WNMD 2025 · CONCERT 4
Springs of Music / Primaveras da música
31-05-2025 · 18h00
Casa da Música, Sala Suggia
Porto
Bilheteira · Box Office (CdM)

MEET THE COMPOSERS #2 · in-concert talks
Participants: Veljko Nenadić, Helena Skljarov, Yuri Demetz, João Caldas
Meet the Composers provides a platform for creators to share their perspectives and shed light on their works.

ORQUESTRA SINFÓNICA DO PORTO CASA DA MÚSICA
Gamelan
Participative choir
Brad Lubman · conductor
Emily Hindrichs · soprano

VELJKO NENADIĆ (Serbia, 1998) YCA
Gorgons – Three Mythical Creatures (2022), 10’
ISCM Serbian Section submission

HELENA SKLJAROV (Croatia, 1993) YCA
The Portrait of Dora P. (2023), 10'
ISCM Croatian Section submission

YURI DEMETZ (Italy, 1995) YCA
All-encompassing Snapshots (2022–2023), 9’
Individual submission

JOÃO CALDAS (Portugal, 1995) YCA
Esta Montanha já foi Fogo (2023), 9'

—

JAMES TENNEY (USA, 1934–2006)
Last Spring in Toronto (2000), 16'

LIZA LIM (Australia, 1966)
Fatimah/Jubilation of Flowers (2021-2022), 10'

YCA · ISCM Young Composers Award candidate
WP · world premiere

[ENG]

The Porto Symphony Orchestra Casa da Música performs very recent works by composers born in the 1990s, including Esta Montanha já foi Fogo (paraphrase of a comment by the painter Paul Cézanne), a 2024 piece by the Portuguese composer João Caldas, who was Young Composer in Residence at Casa da Música in 2023. In this programme, we can hear Last Spring in Toronto by James Tenney, a pioneer in electronic music in the USA and a piece for soprano and orchestra by the Australian Liza Lim. A concert conducted by the Brad Lubman with the presence of Emily Hindrichs, a soprano with great experience in the field of opera, alongside a Participatory Choir and the Gamelão Ensemble from Casa da Música. Several works presented are candidates for the Young Composers Award at the World New Music Days 2025.
This will be a moment of extraordinary artistic richness, promising a musical experience fully worthy of the talent and excellence of the performers involved.

[PT]

A Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música interpreta obras muito recentes de compositores nascidos nos anos 90, incluindo Esta Montanha já foi Fogo (paráfrase de um comentário do pintor Paul Cézanne), uma peça de 2024 do compositor português João Caldas que foi o Jovem Compositor em Residência na Casa da Música em 2023. No mesmo programa, podemos ouvir Last Spring in Toronto de James Tenney, um compositor pioneiro no campo da música electrónica nos EUA e uma peça para soprano e orquestra da australiana Liza Lim. Um concerto dirigido pelo maestro norte-americano Brad Lubman com a presença de Emily Hindrichs, soprano com grande experiência no terreno da ópera, ao lado de um Coro Participativo e do Ensemble de Gamelão da Casa da Música. Várias das obras apresentadas são candidatas ao prémio Young Composers Award do World New Music Days 2025.
Este será um momento de extraordinária riqueza artística, que promete oferecer uma experiência musical plena à altura do talento e da excelência dos intérpretes envolvidos.

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PROGRAMME NOTES

VELJKO NENADIĆ (Serbia, 1998) YCA
Gorgons – Three Mythical Creatures (2022)
ISCM Serbian Section submission
— Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa, daughters of the sea god Phorcys, were foremost among mythical beasts in Greek mythology. In early classical art, they were portrayed as winged female creatures; their hair consisted of snakes, and they were flat-nosed, with tongues lolling out. The music of Gorgons – Three Mythical Creatures seeks to evoke and transpose the essence of these beasts through two contrasting musical states: a state of trance/chaos – characterized by fast, energetic, and aggressive sections, dense textures, and extreme registers (in the first and third movements – Stheno and Medusa); and a meditative state – characterized by inner stillness and contemplation (in the second movement – Euryale). While certain elements of these three movements consist of fragments derived from Balkan traditional music (specific ornaments, asymmetrical aksak rhythms, microtones, and heterophony), the folklore present throughout the composition is primordial and transgeographical, not tied to any particular region.

HELENA SKLJAROV (Croatia, 1993) YCA
The Portrait of Dora P. (2023)
ISCM Croatian Section submission
— The symphony The Portrait of Dora P. was composed for a concert commemorating the 100th anniversary of the composer Dora Pejačević’s death. Its performance by the Croatian Radio-Television Symphony Orchestra with maestro Pascal Rophé occurred in March 2023. This symphony incorporates video and electronics as integral components, depicting the process of painting a portrait of Dora Pejačević. Throughout the symphony, the portrait's creation unfolds, starting with using only three primary colours. Dora’s compositions serve as the source of sound for each primary colour, gradually merging as the symphony progresses. More or less modified quotations from Dora's works can be heard throughout the composition. The symphony title is a play on Dora’s signature, reflecting her practice of using only the initial of her first name (D. Pejačević) to conceal her gender to secure performance opportunities for her compositions, given the prevailing attitudes towards female composers at the time. The video and title emphasise Dora's challenges as a woman in music.

YURI DEMETZ (Serbia, 1998) YCA
All-encompassing Snapshots (2022–2023)
Individual submission
— The oxymoron in the title refers to a feeling of inner unrest and urgency created by the desire to obtain a boundless and all-encompassing impression of a specific situation; a necessity to almost “inhale” everything surrounding in a direct and visceral way. It is, in particular, this idea of vigorously, almost spasmodically inhaling that plays a central role in this piece, as it is being musically transferred onto the whole orchestra. The musically represented physical gestures range between deep and robust lunge-filling inhalations, restless and convulsive gasps and frantic but hesitant exhalations. There are also some moments in which the actual sound of an analogue photo camera is being represented and orchestrated. This creates a contrast between the forceful breaths and the simplicity of capturing a photograph. The act of taking a picture with the photo camera itself represents an attempt to channel that very feeling of urgency.

JOÃO CALDAS (Portugal, 1995) YCA
Esta Montanha já foi Fogo (2024)
— There is a certain danger in writing about music, especially music yet to be heard. Words may help to reveal the sounds, but they can also obscure what remains unsaid. And what remains unsaid is always almost everything. With this in mind, I offer only a few brief notes on what shaped this piece into what it is. The mountain in the title refers to Montagne Sainte-Victoire, which Paul Cézanne painted countless times throughout his life. And it is after Cézanne that Esta Montanha já foi Fogo — directly translated to This Mountain Was Once Fire — comes into being. In his conversations with Joachim Gasquet, Cézanne speaks of his search for the force of things, the virginity of the world, his attempt to capture this force — which lies beyond the figurative — on canvas. Without any pretension of reaching Cézanne’s metaphysical vision, it is nonetheless through this gaze — or should I say, listening? — that this piece was written. The music is raw, at times rough. Not necessarily violent, but rather unfinished, unrefined matter. The different “sonic characters” of the piece each possess their own materiality, their own colour, their own texture. Among them, the most fertile and vital in capturing this telluric force is the percussion section, with ten suspended cymbals and two tam-tams. The sound matter of these cymbal tremolos forms a convex force — from the inside out — in which one can hear water, earth, air, and, of course, fire. The directors Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet — who introduced me to Cézanne — remind us that the camera must not only be an eye, but a gaze. I agree, and for me, composing must also be a way of listening. Listening, like Cézanne, for the fire in things.
"Regardez cette Sainte-Victoire, quel élan! Ces blocs étaient du feu... Il y a encore du feu en eux..."
Paul Cézanne

JAMES TENNEY (USA, 1934–2006)
Last Spring in Toronto (2000)
— [Programme notes available soon]

LIZA LIM (Australia, 1966)
Fatimah/Jubilation of Flowers (2021–2022)
— [Programme notes available soon]

WNMD #4 • ORQUESTRA SINFÓNICA DO PORTO