25 MAY to 23 JUNE 2023
Almada, Portugal
Artistic Director: Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro

Welcome to the 2023 edition of the Capuchos Music Festival!

In spring, cherry blossoms, in summer, the cuckoo.
In autumn, the moon, and in winter, the snow, bright and cold.

Eihei Dogen (1200-1253)

The Capuchos Music Festival 2023 is inspired by the seasons of the year, creating an arc across four centuries that opens with the timeless “Le Quattro Stagioni”, composed by Vivaldi 300 years ago, and concludes with the Portuguese premiere of “The American Four Seasons”, written by Philip Glass in 2009, alongside the seasonal cycles by Tchaikovsky, in the 19th century, and Piazzolla, in the 20th century.

The succession of the seasons is one of the evidences of our perception of the passage of time, and FMC’23 will present concerts dedicated to various temporal dimensions: with choral works from the time of the founding of the Convent of Capuchos, the Renaissance; the time of creation in Darius Milhaud’s “La Création du Monde” and the redemptive apocalypse of Olivier Messiaen’s “Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps”; repertoire inspired by the summer time, such as Hector Berlioz’s “Les Nuits d’Eté”, Samuel Barber’s “Summer Music”, George Gershwin’s “Summertime”…

FMC’23 takes place, as usual, at the site that gives it its name, the beautiful Convento dos Capuchos, and, for the first time, features three concerts at the Teatro Municipal Joaquim Benite.

Renowned artists and ensembles will be present, including internationally acclaimed groups such as the Venice Baroque Orchestra “I Solisti Veneti”, the Budapest Chamber Orchestra “Franz Liszt”, and the Hermès Quartet, as well as prominent national ensembles, such as the choir Officium Ensemble, the DSCH Schostakovich Ensemble, and the new musical projects 100 Caminhos and Juventus Ensemble, which will bring together young and established Portuguese musicians.

Among the leading international soloists who will be present, stand out the violinists Mario Hossen, Jack Liebeck, and Esther Hoppe, the singers Lena Belkina, Ana Karina Rossi, and Deniz Uzun, the latter in her Portuguese debut, the cellist Christian Poltéra, the clarinetist Pascal Moraguès, the pianist Marianna Shirinyan, the bandoneonist Marcelo Nisinman, and last but not least the legendary American pianist Stephen Kovacevich.

Throughout the festival, works by various Portuguese composers from different periods will be performed, from the Renaissance to contemporary music, featuring world premieres and highlighting the concert “Carta Branca a António Victorino d’Almeida”, celebrating his 70 years of artistic activity.

In 2023, the cycle of the now emblematic “Conversas dos Capuchos”, curated and moderated by Carlos Vaz Marques, will be dedicated to the centenaries of the births of Mário Cesariny de Vasconcelos, Natália Correia, and Eugénio de Andrade.

And, for the first time, the Festival will present Masterclasses dos Capuchos, led by internationally renowned teachers, pre-concert talks called Prelúdios dos Capuchos, moderated by João Almeida, and a Caminhada dos Capuchos hike in the Protected Landscape of the Costa da Caparica Fossil Cliff, where the Convent is located.

The poem that serves as the epigraph for this text was written in the 13th century by the Zen Buddhist master Eihei Dogen. In its seemingly simple yet expressive way of describing the beauty of the seasons, Dogen connects us to the essence of elements that follow the rhythm of the year. Dogen gave his poem the title Innate Spirit, a spirit of contemplation, discovery, and sharing that inspires this 2023 edition of the Festival dos Capuchos.

Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro
Capuchos Festival Artistic Director