Fado em movimento

In line with the ensemble's previous cross-fertilization projects, the impetus for this encounter came from Cristina Branco, the undisputed star of Fado, and the magic of her voice.

Bringing together the contemporary aesthetics of our three bows with the traditional Fado repertoire was the challenge we set ourselves.

Fado is above all a text. On Cristina's advice, we came across Gonçalo M Tavares' writing, which is the common thread running through the whole project.

We commissioned three contemporary composers: Fátima Fonte, Florentine Mulsant and Anne Victorino D'Almeida, each of whom imagined the musical image of these texts in their own very different style.

The three French musicians and the two Portuguese musicians, for their part, met around their different approaches to musical discourse and respective techniques: the complex, highly written language of the ensemble, at the service of the improvised expression of our Portuguese counterparts.

Cristina and Bernardo don't read scores and work by ear, so we had to re-evaluate and adjust our work to their needs, while making our own the melancholy so inherent in the world of Fado.

This work was carried out in residence at the Casa da Musica in Porto, as well as at ESMAE University and the Ferme du Buisson Scène nationale de Marne-la-vallée.

Agnès Pyka

Reviews on... -> Audiophile Magazine - France Musique/La Matinale

Fátima Fonte  Tabaco

Anne Victorino d'Almeida  O homen mal-educado

Anne Victorino d'Almeida  O desempregado com filhos

Florentine Mulsant  Trio pour violon, alto et violoncelle, opus 112

Fátima Fonte  Voar na diagonale

ensemble Des Équilibres

Agnès Pyka - violin (1-7)
    Sébastien Lévy - viola (1-7)
    Thibaut Reznicek - cello (1-7)

    Cristina Branco - voice (1,2,3,7)
    Bernardo Couto - portuguese guitar (1,2,3,7)