Prado: Complete Cartas Celestes, Vol. 4 Aleyson Scopel

• José Antônio Rezende de Almeida Prado (1943-2010):
• 1 Cartas Celestes No. 13 22:09
• 2 Cartas Celestes No. 16 "Magical Animals" 14:47
• 3 Cartas Celestes No. 17 "Celestial Egypt and Greece" 11:14
• 4 Cartas Celestes No. 18 "The Sky of Macunaíma" 13:43
• Total Runtime 01:01:53

Info for Prado: Complete Cartas Celestes, Vol. 4

Almeida Prados vast cycle of Cartas Celestes (Celestial Charts) depicts the celestial bodies visible in the Brazilian night sky during the four seasons of the year. As the cycle evolves so does Almeida Prados sound world and colour palette, reaching a highly transcendent and poetic view of the universe with an ever-evolving harmonic language that includes the composers own invented transtonality. The composer himself described Aleyson Scopels performances on Volume 1 [GP709] as straight from heaven!

Cartas Celestes (Celestial Charts) is one of prolific Brazilian composer José Antônio Rezende de Almeida Prado’s most important achievements. Exploring every kind of resonance and sound the piano has to offer and using a new harmonic language called “transtonality”, this set of works is described by pianist Aleyson Scopel as “a heroically audacious cycle” that depicts the sky and constellations in “colours, light, darkness and an almost mythological understanding and approach to the universe”.

“Cartas Celestes is a heroically audacious cycle, in which I get the opportunity to experience and play with all kinds of resonances and sounds the piano has to offer -- from the most percussive to the most sublime. These works are embedded with imagination, colors, and an almost mythological understanding and approach to the universe. The result is a seamlessly poetic and, albeit Brazilian, universal music, grounded by compositional techniques that give it a perfectly well-conceived arch.” (Aleyson Scopel)

Aleyson Scopel, piano

Aleyson Scopel
is a recipient of the Nelson Freire and Magda Tagliaferro awards, and has also won numerous prizes in international competitions such as the William Kapell, Villa-Lobos, Corpus Christi, Kingsville and Southern Highland International Piano Competitions. Aleyson Scopel graduated with distinction in performance and academic honours from the New England Conservatory of Music, in Boston. During his years at the conservatory he studied with Patricia Zander and was also awarded the Blüthner prize. He then furthered his studies in Brazil with Celia Ottoni and Myrian Dauelsberg.

Booklet for Prado: Complete Cartas Celestes, Vol. 4