"Happy Birthday, Gulbenkian Orchestra!"

Cristina Fernandes | Público, 20.10.12

(...) In Vasco Mendonça's new work, lastingly applauded by the audience, the orchestra also displayed an expressive commitment and technical ability by presenting a beautiful tone, a good dynamic balance and tension management, be it in the tuttis or in the multiple concertante games the composer played with a broad number of soloists (string quintet, woodwind quartet and timpani/percussion(...). The piece, called GROUP TOGETHER, AVOID SPEECH (inspired in a passage of T.S. Eliot's Hollow Men), displays a solid writing that takes advantadge of the orchestral colours and of the multiple instrumental dialogues when building its textures. The development of constant rhythmic and melodic cycles in the first and third movements gives the discourse a mobility that captures every moment of the listener's attention, contrasting with the lyric and very seductive landscapes of the central movement (...)