of the Portuguese guitar. These variations showcase both the technical brilliance and expressive possibilities of the instrument.

    Os Putos – Paulo de Carvalho

    One of Portugal's most recognizable contemporary songwriters and singers, Paulo de Carvalho combines popular appeal with sophisticated musical craftsmanship. Os Putos has become a modern Portuguese classic.

    Lisboa Antiga – Raúl Portela

    Perhaps one of the most famous songs ever written about Lisbon, Lisboa Antiga offers a nostalgic portrait of the city and remains deeply embedded in Portuguese cultural memory.

    Noite de Santo António – Raúl Ferrão

    A joyful tribute to Lisbon's famous June festivities, this song captures the celebratory spirit of the city's annual Santo António celebrations.

  • Total Duration: ~52 minutes

  • Vítor Fernandes (Clarinet)
    Artur Caldeira (Guitar)
    Daniel Paredes (Guitar)

Echoes and Origins

Legacy, Influence, and Individual Voice in Two Clarinet Quintets

  • Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)
    Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 (1891)
    I. Allegro
    II. Adagio
    III. Andantino
    IV. Con moto
    Duration: ~37 minutes

     

    Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912)
    Clarinet Quintet in F-sharp minor, Op. 10 (1895)
    I. Allegro energico
    II. Larghetto affettuoso
    III. Scherzo: Allegro leggiero
    IV. Finale: Allegro agitato – Poco più moderato – Vivace
    Duration: ~34 minutes

  • Every artistic tradition depends on two forces that seem to oppose one another: inheritance and individuality.

    No composer creates in isolation. Every artist begins by listening, absorbing, admiring, and learning from those who came before. Yet the defining challenge of every generation remains the same: how to transform influence into a voice of one's own.

    Echoes & Origins explores this question through two remarkable works for clarinet and string quartet. At first glance, Johannes Brahms and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor appear worlds apart. One stands among the central figures of the German Romantic tradition; the other, a young British composer of Sierra Leonean and English heritage, entered a musical world in which few expected someone with his background to succeed. Yet both composers were united by an extraordinary gift for melody, a profound understanding of chamber music, and an ability to speak with unmistakable sincerity through the clarinet.

    Brahms's Clarinet Quintet, composed in 1891, is often regarded as one of the crowning achievements of the chamber music repertoire. Written near the end of his life, it is a work of reflection, memory, and emotional depth—a composer looking back over a lifetime of artistic experience.

    Just four years later, a nineteen-year-old Samuel Coleridge-Taylor chose to engage with the same genre. The challenge was considerable. Brahms's quintet had already become a landmark work, admired throughout Europe. Yet rather than imitating his predecessor, Coleridge-Taylor responded by creating something distinctly his own: a work of lyrical generosity, rhythmic vitality, and remarkable confidence. Encouraged by his teacher Charles Villiers Stanford not to follow Brahms too closely, he embraced the influence while refusing to be defined by it.

    Hearing these works together reveals more than a historical connection. It allows us to witness a creative conversation across generations. We hear how musical ideas travel, how traditions evolve, and how new voices emerge from established forms. Brahms becomes more than a destination; he becomes a starting point. Coleridge-Taylor becomes more than a promising young composer; he becomes a powerful example of artistic independence.

    The project brings together clarinetist Vítor Fernandes alongside an exceptional group of young international musicians: violinists Amia Janicki and Raquel Areal Martínez, violist Natanael Ferreira, and cellist Aleksey Shadrin. Together, they represent some of the most exciting artistic voices of their generation, with careers that already span many of Europe’s leading institutions, festivals, academies, and orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, the Verbier Festival, the Kronberg Academy, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and major international competitions.

    Coming from different countries, traditions, and artistic backgrounds, these musicians share a deep commitment to chamber music and artistic dialogue. Their collaboration reflects the very themes explored within the program itself: influence and individuality, inheritance and renewal, tradition and discovery. Just as Brahms and Coleridge-Taylor engage in a conversation across generations, these artists bring together distinct voices and experiences to create a fresh and compelling perspective on two extraordinary masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire.

    Echoes & Origins ultimately invites audiences to reflect on a question that extends far beyond music: how do we honor what we inherit while discovering who we are? Between memory and possibility, influence and individuality, these two quintets offer different answers—each compelling, each deeply human, and each as relevant today as when it was first written.

    Johannes Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 (1891)—composed near the end of his life—stands as a late-Romantic masterpiece: inward, autumnal, and suffused with quiet resignation. It became a model for generations of composers.

    Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Clarinet Quintet in F-sharp minor, Op. 10 (1895)—written when he was just 19—enters into this legacy not as imitation, but as transformation. Encouraged by his teacher, Charles Villiers Stanford, not to follow Brahms too closely, Coleridge-Taylor forged a work of rhythmic vitality, lyrical warmth, and structural confidence. As a young Black composer navigating the late-Victorian classical world, his quintet also stands as a rare and powerful assertion of creative individuality within a tradition that rarely made space for voices like his.

    Together, these works form a compelling arc: one is an echo of a lifetime’s musical reflection, the other a bold origin point for a young composer asserting his voice within the chamber tradition.

  • Johannes Brahms's Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 is one of the masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire. Composed in 1891 for the clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld, it belongs to Brahms's final creative period and reflects the introspection, warmth, and emotional depth that characterize his late works. Its rich dialogue between clarinet and strings creates a world of nostalgia, lyricism, and quiet intensity.

    Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Clarinet Quintet in F-sharp minor, Op. 10 was written just four years later, when the composer was only nineteen years old. A student of Charles Villiers Stanford at the Royal College of Music in London, Coleridge-Taylor drew inspiration from the Romantic tradition while developing a distinctive musical voice of his own. The quintet combines lyrical beauty, rhythmic vitality, and remarkable compositional confidence, revealing a young composer already in full command of the form.

    Presented together, these two works illuminate a fascinating artistic dialogue across generations. One reflects the wisdom and reflection of a mature master; the other captures the ambition and imagination of a remarkable young composer at the beginning of his journey.

  • Total Duration: ~ 71 minutes

  • Vítor Fernandes (Clarinet)
    Amia Janicki (Violin)
    Raquel Areal Martínez (Violin)
    Natanael Ferreira (Viola)
    Aleksey Shadrin (Cello)

From Leipzig to Naples

Parallel Voices: The Clarinet’s Late-Romantic Journey

  • Carl Reinecke (1824–1910)
    Introduction & Allegro Appassionato in C Minor, Op. 256
    I. Introduction
    II. Allegro
    Duration: ~8 minutes

     

    Charles Stanford (1852–1924)
    Three Intermezzi, Op. 13
    I. Andante espressivo
    II. Allegro agitato
    III. Allegretto scherzando
    Duration: ~9 minutes

     

    Felix Draeseke (1835–1913)
    Clarinet Sonata in B-flat Major, Op. 38
    I. Allegro moderato
    II. Adagio ma non troppo
    III. Scherzo: Allegro molto vivace
    IV. Allegro con brio
    Duration: ~25 minutes

     

    Carlo della Giacoma (1858–1929)
    Fantasia on Themes from Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, Op. 83
    Duration: ~11 minutes

  • The late nineteenth century witnessed a remarkable flowering of the clarinet repertoire. Across Europe, composers from different countries, traditions, and musical backgrounds were drawn to the instrument's unique ability to sing, narrate, and communicate with an almost vocal immediacy.

    From Leipzig to Naples explores this extraordinary moment in musical history through works by Carl Reinecke, Charles Villiers Stanford, Felix Draeseke, and Carlo della Giacoma. Although separated by geography and shaped by distinct cultural traditions, these composers shared a fascination with the clarinet's expressive possibilities. Their works reveal an instrument capable of moving effortlessly between intimacy and virtuosity, lyricism and drama, reflection and passion.

    At the heart of the program lies a broader story about European musical culture at the height of the Romantic era. Ideas travelled freely across borders. Composers looked beyond their national traditions while retaining their individual voices. German symphonic thinking, Irish lyricism, and Italian operatic expression coexisted within a vibrant artistic landscape in which diversity and exchange were not contradictions, but sources of creative vitality.

    The clarinet became one of the ideal instruments through which these different musical languages could speak. In Reinecke, it displays elegance and brilliance; in Stanford, warmth and poetic intimacy; in Draeseke, symphonic depth and architectural breadth; and in della Giacoma, the theatrical flair and emotional immediacy of the opera house.

    The project brings together Vítor Fernandes and two distinguished pianists of international standing, Vasco Dantas and Théo Fouchenneret, artists who share a commitment to exploring compelling repertoire beyond the familiar canon. Together, they seek to rediscover works that deserve a more prominent place on today's concert stages while revealing the rich artistic connections that shaped European musical life at the turn of the twentieth century.

    From Leipzig to Naples is ultimately a portrait of the clarinet at the height of the Romantic imagination: an instrument through which composers from across Europe found parallel voices for some of their most personal, expressive, and compelling musical ideas.

  • Carl Reinecke (1824–1910)
    Introduction & Allegro Appassionato in C minor, Op. 256

    Composed late in Reinecke’s career, this brilliant concert work combines lyrical elegance with virtuosic brilliance. The reflective introduction gives way to an energetic Allegro, showcasing the clarinet’s agility, warmth, and expressive range.

    Charles Villiers Stanford (1852–1924)
    Three Intermezzi, Op. 13

    These charming miniatures reveal Stanford’s gift for melody and character. Influenced by the German Romantic tradition yet unmistakably personal in voice, the Three Intermezzi move between lyricism, intimacy, and playful wit, offering a glimpse into one of Ireland’s most significant composers.

    Felix Draeseke (1835–1913)
    Clarinet Sonata in B-flat Major, Op. 38

    Widely regarded as one of the finest clarinet sonatas of the nineteenth century, Draeseke’s expansive work combines symphonic breadth with chamber music intimacy. Richly structured and emotionally varied, it places clarinet and piano on equal footing, creating a compelling dialogue that unfolds across four contrasting movements.

    Carlo della Giacoma (1858–1929)
    Fantasia on Themes from Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, Op. 83

    Drawing on melodies from Mascagni’s celebrated opera, this virtuosic fantasy transforms the drama and passion of Italian verismo into a dazzling concert piece. Operatic lyricism, brilliant passagework, and theatrical flair combine to bring the recital to an exhilarating conclusion.

  • Total Duration: ~53 minutes

     

    The program may be extended into a full recital format (two parts with intermission) by adding complementary repertoire upon request.

  • Vítor Fernandes (Clarinet)
    Vasco Dantas (Piano)
    Théo Fouchenneret (Piano)

    The program may be presented with either Vasco Dantas or Théo Fouchenneret, depending on artist availability and presenter preference.