A reading of a text by Gonçalo M. Tavares, performed by Joana Santos.
Diogo Alvim: Tłumaczenie (2015)
Doïna Rotaru: Vivarta (2009)
Steve Reich: Different Trains (1988)
The inaugural concert of the Miso String Quartet, part of the Música Viva 2026 Festival, is fully in keeping with this year’s theme – Insurgency – which the festival interprets as a gesture of aesthetic and ethical resistance in a world marked by profound crises, the normalisation of violence, and the progressive erosion of humanity and nature. In this context, music asserts itself as a space for confrontation, memory and critical awareness.
The programme brings together three works by composers from different geographical regions and generations who, each in their own way, reflect on history, identity and the human condition. In Tłumaczenie, the Portuguese composer Diogo Alvim explores the idea of translation – not only between languages, but between cultures, memories and musical gestures – opening up a space for listening where transformation and displacement become the driving forces of creation.
In Vivarta, the Romanian composer Doïna Rotaru evokes a spiritual and archetypal dimension of music, inspired by philosophical concepts of transformation and the illusory nature of the world. Rotaru’s music, deeply rooted in Romania’s cultural heritage, creates a sonic space of intense inner energy and constant metamorphosis.
The programme culminates with Steve Reich’s Different Trains, a seminal work of late 20th-century music that combines a string quartet with sound recordings to juxtapose two historical realities: the composer’s childhood train journeys in the United States and the trains that, in Europe, transported millions of people to concentration camps during the Second World War. By transforming real voices into musical material, Reich constructs a powerful sonic memorial that recalls how history and collective memory remain inscribed in the very fabric of sound.
In this opening concert, the Miso String Quartet thus offers a listening journey that traverses memory, identity and transformation, affirming music as a space for critical reflection and sensitive resistance — a clear artistic response to the challenge set by the Música Viva 2026 Festival, where to rise up is also to remember, question and imagine other possibilities for the future.
The Miso String Quartet, founded by Miso Music Portugal, was born out of the conviction that the string quartet – one of the most iconic ensembles in the history of music – remains today a living laboratory of creation, thought and listening. Building on this tradition, the ensemble embraces the contemporary era as a realm of experimentation and artistic freedom, commissioning and premiering new works and fostering close dialogue with composers from different generations, with a particular focus on Portuguese creativity.
At the same time, the quartet considers it essential to maintain an active engagement with the canonical string quartet repertoire; its inclusion in their future programme allows them to situate contemporary works within their historical context and offer the audience a broader listening experience. The interplay between works of the past and the present thus takes on an educational dimension – understood in the broadest sense – contributing to the development of audiences and to a deeper understanding of the aesthetic evolution of chamber music.
This project is also conceived with a view to cultural decentralisation, seeking to bring demanding and artistically ambitious programmes to areas outside major urban centres, thereby creating opportunities for direct engagement with the historical and contemporary repertoire of the string quartet.
Comprising musicians of recognised artistic excellence — Pedro Lopes (first violin), César Nogueira (second violin), Joana Cipriano (viola) and Luís André Ferreira (cello) — and under the artistic direction of Miguel Azguime, the Miso String Quartet presents itself as a meeting point between tradition and creation, where memory, invention and listening intertwine in an active engagement with the music of our time.
