Canções portuguesas

Featuring

Paul Hillier
Coro Casa da Música
Fernando Lopes-Graça

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Performer Biography

Paul Hillier has received multiple GRAMMY awards, including one for Best Choral Recording with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and another for David Lang's The Little Match Girl Passion.

Compositional Technique

The unaccompanied choral works on this album blend folk style with rigorous classical technique, showing influences from his teachers and a willingness to explore atonality, while maintaining melody as primary expression.

Historical Context

Lopes-Graça's musical career was hindered by his membership in the Communist party and opposition to Portugal's Estado Novo regime under Salazar, leading to teaching bans and imprisonment.

Composer Biography

Fernando Lopes-Graça, a significant figure in 20th-century Portuguese music, was born in Tomar and played piano in the local cinema before moving to Lisbon at 17.

Performer Biography

Paul Hillier, the conductor, is a versatile artist with a career spanning singing, conducting, composition, and writing, and was the founding director of the Hilliard Ensemble.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Lopes-Graça, often compared to Bartók, deeply integrated Portuguese folk songs and traditions into his compositions, beginning this work while studying in Paris.

Composition History

Lopes-Graça's monumental work, Canções regionais portuguesas, involved compiling 24 volumes and over 200 folk-song harmonisations, steadily incorporating these melodies into his own music.