Almeida Prado: Complete Nocturnes – Ilhas

ARTIST: Aleyson Scopel
COMPOSER: José Antônio Rezende de Almeida Prado
LABEL: Grand Piano
CAT ID: GP890 / 747313989027

LATIN GRAMMY® CATEGORIES SUBMITTED INTO:
Best Classical Album

Almeida Prado’s colossal piano cycle Cartas Celestes (‘Celestial Charts’) offers a paradigm of audacious invention (GP709, 710, 746, 747) but between 1985 and 1991 this prolific Brazilian composer also wrote a set of 14 nocturnes that display the genre’s lyrical impulses. Along with abstract elements and features such as synesthesia, used in homage to his teacher Messaien, the full range of influences can be felt in Almeida Prado’s Nocturnes: Chopin, Scriabinesque color, bossa-nova, Brahms-like intervals, serenity and radiant songfulness. Ilhas (‘Islands’) is a mystical but programmatic work, the predecessor of Cartas Celestes in many essential elements. Aleyson Scopel is an award-winning Brazilian pianist and one of Almeida Prado’s greatest contemporary advocates.

Performer

Photo Credit: Camilla Baptistin

Aleyson Scopel

Brazilian pianist Aleyson Scopel has performed worldwide in solo, chamber and concerto settings. A recipient of the Nelson Freire and Magda Tagliaferro awards, he has also won numerous prizes in international competitions such as the William Kapell, Villa-Lobos, Corpus Christi, Kingsville and Southern Highland International Piano Competitions. 

Besides the core masterpieces of the piano repertoire, he has a keen interest in contemporary music that reflects the modern idiom of the instrument. His performance of the first set of Cartas Celestes by Almeida Prado was thus received by the composer: ’It came straight from heaven! Meteor Showers, radiant constellations, glowing nebulae and a transcendental vitality marked the genial interpretation of this colossal pianist.’ Prado would later dedicate to Scopel the 15th set of the series. Aleyson Scopel played his first piano chords at the age of 14. Shortly after that he 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.

For more information, visit www.aleysonscopel.com.

Press

“Playing the piano with these types of extremes—the heavy, almost pounding chords, low and dark, along with the light and soft touch of either very high notes or quite carefully selected bright colors—seems quite extraordinarily difficult, but Scopel’s performance never feels overdone or melodramatic.”
Jacqueline Kharouf, Fanfare, May 2023

“This is an interesting, illuminating album… Prado’s music has a sensitive and sympathetic interpreter in Scopel.”
Nathan Faro, American Record Guide, March 2023

“…Scopel is a master of both mood and articulation, bringing out the structure of these pieces without over-emphasizing anything yet still making every note, even in the inner voices, audible to the listener. Quite simply, this is an astounding album.”
Lynn René Bayley, The Art Music Lounge, September 2022

“Aleyson Scopel plays these pieces with the utmost commitment to let their effect become optimal and attractive. And he succeeds in this in an absolutely fascinating way. His play with colors and the resulting atmosphere are captivating.”
Remy Franck, Pizzicato, September 2022

VIDEOS

Nocturne N. 4 (complete)

Ilhas (excerpt)

Nocturne N. 2 (excerpt)

Nocturne N. 11 (excerpt)