Sábado
Myriam Gaspar | Sábado, 22.12.15
He could have been a jazz musician. Even played at the Hot Club of Portugal, but the fascination by composition swept him away. Studied with George Benjamin at King´s College London, was composer-in-residence at Casa da Música in Porto, and the Gulbenkian Foundation commissioned him a piece to celebrate Gulbenkian Orchestra´s 50th anniversary. His works have been performed in major european venues, by groups such as the Asko | Schoenberg Ensemble. In 2013, premiered The House Taken Over at Aix-en-Provence Festival, and is now composing a new opera for the 500th anniversary of Hieronymus Bosch, in Holland.
How did you know you had been chosen by the Rolex Foundation for the Mentor and Protégé program?
I received a rather informal email, wrapped in a certain secrecy. At first, I even thought it was spam. It said I´d been selected to apply for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé award - which I hadn´t heard of. Sent me a password to do the application, which is quite complex. I had to record myself on video, submit my portfolio, write a personal letter.
The international jury is formed by five people, and each member proposes five candidates.
Yes. And out of those 25 candidates, they then selected three finalists. I was told I was supposed to meet with the other finalists and Kaija Saariaho in Lyon, where she was having a performance.
Do you know who proposed you?
It was a secret at that point. We were only told later on, at a meeting in Geneva. They´re quite careful with that sort of thing, to avoid lobbying. In my case, it was the swiss composer Michael Jarrell, whom I´d met in France a few years before.
How did you feel when you knew you were in the last three?
It was surprising. It´s nice to be in the final three candidates, in a pool of composers younger than 40, with no geographical restricitions.
You thought: I´m really good...
(laughs) I´m extremely self-critical, the challenge is to ease the self-criticism. For example, when I finish a piece I´m usually less happy with it than when I hear it two years after. There´s a feeling of fragility.
Do you feel insecure?
Since there is a very intimate connection between what I am and what I do, to some degree there´s always a sense of insecurity when you expose yourself. In a way, it is as if you´re jumping on stage, exposing yourself and asking: now judge me. But generally, when I hand in a piece, I´m happy with what I´ve done - otherwise I´ll postpone or cancel it.
Has that happened already?
Yes. Once, just three weeks before a deadline, after struggling for a while, I called the commissioner and told him: I´m not able to do this right now.
How long does it take you to finish a piece?
It varies a lot. It depends on the lenght, if it´s chamber music or an orchestral piece... For example, I´m now starting a new chamber opera for three singers and fourteen musicians, about 1h20 long. It should take me a year to finish it. I´m slow - it can take me up to four hours to be certain of a single note.
Where does inspiration come from?
Stravinsky used to say: "I´m in my desk from nine till five. If inspiration comes, she´ll know where to find me." It´s not so much about having ideas. There are always plenty, what is necessary is to filter them. I sometimes say I have a somewhat abnormal curiosity on what surrounds me, I´m always hyper alert to everything. I may have an idea when I drop off my son at school, and I notice the polyrhythm by a couple of intermittent traffic lights nearby, or have an idea from a poem - for example, the title of orchestral piece I´ve written for Gulbenkian is a wordplay with a passage from Eliot´s The Hollow Men.
Thanks to Rolex, Kaija Saariaho was your mentor for a year. What did you talk about in your first meeting?
About everything but music. Kaija is someone easy to connect to, and I felt very comfortable with her. At the time, much more than music or my career, the main focus in my life had been the birth of my first child, which had operated a disturbing change in me. I was experiencing a sense of fragility related to his existence, which I had never experienced before. I´m usually quite a reckless person.
Why are there more male composers than female ones?
Because the classical music business is very chauvinistic. Luckily, the tendency is reversing. There´s absolutely no gift that men have and women don´t.
What´s your daily routine like? Are you methodical?
Yes. "Workaholic", as my wife says. If I´m allowed, I´ll work every day. It´s what defines me. It is as if I´m in a self-contained dimension.
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Why did you feel the need to move to Holland?
The most important thing for a composer is to listen, to make, to react. Trial, error, trial, error. I needed that, and it wasn´t possible at the time in Portugal. During the two years I was in Holland doing my masters' degree, there were over thirty performances of my music - which is astounding. I also had the chance to work with professional ensembles, had pieces performed at the Concertgebouw... Holland was a sort of El Dorado to learn and develop as a composer.
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As a composer, are you not affected by portuguese reality?
I want to. For example, the discussions we´re having about my next opera (which will premiere in Brugges in September 2016, integrated in the comemorations of Hieronymous Bosch´s 500th anniversary) are mainly on moral ambiguity. It´s a terrible, but unsolvable, problem. At this point, Europe´s burning. Those pictures of the refugee boats arriving at the same beaches the tourists are getting a tan... Are we guilty? People left to their own misery, running away. It´s the banality of evil described by Arendt and Eliot: the world doesn´t end with a bang, but with a whimper. In that sense, opera is interesting because it allows for these issues to be addressed.
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