Artists from Minerva welcome the Virgin Suta for a concert «with less rock and more lace» in Loulé

The Virgin Suta accepted the invitation to reinvent their songs, accompanied by the Banda Filarmónica Artistas de Minerva, in a concert […]

The Virgin Suta accepted the invitation to reinvent their songs, accompanied by the Banda Filarmónica Artistas de Minerva, in a concert that they present together, this Saturday, June 24, at Cerca do Convento, in Loulé.

The first rehearsal took place on Sunday and, according to Nuno Figueiredo, one of the mentors of the Alentejo band, the marriage seems to be perfect. «It was incredible, it was very good, we came here happy and sure that it will be a great experience for everyone. We have the idea that this feeling of enjoyment, of the pleasure of playing, was transferred to the Philharmonic Band. In concert, it will be even better, because it is more demanding and it will be more pleasurable».

The musical cycle “O Longe é Aqui”, by Cine-Teatro Louletano, had already joined Artistas de Minerva with Jorge Palma, in May of last year, and this year the proposal was made to Jorge Benvinda and Nuno Figueiredo.

The Alentejo duo admits that this is a proposal that requires an interaction that is very different from what they are used to, being the first time they will play with so many people on the same stage, but it was something they had tried before.

«We had already made, in models, some arrangements for brass and string suits, but it never went beyond the field of first experience. Now it was a big surprise and we realized that it works very well. The changes involved adapting some of the arrangements we used to make on guitar to other instruments and in other cases we simplified things a bit» declared Nuno Figueiredo to Musical-Sul Informação.

Last year, the Sociedade Filarmónica Artistas de Minerva celebrated its 140th anniversary, but, as stated by artistic director José Branco, it maintains a young spirit and willingly accepts these new challenges. «We've already done concerts with several conductors, with a choir, even with an impromptu theater group. It leaves the scope of parades, concerts, processions and meetings of philharmonic bands. It is a much more interesting challenge that forces us to have more work, more responsibility and a different attitude in the work of the works», he explained.

The adaptation of the songs by the Virgin Suta was made by the Algarve saxophonist Lino Guerreiro, who had already made the arrangements for the concert with Jorge Palma. Being a deep connoisseur of the reality and capabilities of this type of bands, “he knows how far a philharmonic can go”.

Afterwards, there was a lot of homework for the musicians and the orchestra's director, so that the first rehearsal would have pleased everyone. «When we got there, we already had a lot of rehearsals, a lot of work. In the beginning it was very difficult, but we didn't want to give up. Not because of the difficulty of the music, but because we felt that something wasn't fitting. After reading the papers, in the first rehearsals, we chose to play with the recording of the original songs, we understood the arrangements better and this made our task much easier», confides José Branco. It was thus possible to reach the first meeting between the band and the musicians, choose the theme with which they were most comfortable and “break the ice”.

The show is led by João Branco, who also invited his son, Pedro Branco, artistic director of the Association's students' school band, for a premiere, with the direction of four pieces of this concert.

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