WASBE WORLD DEZ. 2020
CRÍTICA AO CD da Orquestra de Sopros da Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, dir. Alberto Roque que inclui igualmente obras de Carlos Caires, João Madureira, Pedro Lima e João Carlos Pinto.

“The second composition—Three Political Events—by António Pinho Vargas (b. 1951) is a dramatic and emotionally gripping work. The composer is a twenty-first-century Renaissance man with a degree in history from the University of Porto, a degree in piano from the Porto Conservatory, a master’s degree in composition from the Rotterdam Conservatory, and a Ph.D. in the sociology of culture from the University of Coimbra. He is both a jazz pianist and composer, who has recorded ten jazz albums, and a serious music composer, who has composed four operas, a Requiem, two oratorios, ten orchestral works, twenty chamber works, and the music for five films. Three Political Events from 2014 is a composition by a mature composer with something to say. The composition does not depict any particular his- torical events, but rather the three movements express the drama surrounding a revolution. According to the composer, the first movement portrays “the situation that creates the conditions for a revolution to happen.” The sec- ond movement “is the revolution itself, full of hope, joy and perplexity,” while the third movement depicts the period following the revolution, “in which a normalization process begins that carries with it a partial destruction of the initial hopes and expectations.” Although this information can be helpful, especially to understand the title, it is certainly not needed to comprehend the composer’s message. It is the drama of the music itself so wonderfully developed here to which the listener ultimately reacts.”