The music of Andreia Pinto-Correia has been a major contribution to the dissemination of Portugal’s culture and language, perhaps a contribution larger than could ever be imagined.
…So from then and still today, she has the ability not only to charm and fascinate you, but to make you want more. No mean feat.
–Timaeus, Concerto for Orchestra –
A compellingly meditative evocation of the natural world…clouds of sound slowly rolling past and through each other, occasionally erupting in flash and thunder.
Pinto Correia’s Quartet No. 1, “Unvanquished Space,” set the tone for the evening—four movements of controlled fury, notated and formed with superb craft….music that dazzled the mind and punched its way into the heart.”
Andreia Pinto-Correia, originally from Lisbon, is deeply influenced by Iberian folk music. Her 10-minute “Elegia a Al-Mu’tamid,” an elegy to a forgotten 11th-century poet-king, is like an aural fabric of piercing sustained harmonies, restless melodic bits and gurgling instrumental bursts. Crucial solo lines break through, especially a dark, intense melody for viola.
The regular contact with the JACK Quartet, to whom each movement is dedicated demonstrated a close relationship between creator and interpreter that translated to control of very idiomatic writing for the string quartet. Multiple resources in rhythm and harmony are ingeniously articulated, contributing to arresting atmospheres and diversified sound coloring.
(A) composer’s colorful imagination.
A reference in the creation of erudite Portuguese music (…)The American press has praised the delicateness and elegance of her music, its harmonic construction and her sound technical mastery, as she collects some of the most prestigious awards.
The sustained sounds are sensual and languid, with gentle percussion, and rivulets of violin bowings, in generally traditional harmonies. It’s a gorgeous, shimmering piece that a German would cite for its Schallklang. And yet it’s as transparent as chamber music, never using all the instruments at once. Clearly, Pinto-Correia has a gift for orchestral colors, and Music Director Carneiro had to look no further than her home bailiwick to find this talent.
This followed a seventeen-minute work by Andreia Pinto-Correia, “Impresiones y Paisajes” (Impressions and Landscapes), a six-part tone poem inspired by the poetry of Garcia Lorca. Here, the famous flamenco dancer Omayra Amaya from Madrid gave a gripping performance using flamenco movements, sometimes as disembodied gestures, and later in more traditional dancing.
It was hard to tear one’s eyes away from this great dancer to hear the haunting music being performed. Dissonant yet lyric, the music was acerbic and solemn, with many static sections comprising orchestral unisons and tremolos accompanied by chants sung by the two sopranos.
“The listener is awarded ample contrast of texture and sonority. The work is engaging, with a sense of continuity and flow. A striking feature of the writing is that the piano is always held in check to allow even the most delicate string sounds to be clearly heard. This might be the first ever-piano trio that accomplishes a balance of piano and strings where each part can be appreciated.”
Luminous music.
Andreia Pinto Correia built her “La Minotauromachie” (2009) around her impressions of Picasso’s Minotaur etchings, which she has imaginatively transformed into a pair of virtuosic movements for cello (Roberto Arundale) and piano (Amalia Rinehart). The music has an energetic, narrative quality, but the work’s most striking element is its use of sharply accented flamenco rhythms in its second movement.
Allan Kozinn is a former music critic and culture writer for The New York Times who lives in Portland.
Andreia Pinto-Correia’s Elegia a Al-Mu’tamid was one of those pieces you could just sit back and take in a range of sounds presented with clarity and mystery and the same time. The thin orchestral texture was a bold move by Pinto-Correia, and allowed the new sounds she presented to sit there for the listener to take in. Ethereal dissonances in the woodwinds were particularly stark and breathtaking. A short melodic theme traded around to different solo instruments gave a unity to the work while exploring diverse sounds. While too many new compositions these days feel like a barrage of “innovation” ad nauseum, Pinto-Correia’s composition stood out for the ways its musical ideas and texture were presented effortlessly with time to be digested.”
Wondrous Work.
Andreia’s piece, like the geographical place, Xántara, that inspired her, is mysterious, elegant, magical. Her delicate textures and transparent orchestration are impressive. In her score, she uses such adjectives as “Floating” to impart the kind of playing she wants from the musicians. The ending particularly I found really breathtaking: quiet, with the kind of presence that demands a moment or two of silence from the listener before any applause would begin.
The work is meant to reflect the “poetic forms and…related ratios” of Arab-Andalusian poetry native to the westernmost region of the Iberian Peninsula (modern-day Portugal). Correia employs an harmonic idiom with a distinctly Eastern flavor, though without exaggerating those to the point of creating an “exotic” feel. The music opens with a melodic line characterized by a high frequency of trilled notes; as the piece progresses, this opening melodic style frequently returns, each time giving way to melodies of varying character. This return to the opening melodic style creates an overall shape which gives the impression of a free-flowing consciousness that always returns to its origin. Hardy skillfully executed the work’s frequent rapid register changes as well as its numerous extended performance techniques
Andreia Pinto-Correia. Remember this name.
Andreia (…) brought a unique freshness and candidness, transmitting cinematographic and poetic atmospheres in her works…