Contemporary Instrumental Music

Ensemble works

Fractales contemporary music

. conducted by Massimo Mazzeo
. recorded at Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, September 28th 2012
. Festival Jovens Músicos 2012
. awarded at SPA/Antena 2 Composition Contest 2012

o que será do rio without John Cage? - Divino Sospiro baroque orchestra

Fractales : 
Hannah Reardon-Smith bassflute; Diego Coutinho cello; Andres Ibanez viola; Benjamin Maneyrol bassclarinet
Guests : 
Jean-Bernard Matter director; Rada Petrovic accordeon
Ö für quintette (2005)  - Bernhard Gander
Live 21/08/14 at Schoenberg center in Vienna


Bernhard Gander "Ö" (2005)

"I could not think of thee as piecèd rot"
for soprano and orchestra

conductor - Magnus Lindberg
soprano - Inês Simões
Gulbenkian Orchestra

composer - Nuno da Rocha
words by - James Joyce & Fernando Pessoa

Sleep now, O sleep now, 
   O you unquiet heart! 
A voice crying 'Sleep now' 
   Is heard in my heart. 

The voice of the winter 
   Is heard at the door. 
O sleep, for the winter 
   Is crying 'Sleep no more.' 

My kiss will give peace now 
   And quiet to your heart - 
Sleep on in peace now, 
   O you unquiet heart! 
(James Joyce)

I could not think of thee as piecèd rot,
Yet such thou wert, for thou hadst been long dead;
Yet thou liv'dst entire in my seeing thought
And what thou wert in me had never fled.
Nay, I had fixed the moments of thy beauty -
Thy ebbing smile, thy kiss's readiness,
And memory had taught my heart the duty
To know thee ever at that deathlessness.
But when I came where thou wert laid, and saw
The natural flowers ignoring thee sans blame,
And the encroaching grass, with casual flaw,
Framing the stone to age where was thy name,
    I knew not how to feel, nor what to be
    Towards thy fate's material secrecy.
(Fernando Pessoa)

premiere at ENOA's Concert - Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 12th September 2014.

recorded by Antena 2.
(photo by Márcia Lessa)

I could not think of thee as piecèd rot - for soprano and orchestra

"Philippina"
double concerto for Trumpet, Accordion and Wind Orchestra

composer: Nuno da Rocha

trumpet: Marco Silva
accordion: João Barradas

conductor: Alberto Roque
orchestra: ESML Wind Orchestra

premiere
7th june 2014, Vianna da Motta auditorium, Lisbon - Portugal

audio
recorded by: Alexandre Gonçalves, André Alves, Martim Souto
edited by: André Barroso

"Philippina" - double concerto for Trumpet, Accordion and Wind Orchestra

Gelöschte Lieder(1999) by Enno Poppe
Ensemble Fractales
Live Recording 11/05/2015 @ Turner Sims concert hall Southampton UK
Violin_Kaya Kuwabara ; Flute_Hannah Reardon-Smith ; Piano_Gian Ponte ; Cello_Diego Coutinho ; Clarinet_Benjamin Maneyrol

Enno Poppe "Gelöschte Lieder"(1999)

RESTART for orchestra
(commission by Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian)
Nuno da Rocha

Gulbenkian Orchestra 
dir. Joana Carneiro

recorded by RTP / Antena 2 (9th October 2015)
(premiered on 8th October 2015 at Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian)

audio edition: João Dionísio

program note:

RESTART é uma metáfora sobre a anarquia que percorre a minha cabeça. RESTART representa
a minha liberdade, de fazer, de pensar e de partilhar com os outros. De viver com os outros. É uma pergunta. E talvez não responda a nada. Eu creio que talvez seja uma afirmação política. O pensamento é anarca. Esta partitura é anarca. Embora uma partitura nunca seja anarca. Mas esta é quase anarca. RESTART é um pequeno coral de Bach numa tela do Francis Bacon. RESTART é uma tela do Francis Bacon que ele nunca chegou a pintar. São os músicos da Orquestra Gulbenkian que fazem a RESTART.
É deles. O primeiro acorde é deles e o último é de todos nós. RESTART foi escrita para o reiniciar deste palco nesta temporada. Nesta casa. RESTART é uma agressão à palavra, à linguagem verbal. Esta linguagem inventou a religião. Separou o Homem. A música só-música não.
É anarca como eu.

RESTART for orchestra

Yann Robin "Fterà"
Performed by ensemble Fractales :
Viola - Marion Borgel
Piano - Gian Ponte
Bass Clarinet -Benjamin Maneyrol
Live recording @ 15th Afekt Festival (Tallinn, Estonia)

Yann Robin "Fterà" (2014)

Wasteland_almost a landscape
for violin, viola and ensemble with amplification
Written for mdi ensemble and Festival Milano Musica

Lorenzo Gentili Tedeschi, violin
Paolo Fumagalli, viola
mdi ensemble

Carlo Goldstein, dir.


score published by Edizioni Suvini Zerboni-Sugarmusic S.p.A.

Wasteland_almost a landscape (2016)_excerpt [use headphones!]

Wasteland_apparent emptiness
for ensemble
Commissioned by ensemble proton bern

ensemble proton bern
Mathias Kuhn, dir.

"Approaching the matter until the borders disappear is like going into a continuum that seems not to know anymore (or yet) distinctions, separations. In the vertigo of indistinctness, hands, eyes and ears strive to identify relations in order to divide the matter and bring it back to a more human, finite dimension.
Touching, seeing, listening become the way to know and recognize at the same time, to give a name and a place to things. But these things change for constant interaction, so the attempt to frame the universe around us becomes imposition of form, establishment of relations.
Musical form as the process of its own creation".

score published by Edizioni Suvini Zerboni-Sugarmusic S.p.A.

Wasteland_apparent emptiness (2017) [use headphones!]

para comprar o disco / to buy this album:
nunodarocha.bandcamp.com
www.mpmp.pt

"Mesmo que faça frio"
Ciclo de Canções para 8 vozes femininas e Piano Preparado / Songs for 8 female voices and Prepared Piano

album "Mesmo que faça frio"
Nuno da Rocha's works for Children's Choir

Instituto Gregoriano de Lisboa Children's Choir
conductor. Filipa Palhares

piano. Pedro Ferro
voices. Carolina de Andrade, Madalena d'Oliveira Martins, Sara Megre, Mariana Rodrigues, Raquel Rebordão, Ana Varela, Rita Miranda, Beatriz Ferreira

text by J. Tolentino Mendonça

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production. Tangente
audio. Cláudio Carvalho | Estúdio SantaRosa | Underdog Music Solutions 
cover & layouts. Guilherme Campos Gil

recorded at Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa (June 2013, October 2016)

supported by 'Antena 2' and 'mpmp'

Mesmo que faça frio

Of other spaces
for five spatialized musicians
Commissioned by Ensemble Fractales

Ensemble Fractales

Of other spaces (2017) [use headphones!]

Finding a tangency (2012)
for ensemble

Nieuw Ensemble Amsterdam
dir. Julien Hempel

Of other spaces (2017) [use headphones!]

Maurizio Azzan