Portuguese Love Songs

'A revelation … the singing of Portuguese sopranos Sandra Medeiros and Joana Seara … is perfect for the intertwining lines and suggestive harmonies of the modinhas. Ozmo's seven-piece ensemble slips with ease between minuets by composers such as Avondano and Leite and the swing of the Brazilian songs, with harpsichordist David Gordon's playing particularly well judged. Ravishing' --Early Music Today

'Italian influence is pervasive and a sonata by Domenico Scarlatti, who lived in Lisbon for 10 years, does not feel at all out of place. But beneath the delicate bobs and bows surge the powerful motives of love and betrayal that one hears in modern Portuguese fado – the eternal yearning for love, allied to a weary recognition that it must fail. This expression of love’s futility is not cynical, as it might be in other cultures. On the contrary, love emerges all the stronger for its black-eyed realism.

The diversity of the music holds your attention from start to finish, whether it is a soprano serenade with guitar-led ensemble or a lonely harpsichord plucking away in the noonday sun. Impatient listeners should skip to the second track, where they will be assaulted by duet virtuosity of a feline, Rossinian felicity. Sandra Medeiros and Joana Seara are the stunning sopranos; Žak Ozmo directs L’Avventura London. This, wrote Beckford, is ‘an original sort of music, different from any I ever heard’. Two centuries later, that estimate still holds true' --Norman Lebrecht, sinfini.com