"Novas Flores de Música"
27 November 2021 - 21h00
Novas Flores de Música
Officium Ensemble & Sérgio Silva (organ)
Sé de Faro, Faro, Portugal
New works by the Portuguese composers Eurico Carrapatoso, João Madureira, João Santos and João Vaz, with a renaissance setting of verses primi Toni by Rodrigues Coelho.
Officium Ensemble and Sérgio Silva (organ).
HIGHLIGHTS
The Splendour of Portuguese Polyphny
Duarte Lobo's Missa Cantate Domino, 8vv
9 March 2019 - Festival de Arte Sacro - MADRID
Officium performed in Madrid's Festival de Arte Sacro with a striking programme: Duarte Lobo's 2 choir Missa Cantate Domino, alongside with other polychoral works by Pedro de Cristo, Melgás and Estêvão de Brito. The programme encompassed other works for more than 5 vocal parts by Cardoso, Filipe de Magalhães and the Spaniard Lopes-Morago, highlighting the splendour of Portuguese polyphony.
MONTEVERDI, 450 years: Books of Madrigals 1&2
OFFICIUM ENSEMBLE
Viola da Gamba | Sofia Diniz
Organ | Sérgio Silva
Director | Pedro Teixeira
September 2017 - CCB Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon
Books 1 & 2
Marking the 450th anniversary of Claudio Monteverdi, Officium Ensemble performed the amazing first two books of madrigals at CCB, Lisbon, with a thrilling formation: vocal ensemble of 12 singers, viola da gamba and organ. The different sonorities of both instruments were entwined with the ensemble's renowned crystal sound, bringing Monteverdi's masterpieces to a whole new level.
«The Dutch-Portuguese War»
OFFICIUM ENSEMBLE
Reciter | Luís Madureira
Organ | Sérgio Silva
Director | Pedro Teixeira
November 2016 - CCB Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon
March 2016 - Casa da Música, Oporto
In this programme, Officium Ensemble focused on what many consider to have been the first global war. Portugal – under Habsburg Spanish rule since 1580 – tries to keep control of the Indies spice trade, while the Netherlands sends its own expeditions to take over one of the most valuable and profitable trade markets in the world at the time. Brazil and Africa were also targeted. During this period, Portugal regains its independency (1640) and manages to regain Brazil and Africa, but loses the Far East and South Asia.
The concert revived these pugnacious times through a musical structure of period repertoire, interspaced by a series of sermons by Padre António Vieira (1608-1697). The Portuguese desire for independency, the struggle to keep an empire, and the political meanderings of such a troubled epoch were the key ingredients of this remarkable and surprising programme.
In 2016, Officium Ensemble premiered six works by six Portuguese contemporary composers at the Sanctuary of Fátima, Portugal.
The concert was held during the 100th Anniversary of the Fatima Apparitions. Works by Alfredo Teixeira, Carlos Marecos, João Madureira, Nuno Côrte-Real, Rui Paulo Teixeira and Sérgio Azevedo, upon texts by Sister Lúcia, scored for 24 singers, accordion and piano. In 2017, Officium Ensemble presented the same exciting concert in CCB (Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon) on the 18 March, and Casa da Música (Oporto) on the 26 March.
La Serenissima
Sacred music from renaissance Venice
September 2016 - Pieterskerk, Utrecht - Holland
Utrecht Early Music Festival Oude Muziek 2016
"Last year Pedro Teixeira and his Officium Ensemble captured the hearts of the Festival audience with a sensational performance. There must therefore be many who are eagerly looking forward to the return of this young Portuguese ensemble."
In our Utrecht Oude Muziek concert, Officium Ensemble focused on the splendour of Venice polyphony, around Adriaen Willaert’s Missa Quæramus cum pastoribus, which is based on the motet of the same name by his teacher Jean Mouton.
As last year,we were touched at having received an enthusiastic prolonged standing ovation!
Tenebræ
Modern day premieres of Lopes-Morago for the Holy Week - critical edition by José Abreu (University of Coimbra, Portugal)
July 2016 - Convent of Sta Maria de Cós | Alcobaça | Portugal
CISTERMÚSICA 2016
Officium Ensemble performed several modern day premieres of Estêvão Lopes-Morago at Cistermusica Festival, in an amazing venue. This concert programme was entirely prepared through a single manuscript source that contains a vast set of works by Lopes-Morago. The selected pieces were to be sung during Palm Sunday and Holy Week, one of the most intense stages of the liturgical year. This completely unprecedented repertoire includes music for Matins, Lamentations and Responsories, and also a mass, hymn and motet for Palm Sunday liturgy. Critical edition by José Abreu, from the portuguese University of Coimbra. A true discovery of Portuguese polyphony was the core of this concert by Officium Ensemble.
Tropário para uma pastora de ovelhas mansas
Fátima, 3rd April 2016
Pedro Teixeira
Officium Ensemble's concert in Fátima was a huge success. Six world premieres of six Portuguese contemporary composers on the 3rd April 2016, at the Sanctuary of Fátima, Portugal.
The concert was held during the 100th Anniversary of the Fatima Apparitions. Works by Alfredo Teixeira, Carlos Marecos, João Madureira, Nuno Côrte-Real, Rui Paulo Teixeira and Sérgio Azevedo, upon texts by Sister Lúcia, scored for 24 singers, accordion and piano.
Officium Ensemble - Pedro Teixeira
Accordion: Octávio Martins
Piano: João Lucena e Vale.
Good job everyone!
Check out a selection of photos of the performance here!
Huelgas Ensemble, Ludovice Ensemble and Officium Ensemble - September 2015, Lisbon
Paul van Nevel
Officium Ensemble, Ludovice Ensemble and Huelgas Ensemble teamed up to present "La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina", an opera by Francesca Caccini.
In the words of the conductor Paul van Nevel, the opera La Liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina is an “almost unknown opera”, but also “a milestone in Italian music from the first half of the 17th century”.
Written by Francesca Caccini, with a libretto by Ferdinando Saracinelli, this work had its première on 3 February 1625, at Villa di Poggio Imperiale, in Florence, on the occasion of the visit of Prince Wladyslaw Vasa, the heir to the Polish throne at that time. The work had been commissioned by the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Maria Maddalena of Austria (who had married Cosimo de’ Medici), and, with this opera, whose libretto is full of references to both local and international political contexts of that time, her main aim was to make the Polish Crown Prince marry her daughter.
Utrecht concert with standing ovation
Officium Ensemble's concert in Utrecht Oudemusiek Festival, Saturday the 5th of September, was sold out since early July. Officium performed THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE TUDORS: BYRD, SHEPPARD AND TALLIS on a balanced and structured concert, getting a standing ovation for several minutes. Audivi vocem (Duarte Lobo) was the encore Officium Ensemble offered to the thrilled audience.