Portugal Verão Clássico Festival 2025 [3] – TalentFest Concerts I–III: 50plus players (violin, viola, cello, double bass, piano, voice). Centro Cultural de Belém, Sala Luís de Freitas Branco, Lisbon, 24, 25 & 26.7.2025. (LV)
The first three nights of Verão Clássico Festival’s TalentFest was no polite procession of recital pieces. It was a drama of contrasts – Puccini colliding with Bach, Bernstein sparring with Prokofiev, Bottesini’s bass elegies flaring after Rachmaninov’s storms. More than 100 young performers from around the world filled the Centro Cultural de Belém with playing so intense it felt closer to a Eurovision Final than a student showcase.
At the center stood 20‑year‑old cellist Matteo Fabi. On the second night, his Kodály Solo Sonata caught fire – pizzicatos sparking like matches, rustic vigor melting into lyrical reflection and an unforgettable grin as he headed to the final ascent in a performance that raised the festival’s temperature.
Fabi wasn’t alone in commanding attention. Alfonso Pinto‑Ribeiro in Wieniawski’s Polonaise de Concert threw off pyrotechnics with casual elegance, his tone pure and unshowy, letting the music blaze without fuss. Pianist Alba Shkreli gave Chopin’s Ballade No.3 a smile at its famous theme, her joy fueling the structure until it bubbled over with energy, only to subside into wistful warmth before a final surge.
There was also Itamar Feinberg, who tore through Ravel’s Scarbo with grotesque precision, every note alive, every shadow vivid. And João Sá Pacheco, unsmiling, ripped into a Rachmaninov Étude‑Tableau with unrelenting ferocity.
These were performances that demanded more than skill: they required temperament. From Prokofiev’s relentless Toccata, ridden like a storm by Andrés Palao Ortega, to Aenne Forster’s noble, carefully colored Prokofiev Piano Sonata No.3, the pianists showed the spectrum of intensity the festival cultivated.
If the strings and pianos supplied the fireworks, the singers brought the immediacy of theater. Alisa Medvedeva’s Lehár aria gleamed with conviction, a masterclass echoing of Anna Samuil’s teaching. Tianjaio Yin delivered Puccini’s ‘Un bel dì vedremo’ with authentic pathos: wide vibrato, dramatic projection and final high notes that rang with heartbreaking power.
And then came the comic turns. Eda Meralli in Offenbach’s ‘Les oiseaux dans la charmille’ from The Tales of Hoffmann had a twinkly smile that could melt marble, her trills like playful pulses of light, her timing irresistible. Jiantian Jian, resplendent in black and gold, closed the second night in Johann Strauss’s ‘Klänge der Heimat’ from Die Fledermaus, her diction uneven but her unleashed voice commanding the hall.
On the final evening, Sara Geerarts lifted Donizetti’s ‘O luce di quest’anima’ from Linda di Chamounix into something both commanding and charming, a performance that seemed to announce her future career. And twice, Bernstein’s ‘Glitter and Be Gay’ brought the house to laughter: first with Héloïse Garlopeau’s fearless, crystalline tour de force, sly and dazzling and, just before the last night ended, with Tània Matas Mas’s brash, neurotic reprise.
The Storytellers: Not every highlight came in a blaze: some drew the audience inward. Vivian Qu’s Debussy Cello Sonata teemed with ideas, her tone urgent yet conversational, her Finale darting with private spontaneity. Zoey Long’s Bach Prelude, transcribed for viola, unfolded thoughtfully, her hesitations offset by an ear for inner voices.
Heemin Lee’s performance of a movement from Schubert’s Grand Duo in A was luminous, portamentos tender at first, later flowing cleanly, phrased with light‑hearted Schubertian charm. William Harris in Mendelssohn’s Variations Concertantes – a piece many young cellists cut their teeth on – played with warmth and love in every bar, elevating the familiar into something evocative and memorable.
Bella Lorenzo‑Giguere in Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No.3 finale shaped her Allegro beautifully, her phrasing always musical. Soazig Grall’s Bach Largo transcended form altogether, intimate and inspiring. Shuanger Li’s Richard Strauss Improvisation from the Op.18 Sonata glowed serenely, a pause in the whirlwind.
The Risk‑Takers: TalentFest rewarded audacity. Flora Valila’s playing of the last movement from Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata in D minor was as much theater as sonata: crouching, grimacing, her cello sounding like an entire orchestra, grotesque yet playful. Satori Matsukage’s Brahms’s Presto agitato from the Sonata No.3 was fierce and strident, the bow digging in with fearless attack.
Junzhe Jia’s first movement from Bottesini’s Concerto No.2 proved unforgettable. The young double bassist combined naive melodic sweetness with formidable technique, his delirious cadenza a showstopper that drew the hall to its feet. Karla Wulff in Bottesini’s Elegia was greeted with whoops from her bass colleagues – less flawless, perhaps, but warmly received, the memory of their marathon masterclass still in the air.
And then Hannah Tam closed the festival with Corigliano’s Red Violin Caprices. Lapidarian, painfully intense, she seared the evening as silence fell.
Epilogue: Three nights, fifty young performers, music from Bach to Corigliano. And around Matteo Fabi’s Kodály was a constellation of voices, bows and fingers that turned Verão Clássico 2025 into something unforgettable: not just a festival, but a classical Eurovision – where every contrast, every risk and every note was part of the show.
Laurence Vittes
24.7.2025 – TalentFest Concert I: music by Beethoven, Chopin, Lehár, Debussy, Ravel, Bernstein, Bach, Bottesini, Verdi, Wieniawski, Prokofiev, Mendelssohn
25.7.2025 – TalentFest Concert II: music by Schubert, Brahms, Puccini, Koussevitzky, Offenbach, Shostakovich, Donizetti, Schumann, Chopin, Debussy, Kodály, Paganini, Johann Strauss II
26.7.2025 – TalentFest Concert III: music by Bach, Weber, Rachmaninov, Bottesini, Beethoven, Schumann, Richard Strauss, Donizetti, Ravel, Corigliano.
Beautifully and sensually written, vividly describes amazing concerts, giving the opportunity to fill it even if you miss it physically.