Pedro Burmester in the Piano Cycle at the Palaces of Sintra
A Pedro Burmester recital is always an event. A favourite pupil of Helena Sá e Costa, he was also taught by Sequeira Costa, meaning he received his training from the two great pupils of Viana da Mota, at the piano school the latter founded in Portugal. When the recital's programme includes Pedro Burmester revisiting the Goldberg Variations – thirty-two years on from the huge success of his recording of this work for EMI Classics – you know you are witnessing something truly extraordinary. An essential work for keyboard, the Goldberg Variations, whether in their original version for harpsichord, modern piano or chamber music, among other versions, are a real challenge for any musician, not only because of their great technical and polyphonic difficulty, perhaps owing to the abstract, almost mathematical construction attributed to Bach, but also because of the multiple possibilities and interpretative approaches they give rise to, which lead the performer to virtually appropriate the work and offer their own vision of it.
Programme
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
- Goldberg Variations, BWV988
Biography
Pedro Burmester was born in Porto in 1963. He gave his first recital at the age of ten, having performed since then as a soloist, in chamber music and with orchestra around the world: Portugal, England, Spain, Ireland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Poland, USA, Australia, Brazil, South Africa, China, Japan and Thailand.
He was a student of Helena Costa for 10 years. He completed his studies in the United States with Sequeira Costa, Léon Fleisher and Dimitri Paperno. He has taken part in Masterclasses with Jurg Demus, Aldo Ciccolini, Karl Engel, Vladimir Ashenazy, Tatjana Nikolaiewa and Elisabeth Leonskaia. He received a grant from the Austrian Ministry of Culture and attended the Summer Courses in Salzburg for 10 consecutive years.
In 1983, Pedro Burmester came second in the Vianna da Motta International Music Competition and, in 1989, received the special jury prize in the Van Cliburn Competition, in the United States. He has also won the Moreira de Sá prize and the Robert Schumann silver medal.
He has performed at ‘92nd Y’ in New York, the Belfast Festival, the Salle Gaveau, in Paris, in Cologne, and at the Radio France Montpellier festival. He was invited by Heinrich Schiff to play with the Northern Sinfonia. He has given recitals for Radio Bremen, WDRKoln and also performed with Liège Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, Zagreb Philharmonic, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Warsaw Symphony. He was also invited to play with the London Symphony Orchestra, under conductor Georg Solti.
He has shared the stage with more than 50 conductors, including Martin André, Baldur Bronnimann, Franz Bruggen, Joana Carneiro, Álvaro Cassuto, Gabriel Chmura, Peter Csaba, Manuel Ivo Cruz, Josep Caballé Domenech, Leon Fleisher, Omri Hadari, Leopold Hager, Paavo Jarvi, Jan Latham Konig, Miguel Graça Moura, Gianadrea Noseda, Peter Rundel, Georg Solti, Muhai Tang, Lothar Zagrosek and Michael Zilm.
He has been a soloist with almost all the Portuguese orchestras (National Orchestra of Porto, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, Orquestra do Norte, Beiras Orchestra, Algarve Orchestra, Madeira Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra, Youth Symphony Orchestra and Lisbon Sinfonietta)
In chamber music groupings, Pedro Burmester has performed with Mário Laginha, Alexei Eremine, Fausto Neves, António Saiote, Gerardo Ribeiro, Paulo Gaio Lima, Anner Bylsma, Thomas Zehetmair, Pražák Quartet, Tokyo String Quartet and Augustin Dumay.
In January 2000, Pedro Burmester decided to put his teaching and concert activity almost entirely on hold to devote himself fully to the Casa da Música project in Porto. Between January 2000 and July 2003, he was a member of the Executive Commission of the Board of Directors for Casa da Música | Porto 2001, S.A., responsible for the area of Music Programming and in charge of the ‘Casa da Música’ project. Between 2006 and 2008, he was Artistic Director and Education Director for the Casa da Música Foundation, in charge of defining the Programming Strategy, Education Service, and Programme and Production Budget Management, outlining partnership policies for programming and reception, and defining and organising resident structures within the Casa da Música Foundation.
Since 1989, he has given regular masterclasses and seminars in various educational institutions and music courses, including: Estoril International Music Course; Pio XII Music Academy in Vila do Conde; Espinho Music Academy; Linda-a-Velha Music School; Fralães Music Courses; Porto Conservatory of Music; Porto PianoFest; Campos de Jordão International Festival; and IKFEM – International Keyboard Festival & Masterclass in Eurociudad Tui. From 2009, he returned to teaching piano to master’s students at the University of Évora and the University of Aveiro. Since 2010, he has taught Piano and Chamber Music at ESMAE – Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espectáculo, in Porto, where he had previously taught between 1989 and 1999.
He recorded his first album in 1987, featuring works by Schumann and Schubert (EMI, 1987) and since then has released various records, solo, with orchestra and chamber music, of which it is worth noting the two live records, 3 pianos with Mário Laginha and Bernardo Sassetti (Avanti Classic 2005) and Ao Vivo na Casa da Música (Casa da Música, 2014).
In 1990, he was dubbed Knight of the Order of Santiago de Espada, by President Mário Soares, and in 2006, President Jorge Sampaio named him Commander of the Order of Infante D. Henrique.
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