Two sold-out concerts, by Maria João and Camané, kick off Belém Soundcheck today, a new festival at the Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB), in Lisbon, which includes a “multiplicity of musical universes”.
This festival, which will be held every two years, has a program aimed at various audiences, with four days of concerts ranging “from fado to classical music, from jazz to electronica, from world music to exploratory sounds”, as the CCB describes it.
Today, the first day will be fulfilled with a concert by Camané in the large auditorium, where the fado singer will perform a repertoire exclusively of songs by José Mário Branco, the musician who produced several of his albums.
In the small auditorium will be singer Maria João with the concert “Songs for Shakespeare”, designed with musician João Farinha, based on the literary universe of the English playwright.
Another highlight of the festival is Saturday’s sold-out performance by American writer and singer Patti Smith with the Soundwalk Collective, founded by Stephan Crasneanscki, with whom she has collaborated on the music and poetry project “Correspondences”.
In addition, the multidisciplinary art installation “Evidence: Soundwalk Collective & Patti Smith” opens to the public on Saturday, evoking the work of writers Artaud, Rimbaud and René Daumal, combined with sounds, images and films captured in various parts of the world.
This exhibition will be on show at the CCB until September 8th.
On Saturday, the same day as Patti Smith and Soundwalk Collective, British singer Tirzah also performs, and the concert is also sold out.
Belém Soundcheck will also feature concerts by Il Giardino Armonico, with cellist Giovanni Sollima, and Brazilian pianist Amaro Freitas, both on Friday.
On Sunday, the festival closes with the Kremerata Baltica orchestra, under the direction of Gidon Kremer, performing repertoire by composers such as Arvo Pärt, Vidmantas Bartulise, Chopin and Pizzolla.