Art - Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian

Introduction
In 2008, the activity of the Music Department was once again centred on the production
of the Gulbenkian Season of Music, whose mainstays are the Foundation’s permanent groups,
the Gulbenkian Choir and Orchestra. Top-level guest musicians performed during the season,
offering a diversified range of music, based on a carefully selected programme of leading
international composers and performers, bringing together different repertoires and styles
of interpretation, representing an innovative reflection on the music that is heard nowadays
and the best ways of listening to it. There was a significant participation of contemporary music,
both in the programmes that were dedicated entirely to this component and in the introduction
of works by modern-day composers in more conventional programmes, with a large number
of works either being premièred worldwide or being performed for the first time in Portugal.
At the same time, the same concern was shown with presenting a repertoire that was less commonly
heard in concert halls, not only in the Early Music programme, but also in all other musical areas.
Besides implicitly guaranteeing musical enjoyment in the Foundation’s regular programme, special
attention was given to the formation of new audiences, seeking to expand and diversify the supply
through a series of different activities, ranging from pre-concert commentaries (preparing audiences to
listen to programmes that were not immediately accessible to them because of their lack of musical
information) to the presentation of programmes dedicated entirely to young and family audiences.
The area of musical education was also given significant attention in terms of professional training,
through programmes of scholarships and grants (music and dance) and courses organised
by the Music Department, further complemented by activities in the area of musicology.
Departmental activities
Gulbenkian Orchestra
In 2008, the Gulbenkian Orchestra’s activities focused, as usual, primarily on the Gulbenkian
Season of Music, in which 63 of its 76 public performances took place.
Besides frequently performing major works from the orchestral repertoire of the classical-romantic
period and the 20th century, the Gulbenkian Orchestra continued its strategy of disseminating less
well-known music from outside the conventional concert circuits. In this area, mention should
be made of the presentation of works such as Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra, by Josef Suk,
Die erste Walpurgisnacht, by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, L’Ascension, by Olivier Messiaen,
Faust Cantata by Alfred Schnittke, the Concerto for Violin by Igor Stravinsky, La Chute de la
Maison Usher, by Claude Debussy, the Concerto for Violin, by Ferruccio Busoni, as well as works
by composers that are still active, almost all of which were given their first performance in Portugal,
such as Giro, by Esa-Pekka Salonen, Partita, by Elliott Carter, the Concerto for Clarinet
by Magnus Lindberg, Motto-Studien, by Dan Dediu, and Conjurer: Concerto for Percussionist
and String Orchestra, by John Corigliano (this latter work being jointly commissioned by the Calouste
Gulbenkian Foundation, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Nashville Symphony Orchestra,
the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the National Arts
Centre Orchestra, of Ottawa).
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Music Department