Nights of Queluz return with five concerts in an intimate dialogue with heritage

This autumn, music – a fundamental element of life at court – will once again resonate through the sumptuous rooms of the National Palace of Queluz, bringing new emotions and experiences that draw on the dialogue between heritage, history and music. From 8 to 30 October, Nights of Queluz will take audiences on a journey spanning more than three centuries of music history. The programme features five concerts performed by internationally renowned artists and young interpreters, with works by such outstanding composers as Johann Sebastian Bach, Alessandro Scarlatti, Antonio Vivaldi, Muzio Clementi, Ludwig van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

After a four-year hiatus, Nights of Queluz, an initiative by Parques de Sintra, with artistic direction by Massimo Mazzeo and jointly organised with Divino Sospiro – Centro de Estudos Musicais e Setecentistas de Portugal, returns with renewed ambition, reaffirming the company’s commitment to promoting heritage as a space for artistic creation, performance and cultural enjoyment.

João Sousa Rego, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Parques de Sintra, emphasises that “cultural heritage finds its fullest expression when it is lived, interpreted and shared. Through music, artistic creation and the interpretation of heritage, monuments cease to be merely places to visit and establish themselves as spaces for knowledge, emotion and experience, in dialogue with contemporary society.” Highlighting that the return of Nights of Queluz fully embodies this vision, he stresses “the programme’s high artistic quality, built around historically informed performance and the appreciation of unique heritage, establishing a relationship between repertoire, historical context and architectural space”.

The first concert of Nights of Queluz, on 8 October in the Music Room, will be performed by acclaimed pianist Raúl da Costa, who returns to the eighteenth-century Clementi fortepiano from the Palace’s collection, bringing it back to life. From the luminous Classicism of Muzio Clementi to John Field’s early Romantic soundscapes, and through Beethoven’s transformative power, this recital traces a pivotal moment in the history of the piano.

On the following evening, 9 October, Raúl da Costa will return to the Music Room, sharing the stage with Venezuelan sopranist Samuel Mariño, whose rare lyric soprano voice is distinguished by its crystalline purity and extraordinary vocal agility. Moving between the expressiveness of the Baroque, Classical elegance and Romantic intensity, they will perform works by John Dowland, Bellini, Viardot and Rossini, bearing witness to different ways of giving voice to love, melancholy, desire and contemplation.

At the concert on 16 October, in the majestic Throne Room, the Musurgia Ensemble, comprising four specialists in early music and led by musical director João Távora, will take audiences to the heart of Baroque music. From the choreographic elegance of Marin Marais to the masterful counterpoint of Johann Sebastian Bach, via the inventiveness of Georg Philipp Telemann and the expressive balance of George Frideric Handel, the programme reveals the richness of a repertoire in which the dialogue between voices becomes the true driving force behind musical creation.

On 23 October, in the Throne Room, Divino Sospiro will present the modern world premiere of the concert version of La Statira by Alessandro Scarlatti, one of the leading architects of Italian opera between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The result of research, critical editing and the recovery of eighteenth-century musical heritage undertaken by Divino Sospiro and the Centro de Estudos Musicais Setecentistas de Portugal, as well as a multidisciplinary project carried out in collaboration with the “Santa Cecilia” Conservatory in Rome, the Escola Superior de Música da Catalunha, the Escola de Música do Conservatório Nacional de Lisboa, Complutense University of Madrid and NOVA University Lisbon, the presentation of this opera at Queluz Palace is particularly symbolic. More than a mere backdrop, the setting becomes an integral part of the artistic experience, bringing audiences closer to the cultural world in which this music was born and originally heard.

Nights of Queluz will come to an end on 30 October, with a performance by the Quartetto Altemps which, through an innovative and original approach, presents a programme dedicated to Viennese Classicism. From Joseph Haydn, the founder of the modern string quartet, to the expressive genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the transformative power of Ludwig van Beethoven, this concert follows one of the most extraordinary creative lineages in the history of Western music.

Tickets, priced at €18, are available on the Parques de Sintra website. All concerts begin at 9.00 pm.

Nights of Queluz is supported by Sintra City Council, with Antena 2 as its media partner.