Wednesday, 9th March and Thursday, 10th March at 7.00 pm

Constantin Sandu

The March concerts with CONSTANTIN SANDU, the Porto based Romanian pianist, were the latest proof of the excellence of music-making at Os Agostos. We knew, from his previous visits, that we were in for another series of masterly piano playing. But no one could have predicted that he would so totally absorb and enrapture the full house with his quite superb interpretations of Beethoven.The 3 sonatas he chose, all part of the core of the genre, call for prodigious skill, dexterity and exquisite sensitivity. It takes a real master to bring out the passion and the pathos, conveying to the audience through his fingers that he is comfortable with what he is doing and in complete control. Constantin achieved all this simply and without fuss or show. The Sandu “Appassionata” will remain for me unforgettable. (How could we insist on an encore after having climbed this pinnacle with him?)

CONSTANTIN SANDU was born in Bucharest  and has been resident in Portugal since 1991. He started having piano lessons when he was 7 and made his first appearance with an orchestra when he was 14. In 1982 Constantin entered the national music academy of Bucharest and in 2006 he received a Ph.D. in music from Bucharest’s National Music University. Constantin has since developed an intensive international and acclaimed concert career spanning 3 decades. He has played in several festivals in France, Romania and Spain and has won several prizes. During the events that marked Porto 2001 European City of Culture, he played Rachmaninov’s Concerto No. 2 with the Porto National Orchestra as part of the major interpretation of this composer’s concertos with Artur Pizarro, Vladimir Viardo and Sequeira Costa.