Desvendando um Norte Erudito

Between December 2021 and May 2022, the Quarteto Euterpe gave six concerts across three cycles as part of the project Desvendando um Norte Erudito. The project responded to a genuine gap in the musical programming of northern Portugal’s interior — the scarcity of quality chamber music outside major urban centres — bringing string quartet to significant heritage and museum venues across six municipalities.

The choice of spaces was not incidental. The Museu de Arte Contemporânea Nadir Afonso in Chaves, the Casa de Esmeriz in Vila Nova de Famalicão, the Museu do Côa in Vila Nova de Foz Côa, the Museu do Douro in Peso da Régua, the Casa do Vinho in Valpaços and the Sala dos Arcos of the Museu Pio XII in Braga each constituted reception contexts with their own identity — acoustics, histories and memories that engaged actively with the repertoire presented at each moment.

Each cycle was built around a coherent programme, combining central works of the chamber canon with a world premiere by an emerging Portuguese composer. In Cycle 1, Beethoven and Mendelssohn framed Galandum by Ana Catarina Barros. In Cycle 2, Haydn and Joly Braga Santos preceded Hesitações de Murmúrios by Ema Ferreira. In Cycle 3, Villa-Lobos and Smetana gave way to Vira by Sara Marita. The three works were commissioned expressly for the project, with the intention that they engage with the cultural heritage and identity of the northern region — a bond between contemporary creation and territory.
The pedagogical dimension was an integral part of each concert: a guest speaker, Tiago Sousa, a musicologist with training at the University of Minho and Universidade Nova de Lisboa, contextualised the works and their historical and musical frameworks for the audience, contributing to a more informed and participatory experience.

Carried out during a period still marked by pandemic restrictions, the project achieved strong audience attendance at all venues and received an extremely positive response from the host institutions. Desvendando um Norte Erudito confirmed that there is genuine demand for quality programming outside established circuits — and that chamber music finds its place and resonance in the spaces that hold the collective memory of a region.