PAST EVENTS

 

Christmas Concert - Saturday 18th December 2021

At the Museum - on Saturday 18th December at 18.00.

 

Concert in Sao Bras Museum - Saturday 6th November 2021

Christmas Concert
 
The Choir of Friends of the Museum of São Brás will begin the Christmas concert cycle on December 1st. The concert will take place in Vilamoura Church, starting at 6.30 p.m.. Traditional Christmas works by various composers, from many eras and nationalities, will be performed. 
From this programme the Te Deum No. 2 by J.Haydn, Thomas Walmisly's Magnificat and The Shepherd's Farewell by Berlioz stand out.
We shall be accompanied on the piano by Joana Viera Shumova.

Love Lost and Found / Amores e Desamores - June 23rd 2019

 

This is the theme of our summer concert this year which will be held on June 23rd, 18.30 in the New Gallery of the Museu do Traje, São Brás.
It is a first for us as we shall share the stage with Bella A Capella, under the direction of Rob Does, to give a joint concert.
We shall be performing a variety of styles of secular music from the 1500's to the present day, from madrigal to habanera, in English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Italian and Galician, all a capella, and, apart from the a capella aspect, contrasting strongly  with Bella A Capella singing popular music from the 20th and 21st centuries.
Something for everyone!
The concert will be approximately one hour long with no interval and the bar will be open before and afterwards.

 

New Year choir concert features 'new traditions' in music

To celebrate the New Year, on the 20th January 2019 at the Igreja Matriz in São Brás the Coro dos Amigos will perform a musically and historically fascinating programme of sacred  music spanning the centuries and featuring the Magnificat of Thomas Attwood Walmisley.  

According to the notes on the Hyperion recording of the piece, Walmisley was greatly responsible for raising the tradition of English church music "out of the mire into which it had sunk earlier in the 19th century".  

The Magnificat is generally regarded as Walmisley's finest composition, noted for its "adventurous harmonic language" and the brilliance of the organ sections - Walmisley himself was joint organist at both Trinity and St John's Colleges, Cambridge.

The choir will also perform a composition by the 16th century genius Thomas Tallis.  Tallis is probably best known for the magnificent 40-voice Spem in Allium, but the piece the choir will perform, If Ye Love Me, is one of his most most lyrical compositions.  It could be said that Tallis, like Walmisley, was also responsible for a major change in church music.   When England's church changed from Catholic to Protestant, composers were required to write in English, not Latin, and to give each word its own note, rather than the established mode of holding one word over a whole range of notes.  Tallis was undeniably the finest writer of that age, and If Ye Love Me, one of his most popular pieces, shows just how beautiful that new simplicity could be.  Its most famous recent performance was at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Coming up to the 19th century is Verleih Uns Frieden, the words of which were written by Martin Luther and set to music, centuries later, by Felix Mendelssohn, one of the finest of the Romantic composers.

 

Saturday, December 8th and Sunday, December 16th 

The Choir of the Friends of the Museum of Sao Bras will hold its annual carol concert on Saturday, December 8th at 18.00 in the museum's New Gallery in Sao Bras.

We shall be performing some, mostly well known, Christmas Carols from Portugal, UK and Germany followed by a short break after which we invite you, the audience, to join us in singing some even more familiar carols. The bar will be open before the start and during the break.

There will be an entrance fee of 5 Euros.

We will hold a second concert in Vilamoura Church on Sunday, December 16th at 18.00 which will be free.