The Algarve History Association (AHA) will host its first concert of the new season on Sunday, September 29 at 5pm.
This particular concert is called Virtuosismo e Emoção: Uma Viagem Musical do Romantismo à Paixão Latino-Americana. Soloists will include AHA’s old friend Vasco Dantas, who has opened the association’s last three concert seasons. Vasco comes from Porto and will be accompanied on this occasion by clarinettist Joel Cardoso, who comes from the Minho in the very north of Portugal. Together they will perform works by Poulenc, Schumann, Bizet and Paquito d’Rivera. Each of them will also perform a solo: on the piano, a piece by Rachmaninov; and on the clarinet, one by Piazzolla.
More information and directions to Quintinha da Música may be had from Peter Booker (peterbooker1347@gmail.com). Also available from Peter are reservations at €25 per person, covering the cost of the concert and interval snacks and drinks.
Also planned for September are two presentations in which Peter Booker will discuss the reign of D. João II, whose soubriquet in Portugal is The Perfect Prince, first in Lagoa Municipal Library (on Tuesday, September 24 at 6pm), and later in Tavira Municipal Library (Friday, September 27 at 11am).
This monarch spent a summer in Tavira; he sadly died in the Algarve at the early age of 40; and alone among Portuguese monarchs, during the dictatorship as a part of the national celebrations concerning the discoveries, he featured on a series of Portuguese banknotes. Yet for most people, if not completely unknown, he remains shrouded in mystery.
Why is he known as the Perfect Prince? What was his contribution to the discoveries? How is it that he died at Alvor in the Algarve? How do we unknowingly pay tribute to him, even today? Peter explains the crucial contribution of this king to the history of Portugal, and his continuing influence on the shape of world politics. Attendance is subject only to a voluntary contribution.
