João Barradas, Bárbara Barradas and Cátia Moreso
Acordeon and Voice Trio
Alcobaça Monastery · Nave
August 16, 2020
Coda or the beginning of the end
In musical sciences, coda is "the section with which a song ends". Poetically, it is the beginning of the end and, in a more mundane or everyday concept, the closure of any cycle. Wrap up, as the Anglossaxians would say. At the end of the cycle in times of pandemic, Cistermúsica returned to one of its most emblematic places - the nave of the Alcobaça Monastery - to finish what was probably its most unusual edition. Unusual because of the pandemic and even because of the restoration and requalification work that was taking place at the time on the façade of this UNESCO World Heritage site.
It is rather curious that the contemplative aura characteristic of the Monastery of Alcobaça's nave overflowed into these photographs.
The focus is no longer only on the art, and the artists share the stage with the public. An audience that is naturally comfortable with the "spotlight", freely sharing the enjoyment of the show with near and dear ones, complementing it with the observation of each and every detail of the heritage surroundings.
And what is also curious is that the endings do not always contain farewells. At the end of this cycle, the team packs its bags and even sets off. But they leave to return.
Au revoir, as the French would say.
See you around.
Watch a clip of the show
A unique version of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, with João Barradas, one of the most respected and recognised accordionists in Europe nowadays, and two award-winning lyric singers, Bárbara Barradas and Cátia Moreso.
The twelve movements of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's Stabat Mater were the ideal conjuncture and foundation for the congregation of different musical practices to João Barradas's accordion. Interspersed with works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti, the accordionist also improvised some cadences using the reverberation of the nave of the Alcobaça Monastery and the characteristic polyphony of the Baroque as a starting point for the narrative of this concert.
“It was impossible to have a better return to the stage than this!”
Cátia Moreso
Mezzo-soprano in Pergolesi's Stabat Mater
“May this energy continue to nourish us all!”
Bárbara Barradas
Soprano in Pergolesi's Stabat Mater
“"Cistermúsica helps to overcome fear. It presents the city (which is starved of culture) with a programme that makes us breathe the benign air of music".”
Fernando Ribeiro
Musician, lead singer with Moonspell