Dear Amigos,
Happy Halloween !
That means it is the end of October – a month that brought the Amigos the wonderful Caminus Duo ! What a discovery these local musical artist are! They got our attention with a most varied selection of pieces – there was something for all tastes – and they captured our hearts with their harmonious, charming and, yes, loving rendering of their repertoire. Joana and Mikhail took us on a journey from Portugal via Bohemia to the vastness of Russia and back west to Argentina. And never did I feel unsafe or out of place. Of course it helped to get Mikhail`s verbal introductions. I wonder how many of us had heard the Sonata by Luis de Freitas Branco before. What lovely 20th century music there is nearby. I have always loved the symphonic pieces by this Portuguese composer and the folkloric Suite Alentejana is a bijou. Thank you Joana and Mikhail and lots of success.
November brings us a different kind of musical offering – Craig Ogden, the great Australian guitarist, comes to us for the second time and he is definitely a crowd pleaser – if you allow me to use this term. What I mean is that he is versatile and comprehensive in the selection of his programming. We are in for examples of guitar music from Bach to George Harrison, via Dowland, Guiliani and Albeniz, inter alia.
Craig Ogden
The first evening, Tuesday, November 8th also includes Lennon/McCartney, and Thursday, November 10th brings Django Reinhardt together with Granados. Usual place, usual time – make your reservations, and PLEASE, remember, after having made a reservation and finding out at the last moment that you will NOT be able to come, cancel your reservation. We seem to have a full house each concert evening and Cristina often has to send people away – do us this courtesy. Thank you !
Copyright protection: I thought it might be interesting to tell you about this now very active, and costly! aspect of our concerts. SPA – Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores – has the legal right to be notified by all concert organisers of their programming. All works by composers who died longer than 70 years ago are in the public domaine and are thus free. However, all compositions created after 1946 are copyright protected and we get charged. We received an invoice of €62.10 for the October concerts on the basis of having played Freitas Branco, Piazzola and Martinu. Please do not ask me how these calculations are made!!! I shall NOT, however, encourage our artists to stick only to “dead” music in their future programming in order to save money. I promise !
I also promised to mention in my Newsletters from time to time our sponsors and other benefactors. Without the generous financial help of Blevins Francks, Quinta Properties, ValVerde Apartments and, of course, your extra donations, for which I thank very much, we would not be able to continue our varied music making. Also, our hosts, Maria and Antonio Farajotta are most integral and indispensable partners in our success with the most amazingly generous conditions they afford us, and of late, the best catering available. Thank you all !
One more item of Amigo news I would like to communicate in this Newsletter: Amiga Leonor Griesler was kind enough to offer her help and so she joined the Executive Committee. She will take on some of the administrative work. The sending of this Newsletter will be one of her first tasks. Thank you Leonor!
See you soon at Os Agostos,
Hugs,
Helga Hampton