FIMA – Algarve International Music Festival is back after eight years of interregnum and arrives renewed in eleven municipalities of the region, between March 18th and May 21st. Among the 20 classical music concerts, in addition to world premieres, there will be shows that combine, for example, music with gastronomy or multimedia.
Rui Pinheiro, artistic director of the festival, and principal conductor of the Orquestra Clássica do Sul, which is responsible for the return of FIMA, explained, at a press conference, that the event was intended to “have an international character. Therefore, we could not fail to invite other international orchestras. From England, we invited the Orchestra of Academy of Ancient Music, which is one of the most reputable sets of Baroque music, the Orquestra da Extremadura will come from Spain and we also invited the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa».
In addition to OCS chamber music ensembles, FIMA will bring to the Algarve «some of the most relevant sets» of this type of musical training. Rui Pinheiro highlights the Jerusalem Quartet, which is «a together fantastic, reference. We also have a wind quintet from Denmark [Carion], which is going to present an unmissable show, and which was very interested in playing a work by Eurico Carrapatoso [contemporary Portuguese composer]. In addition to playing, this together makes a whole representational show».
According to Rui Pinheiro, there was the intention of «offering another type of parallel events. We will have a musical dinner, which is not just the act of having musicians play during dinner: a strategy was devised so that, for a plate of food, there is adequate music». «It will be a sensorial experience, through taste and hearing», he reveals.
This show, entitled “Food Symphony”, is scheduled for the 31st of March, at the Hotel Conrad Algarve, in Quinta do Lago, and its gustatory aspect is in charge of chef Osvalde Silva.
The conductor also highlights the performance of horn player Laurent Rossi, at the Cine-Teatro Louletano, on May 21, entitled “Uma História da Horn”. This will be “a film/concert/lecture, in which Laurent Rossi will play 20 or 30 instruments on stage, from shells to XNUMXth century horns”.
FIMA integrates the programming of the 365 Algarve. For Dália Paulo, the program's commissioner, this event promises “unique spectacles”, similar to what happened between 1977 and 2009, before the interruption of the festival, which came to be considered one of the best in the country.
"It is our wish that the renewed FIMA is an heir to the quality, spectacularity and diversity of the previous version and that it reactivates the Algarve as a place where classical music is allied to the territory, heritage and our people," he added.
Dália Paulo also expressed the intention that “FIMA is here to stay for many good years to mark the regional, national and international cultural agenda”.
Alexandra Gonçalves, regional director of Culture, considered that the resurgence of FIMA «marks the return to a happy past, which places us on a strategic path to affirm the Algarve as an international tourist and cultural destination».
For her, the return of the festival represents the affirmation that «the Algarve needs Culture to reinforce its competitiveness. We can only applaud the shared boldness of FIMA's return on the initiative of the OCS, which announces in a diverse set of proposals, in an interesting number of 20 performances».
The first concert entitled “Ode à Alegria” is scheduled for March 18, at Teatro das Figuras, in Faro. On this day, the contemporary work “Eu.Rope”, by Luís Soldado, written for this festival, will be premiered. This piece precedes Beethoven's “Symphony nº 9”, performed by OCS, directed by Rui Pinheiro, and by Coro Sinfônico Lisboa Cantat and soloists Carla Simões, Cátia Moreso, João Cipriano and Nuno Araújo Pereira.
The rest of FIMA's programming, which will pass through the municipalities of Faro, Silves, Lagos, Tavira, Loulé, Lagoa, Castro Marim, São Brás de Alportel and Albufeira, is available here.
Comments