Fernando Lopes-Graça - Piano Concertos (Eldar Nebolsin)

Information

Composer: Fernando Lopes-Graça

• (01) Piano Concerto No. 1
• (04) Piano Concerto No. 2

Eldar Nebolsin, piano
Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música
Matthias Bamert, conductor

Date: 2013
Label: Naxos
https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.572817

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Review

The two piano concertos of Portuguese composer Fernando Lopes-Graça date from 1940 ad 1950 (rev. 1971) respectively, but have a lot in common stylistically. Both share a basis in folk music, but don’t seem to quote any particular melody slavishly. The liner notes suggest a kinship to Bartók, but Prokofiev also comes to mind. The Second Concerto is a darker work than the First, but not unduly so. They are both very colorfully scored; in fact, the opening of the First Concerto bears a striking resemblance to Bernard Herrmann’s score to The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (sound clips), although the film obviously came rather later. Still, you will get the idea when listening.

Lopes-Graça also reveals a certain fondness for sequential repetition similar to Herrmann’s, and this tends to undercut the fact that the quick movements mostly employ traditional sonata forms (by blurring the distinction between development and mere ornamental repetition). Still, the music remains really enjoyable, and it would be difficult to imagine a more effective presentation of the virtuosic solo parts than that offered by Eldar Nebolsin. He clearly has fun with the quick outer movements, and especially the finales, with their touches of rustic humor. The central slow movements, in contrast, are poetic and often exquisite. Their brevity recalls similar movements in Schumann’s major works, while the predominance of quick music reveals the composer’s abundance of youthful energy.

The Porto orchestra plays very capably for the reliable Matthias Bamert, although the engineering is somewhat dull in the upper registers. Lopes-Graça’s scoring clearly could glitter more than it does here, but the problem isn’t serious enough to dampen your listening pleasure to any major degree. It just takes a few moments of adjustment. These works are a real find; it would be wonderful to hear them live. Until that opportunity arrises, this disc is just the ticket.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2013/July13/Lopes-Graca_orchestral_8572817-92.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2014/Feb14/LopesGraca_PCs_857281.htm
https://www.audaud.com/fernando-lopes-graca-piano-concertos-nos-1-2-eldar-nebolsin-p-orquestra-sinfonico-do-porto-casa-da-musica-matthias-bamert-naxos/
https://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=8.572817&languageid=EN
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lopes-Graca-Concertos-Matthais-Orquestra-Sinf%C3%AF%C2%BF%C2%BDnica/dp/B00PO534FO

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Fernando Lopes-Graça (Tomar, 17 December 1906 – Parede, near Cascais, November 27, 1994) was a Portuguese composer, conductor and musicologist. As a composer, Lopes-Graça was influenced by Portuguese popular music, which he also studied, continuing the work of the composer and musicologist Francisco de Lacerda. He completed the Dicionário de Música (Dictionary of Music), started by his teacher, Tomás Borba, himself a composer. Lopes-Graça was a member of the Portuguese Communist Party and strenuously opposed the Estado Novo and its leader António de Oliveira Salazar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Lopes-Gra%C3%A7a

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Eldar Nebolsin (born 1974) is an Uzbek-born classical pianist. Nebolsin started studying piano in his native country, and later moved to Madrid to study with Dimitri Bashkirov at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía. His international career started after his triumph at the XI Santander Competition and the 2005 Sviatoslav Richter Competition. Since then Nebolsin's international career have taken him to the stages of some of the most famous orchestras of the world. He has been a piano professor at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" since 2013. Nebolsin currently records for the Naxos label.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldar_Nebolsin
https://www.eldarnebolsinpiano.com/

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