Press

To read the interview please go to: mic.pt

Portuguese Radio Television – Concert in Madrid 2016 with Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música

Music Review by Simon Cummings/ 5:4 World New Music Days 2025, Portugal

“Even more thrilling was State of(f) Emergencies by Portugal’s Ângela da Ponte. A compelling lyrical tension gave the opening an edgy atmosphere, before letting rip, now feisty and tough, and suddenly ascending into high registers. Following its behavioural and dramatic trajectory was an exhilarating experience: presenting a more complex form of lyricism; fracturing apart into pointillism, hardly any pitches speaking by this point; turning surly and unstable, ripples disrupting the material and triggering harsh accents, before finally something akin to earthquake tremors impossibly brought order in the form of suspended octaves. It was a powerful moment of focus bringing to end the most fabulous piece.”

Music review by Nathan Thomas (Fluid Radio):

“On the second night I sat close to the central ‘sweet spot’ of the surround sound system, and it made a huge difference to the convincingness of the effect. The brief, rapid succession of bell chimes with which Ângela Da Ponte opened her performance was extraordinarily effective in creating an acoustic and imaginative illusion of mediæval religious architecture; the variety of sounds, both ‘indigenous’ (chants, chimes) and ‘extraneous’ (electronic tones and pulses), with which composer then filled this space all seemed like they belonged there. At points during Wet Ink Ensemble’s performance, the three musicians seemed to pause and listen, for example to the tinkling sonic rain that fell from the top of the dome onto their thick violin and piano drone; if they had spent the whole set in this frame of mind then I probably would’ve liked it more, but this was a case of different strokes for different folks I think.”