Lisbon Guitar Quartet

New project 2019

Lisbon Guitar Quartet feat. Teresa Macedo (voice)
 “Lisboa Colors” 
Modern Portuguese songs

Teresa Macedo was born in Lisbon 1982. She started her career has a professional actress in theatre and television productions. As a theatre actress she began soon to study also music. Teresa attended the Conservatório Nacional de Música de Lisboa and studied Lyrical Singing. Later, she chose to take her Jazz knowledge a step further and attended the Academia dos Amadores de Música.

Prima Luce – 4 Guitars

• “Prima Luce” – José Dias

• “Pequeno conto a propósito de uma memoria” – Francisco Tavares

• “Prisma” – André M. Santos

• “Carta para a Quinta de S. Domingos” – Cláudio Cruz

• “Elegia a um poeta andarilho” – André M. Santos

• “Música para 4 guitarras” – Carlos Marecos

• “In-Input” – José Peixoto

• “Meditações sobre uma terra despida” – André M. Santos

4 Guitars and Orchestra

• Akasha (about 25min)

Other possible repertoire

• “Uarekena” – Sérgio Assad

• “Spin” – Andrew York

• “Hamsa” – Roland Dyens

• “Inverno Porteño” – Astor Piazzolla

• “Ocorrênia” – Manuel Durão

• “Loose Cannon” – Pachelbel (LAGQ arrangement)

• “Blue Echo” – Chet Atkins

Videos 

Photos

“(…)LxGQ gives us, indeed, an invaluable counterpoint exploring new territory by expanding and enriching the repertoire of this instrument that they so well mastered: the quartet.”

“ listening to the lisbon guitar quartet you can feel the strength and rigor with which they interpret the works, the care and detail working with the timbre and, not least !, also admire their ability to communicate (with each other and with the public)…”

by Luis Tinoco, Portuguese composer

Lisbon Colors

Lisbon Guitar Quartet & Teresa Macedo, voice

Contraste Records, 2018, 1 CD, Catalogue number: CR201801

Prima Luce

Label: Scherzo Editions, 2014, 1 CD

Faced with the immense offer of quality material available in classical music, the Lisbon Guitar Quartet has always sought to achieve a unique and original experience when designing their program concerts, aiming to combine both quality and singularity.

This was, again, their main aim in designing a program entirely based on Portuguese composers and written for or by this formation. Moreover, all the pieces have been composed in the XXIth century, thus giving the program a fiercely contemporary stance. This was made possible by the participation of composers that are themselves members of the Lisbon Guitar Quartet (André M. Santos and José Dias) and others from the contemporary composition scene in Portugal (Carlos Marecos, Manuel Durão, Cláudio Cruz, Francisco Tavares).

The album features the famous Portuguese percussionist Pedro Carneiro on a piece by Carlos Marecos for four guitars and marimba.

Prima Luce, by José Dias, is divided in two very different movements. The first displays images of constant echo, highlighted by how themes are passed on from each one of the guitars to the others. The second movement developing an idea evolving from an initial cluster that progressively becomes more clear, rhythmic and intense.

André M. Santos has written two distinct pieces for the Quartet. In Elegia a um poeta andarilho he picks up some of the most well-known themes from José Afonso’s songs and he uses them as the basis for the whole musical work, in which a memory of the past is blended with a flirt with new soundscapes, leading the listener to feel as a traveller between songs from past and unforgettable times. Meditações sobre uma terra despida, originally written for eight guitars, portrays the feeling left by observing the current abandon of a place well past its golden era. The piece’s bipolar nature is patent in two very distinct sections: one of them, the first, marked by energy and virtuosity, and a calm and melancholic second one, which precedes a return to the initial theme.

Manuel Durão has divided his piece (Ocorrência II) in three movements. The second one, very static and introspective, stands in clear contrast with the others, full of energy and with constant changes in soundscapes. This piece was in fact the first one that was ever written for the Quartet in 2006.

Francisco Tavares explores reverberation of the four guitars and a sonic continuum present during most of the piece. These elements do blend with a simple and easy to memorize melody, leading the listener to feel strangely familiar with something new and original.

The piece by Cláudio Cruz Uma carta para a quinta de São Domingos pays tribute to his grandfather and explores two distinct soundscapes. Initially, the movement comes and goes from a general pianissimo to the four guitars in rasgueado fortissimo, leading to a lively rhythm in the section that ends the piece. Towards the end, in a progressive diminuendo, the composer explores some of the timbre resources that guitar has to offer.

Carlos Marecos’ piece is the only one featured in the album that resorts to instruments other than guitars. It was written for four guitars and marimba, having the latter been played in the album by the renowned Portuguese percussionist Pedro Carneiro. The writing of this piece was a tribute to Richard Wagner, in the bicentenary of his death.

Música para quatro guitarras e marimba starts with a short movement using harmonics which slowly start to evolve in all guitars. In this section, the famous Tristan Chord is used. The intermediate part of the piece is a constant crescendo with all the four guitars contributing to a climax that is reached in the transition to the cadence, in which the marimba assumes the central role. This piece ends with a temporary return of the most lively section recovering the initial theme in harmonics. Finally, it is noteworthy that a version of the piece for four guitars only does exist and that it will be presented in concert whenever Pedro Carneiro is not available to perform as a guest with the quartet.

This journey through recent worlds, all composed during the last decade, results in a special and unique concert that allows the listener to travel through several contemporary and distinctive languages brought by four guitars – a formation that only achieve notoriety during the XXth century and whose repertoire we expect to further enrich with this contribution.