A special evening of music by Almeida Prado at the Embassy of Brazil on Thursday, 25 April 2024 .
Three very fine musicians from the Keyboard Trust ‘stable’ had prepared two of his most significant chamber music works rarely performed in public and it was just a foretaste of the 400 works that Almeida Prado has left us.
The sixth of the 18 Cartas Celestas revealed a very individual sound world written obviously by someone who knew the intimate secrets of the keyboard.Brilliantly played by Ellis Thomas it was just a foretaste for the extraordinary four movement cello Sonata that revealed the colour and style of a highly original composer unjustly neglected.
Whilst some of his piano music has been recorded by Naxos there is as yet no recording of the cello sonata which on tonight’s showing is something that needs rectifying.The concert was video recorded for the Keyboard Trust web site and hopefully this might encourage the powers to be to issue a commercial recording of a very important work to add to the cello repertoire.It was played with great conviction and poetic artistry by Benedict Swindells and Ivelina Krasteva.The cello added another poetic dimension and colour to Prado’s rather spiky almost percussive style of compositions of a stimulating and provocative intellect.
Almeida Prado (1943-2010) was a pianist and composer. He wrote over 400 works and is considered to be one of Brazil’s most important composers.
Sonata for Cello and Piano
Ellis Thomas & Ivelina Krasteva, piano
Benedict Swindells, cello
José Antônio Rezende de Almeida Prado or Almeida Prado (February 8, 1943 – November 21, 2010) was an important Brazilian composer and pianist On his death, the conductor Joao Carlos Martins stated that Prado had possibly been the most important Brazilian composer ever.He wrote over 400 compositions and won various prizes for his work.
Born in Santos,Sao Paulo in 1943 he died in there in 2010, having lived there for the latter part of his life.He referred to his vast set of 18 Cartas Celestes as an “incredible journey”, and the final three were completed just months before his death. Following the luminous Brazilian night skies of No. 13, the poetic references of the final trilogy refer to constellations named after animals, Grecian and Egyptian mythology, and one last homage to a pivotal figure in Brazilian literature. Almeida Prado’s colossal piano cycle Cartas Celestes (‘Celestial Charts’) offers a paradigm of audacious invention but between 1985 and 1991 this prolific Brazilian composer also wrote a set of 14 nocturnes that display the genre’s lyrical impulses. Along with abstract elements and features such as synesthesia, used in homage to his teacher Messaien, the full range of influences can be felt in Almeida Prado’s Nocturnes: Chopin, Scriabinesque colour, bossa-nova, Brahms-like intervals, serenity and radiant songfulness. Ilhas (‘Islands’) is a mystical but programmatic work, the predecessor of Cartas Celestes in many essential element
Welsh pianist Ellis Thomas is rapidly establishing a reputation as a versatile and thoughtful pianist and chamber musician. Acclaimed as a ‘sincere and committed’ musician, offering performances ‘with real understanding’ (Julian Jacobson, Beethoven Piano Society of Europe), Ellis is equally at home with core repertoire as with contemporary and lesser-known works.
Ellis has performed throughout the UK and is regularly invited to perform at music festivals in England and Wales. In recent years, he has performed in Spain, Germany and Italy, and his performances and interviews have been broadcast on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Cymru, and S4C television.
Ellis has been awarded prizes at many competitions including the 2021 Düsseldorf Robert Schumann International Piano Competition, and First Prizes at the Wales International Piano Festival, Gregynog Young Musician, the RIBI National Young Musician and the Wales National Eisteddfod, amongst others. He has had masterclasses with Boris Berman, Imogen Cooper, Pascal Rogé, Yevgeny Sudbin, Till Felner, Péter Nagy and Steven Osborne.
Ivelina Krasteva was born in 1998 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. She started to play the piano at the age of four. Two years later she was accepted at the National School of Music and Dance in Plovdiv, where she studied with Elena Velcheva until her graduation with distinction in 2017. Ivelina is currently studying for her undergraduate degree as an HWE and WL Tovery Scholar with Ronan O’Hora and Katya Apekisheva at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
Ivelina has won numerous prizes including First Prize and a live streamed recital on Radio Plovdiv from the International Piano Competition ‘Schumann-Brahms’ in Plovdiv, Bulgaria; Third Prize at the Pera Piano Competition in Istanbul, Turkey; Second Prize at The Golden Keys Piano Competition; and Third Prize at the ‘Wiener Pianisten’, Vienna, Austria. In addition to her studies, she has worked with internationally acclaimed musicians, including Itamar Golan, Boris Petrushansky, Paul Roberts, Charles Owen, Noriko Ogawa and Stephan Moeller among others.
Born in Ishihara, Japan, Benedict Swindells moved to Stamford in Lincolnshire and first played the cello at the age of seven. After several years studying with Janet Roberts, he attended Pro Corda, a chamber music course based at Leiston Abbey in Suffolk, where he met his current teacher, Prof. Tim Lowe. At the age of 12, he joined Prof. Lowe’s class at the Guildhall’s Junior Department. After several years, he moved to St Edward’s School, Oxford as a music scholar, while continuing to have cello lessons in London. He is currently continuing his studies with Prof. Lowe as a third-year student at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
The Keyboard Trust is very proud and happy to continue this very fruitful collaboration with the Embassy of Brazil in their tireless and fearless voyage of discovery together.
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 