A minor

Carlos Seixas - Sonata No. XXIII in a minor - Manuel Fernandes, piano

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• published: 19 Oct 2016
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Carlos Seixas - Sonata No. XXIII in a minor 1. [Andante] / 2. Minuete / 1. [Andante] Manuel Fernandes, piano © 2008-2015 Manuel Fernandes The main purpose of recording one hundred and five Sonatas by CARLOS SEIXAS (1704–1742) is to bring this great Portuguese composer’s keyboard work to a wider audience. The musicologist Macário Santiago Kastner was largely responsible for the rediscovery of Seixas’ work and for promoting his national and international reputation. In 1965 he published “80 Sonatas para Instrumentos de Tecla” in the Portugaliæ Musica series of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and in 1980 he published “25 Sonatas para Instrumentos de Tecla” in the same series. However, only part of the “80 Sonatas”, more precisely twenty-five of them, is better known nowadays, since it had already been published by Kastner in the two volumes of Cravistas Portuguezes (Ed. Shott), respectively in 1935 and 1950. Therefore, many of his sonatas are seldom played and have remained until now unrecorded. Inheritor of a strong Iberian keyboard tradition, Carlos Seixas developed formal schemes and a more forward-looking style than most of his contemporaries. In Seixas’ work one may find elements of various pre-classical styles, possibly due to Italian, French and German influences. Nonetheless, his musical language is very personal, original, and groundbreaking. Seixas’ sonatas played on the piano unequivocally prove their timelessness and their diversity becomes evident in this first-ever complete recording of the one hundred and five Sonatas published in the Portugaliæ Musica series of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Notes: In the sonatas that originally end with a Minuet, the repetition of a previous movement is an interpretative option, like the inspiring piano renditions of Felicja Blumental. In longer movements, some of the repeat marks are not observed. The second Minuet of Sonata No.71 is not played because it is written in another key signature and already belongs to another sonata; the same applies to the first Minuet of Sonata No.76. JOSÉ ANTÓNIO CARLOS DE SEIXAS (11 June 1704 – 25 August 1742) was the most important Portuguese keyboard music composer of the 18th century and a renowned keyboard virtuoso. He was born in Coimbra and almost certainly studied with his father, Francisco Vaz, and likely never left Portugal. The young talented Carlos Seixas succeeded his father as organist at the Cathedral of Coimbra at the young age of 14. Two years later, he moved to Lisbon and was appointed organist at the Patriarchal Church and at the Royal Chapel, position he kept until his death and where he must have worked alongside Domenico Scarlatti (1685 – 1757). In fact, Scarlatti came to Lisbon around 1720 as mestre capela until his departure to Spain in 1729. It is reported that Scarlatti considered Seixas one of the greatest musicians he had ever heard, even saying “You are the one who should give me lessons!”. However, the influence they may have exerted on each other is not clear. Although Seixas may have composed some seven hundred keyboard sonatas, only copies of a little more than one hundred survived the devastating earthquake that virtually destroyed Lisbon in 1755. Seixas was also in demand as a keyboard teacher of the aristocracy and for this purpose he may have composed sonatas that suited his pupils’ technique and talent. Other Seixas’s works known to date include an overture, a concerto for harpsichord and strings, a symphony, and ten sacred choral pieces. He was a wealthy man and became Knight of the Order of Christ by dispatch of King John V, in 1738. Seixas died in Lisbon at the age of 38. Born in Lisbon in 1961, MANUEL FERNANDES began his musical studies at the age of eleven at Fundação Musical dos Amigos das Crianças, where he studied with Maria de Fátima Fraga. Thereafter he studied with Jorge Moyano at the Lisbon Conservatory. He was awarded a three-year scholarship by the Portuguese Government to continue his studies in France, at the Rueil-Malmaison Conservatory with Olivier Gardon. Since 1992, he has been teaching at Instituto Gregoriano de Lisboa. In 2006, he completed his Musicology degree at Universidade Nova de Lisboa.