Maria João Pires | |
|---|---|
 Pires playing in 2009 | |
| Born | Maria João AlexandreBarbosa Pires (1944-07-23)23 July 1944 (age 80) Lisbon, Portugal |
| Occupation | Classical pianist |
Maria João Alexandre Barbosa Pires (Portuguese:[mɐˈɾi.ɐʒwɐ̃wˈpiɾɨʃ]; born 23 July 1944) is a Portuguese classicalpianist, widely regarded as one of the leading interpreters of the repertoire of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Pires was born inLisbon,Portugal, aposthumous daughter of João Baptista Pires and his wife Alzira dos Santos Alexandre Barbosa. She has three siblings: Hugo Alexandre Barbosa Pires, Maria Regina Alexandre Barbosa Pires and Maria Helena Alexandre Barbosa Pires.
Her first recital was at the age of five, and at the age of seven she was already playingMozart piano concertos publicly. Two years later she received Portugal's top prize for young musicians. In the following years, she studied with Campos Coelho at the Lisbon Conservatory, taking courses in composition, theory, andhistory of music. She continued her studies inGermany, first in the Musikakademie ofMunich with Rosl Schmid and then inHanover withKarl Engel.[1]
International fame came in 1970, when she won theBeethoven Bicentennial Competition inBrussels. Subsequently, she performed with major orchestras in Europe, America, Canada, Israel and Japan, interpreting works byBach,Beethoven,Schumann,Schubert,Mozart,Brahms,Chopin and other classical and romantic composers.
Her professionalism achieved worldwide recognition when a 1998 film was drawn to the attention of the press and went viral in 2013. At the start of a lunchtime open rehearsal in Amsterdam, she realised that she had prepared for a different Mozart concerto from the one the orchestra had started playing; quickly recovering, she played the correct concerto from memory.[2]
Pires performed at theBBC Proms in 2010. In an interview beforehand, she said that after 60 years of recitals and concerts she had cut back her performances but was non-committal about retirement.[3]
From 2012 to 2016, she was a Master in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Waterloo, Belgium, where she gave piano lessons andmaster classes to young talented pianists from all over the world. To foster young musicians, she launched the Partitura Project.
In 2017, she announced her retirement from the stage and tours for 2018, but she continued giving concerts.[4]
On February 20, 2019, she was awarded with a Doctorate Honorary Degree byPompeu Fabra University of Barcelona.[5] In 2023, she was given the Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance from theBienen School of Music atNorthwestern University.
Pires performs as a solo artist and inchamber music. Her many successful recordings include performances of theMoonlight and othersonatas by Beethoven,Le Voyage Magnifique (the complete impromptus of Schubert), nocturnes and other works by Chopin, and Mozart trios withAugustin Dumay (violin) andJian Wang (cello).
She won thePessoa Prize in 1989, and founded the Belgais Centre for Study of the Arts in 1999.[6]
Gramophone selected her recordings of the Chopinnocturnes as the best version available: "I have no hesitation in declaring Maria João Pires—a pianist without a trace of narcissism—among the most eloquent master-musicians of our time." (Bryce Morrison).[7] Her recording of Beethoven's 3rd and 4th piano concertos with theSwedish Radio Symphony Orchestra andDaniel Harding won the 2015Gramophone Classical Music Awards - Concerto Category[8]
Another of her acclaimed recordings isMozart: The Piano Sonatas. According to thePenguin Guide, "Maria João Pires is a stylist and a fine Mozartian. She is always refined yet never wanting in classical feeling, and she has a vital imagination. She strikes an ideal balance between poise and expressive sensibility, conveying a sense of spontaneity in everything she does."[9]
In 2006 she moved toLauro de Freitas—a town nearSalvador, Brazil—and continued performing. At the time of her move, she commented that she had suffered much adverse publicity in Portugal due to her Belgais Centre project to help tackle the significant problem of underprivileged children, a project that the Portuguese Government helped to fund but publicly shied away from.[10] The centre continued to operate at her farm in Portugal[6] and she subsequently started similar projects in Brazil.[3]
In 2017, she moved back to Belgais, in Portugal.
"It is in response to this issue that Maria João Pires launched the Partitura project. It is all about creating favourable circumstances for transmission by encouraging reciprocal listening between generations: inciting well-known musicians to foster young musicians and to invite them (as the name suggests) to share the concert platform".[11]
Dame of theOrder of Saint James of the Sword (9 August 1983)[12]
Commander of theOrder of Prince Henry (9 June 1989)[12]
Grand Cross of the Order of Saint James of the Sword (9 June 1998)[12]
Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Henry (19 May 2019)[12]Notes
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