A few words about our last artist, Sa Chen. This diminiutive Chinese beauty, whom we are lucky to count among OUR artists (this was her third appearance for the Amigos de Musica) gave us two evenings of music-making that can certainly be called extraordinary. Her programming alone spoke of extra special things to come; when have we ever sat spell-bound listening to the entirety of Debussy Preludes, Book 1 and 2, in one evening, and be confronted with the monstrous Sonata in B min by Liszt the next ? Well aware of the fact that this young woman is a firmly established, world-class pianist, she astounded a mesmerised full-house audience, first with an interpretation of the greatest sensitivityof the colourful world of Debussy, and the next evening it was her versatility that captivated. Easing us into our seats with a selection of Chopin Mazurkas, she certainly did not let us rest. Her rendering of the Faust story by the devilish Liszt morphed her into a fire plug ! Where does this little person find the power to bring all this passion and fervour out of our Yamaha? Amazing !!

No wonder that she is wanted all over the world, and lucky all those Amigos who were able to come to Os Agostos last week. We are also giving much pleasure to a growing number of walk-in aficionados of erudite music. We have full-house bookings now almost every concert  evening. Antonio Farajotta, our Os Agostos host, says: I have to find a way of building an extension to the auditorium. Of course jokingly, for in my opinion we could not have a better ambience and, as all our artists say, the acoustics are perfect the way things are.

Helga Hampton, Aprl, 2016