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Ensemble Darcos and Nuno Côrte-Real return to Odradek following the success of their albums, Mirror of the Soul (Odradek Records) and Agora Muda Tudo – Now Everything Changes (Odradek World). Cante continues their exploration of Portuguese music and culture, in this case in pieces lovingly sourced and transcribed by Maria Rita Ortigão Pinto Cortez, whose essential work in Portuguese ethnomusicology has brought together a rich collection of music from the city of Serpa, located in the Alentejo region of Portugal. Her findings represent an eclectic range of traditional folk songs and poetry that could be heard in that region up until the middle of the 1980s, in a form known today as Cante. Nuno Côrte-Real has made faithful arrangements of these works for this album, for which Ensemble Darcos is joined by the exceptional Portuguese choir, Coro Ricercare.

In the album booklet, Cortez explains Nuno Côrte-Real’s sensitive treatment of her research, and the overwhelming local response to their collaboration: “He considers the melodies to be so beautiful that they should not be altered, as they deserve to be preserved in their natural state. I will never forget the beauty of the concert that was held in the Praça da República in Serpa at the beginning of the summer of 2018, with performances by Ensemble Darcos and the Coro Ricercare. The square was completely full of the people of the Alentejo applauding enthusiastically the music which many of them knew how to sing, now performed at a level with which they were not familiar.”

For Côrte-Real: “The traditional music of Portugal is amongst the most beautiful and varied of any in the world… This diversity and musical richness had a marked influence on my development as a composer, going back to 1996 when I began to work regularly on collections of arrangements that I called Novíssimo Cancioneiro, the first two books of which are presented here on this album.”

Ensemble Darcos is one of the most prestigious Portuguese chamber groups working today. It was created in 2002 by composer and conductor Nuno Côrte-Real for the interpretation of great European composers of chamber music, as well as the music of Côrte-Real himself.

Nuno Côrte-Real has established himself as one of the most important Portuguese composers and conductors of today. He has won both 2018 and 2019 prizes for Best Classical Music Work of the Portuguese Society of Authors, with the song cycle Agora Muda Tudo and the opera Canção do Bandido respectively.

Coro Ricercare stands out as a benchmark choir in Portugal. Since its inception, Coro Ricercare has devoted a large part of its activity to the interpretation of new Portuguese music, and has premiered more than 60 works by young Portuguese composers.

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