Sequeira Costa

Álvaro Teixeira - Do you think it is symptomatic that we have a Spanish in third place (in the final classifications of the contest) and no Portuguese among the first seven?

Sequeira Costa - Among the first seven? But the Portuguese were eliminated in the first elimination round!

AT- Is it wise to ask you if you think that Portugal will ever be culturally on par with other countries in Europe? Or is it a ridiculous question?

SC- It is not ridiculous to ask me that. However, it is a question to which I have no answer. Already at the time of the Roman legions, they referred to the Lusitanians as an indomitable race. It is a problem of mentality. Portugal is neither Germany nor Russia. We have other good things. The sun, the beach, the red wine...

According to statistics we are the first in road accidents, right? And it seems that in corruption too...

Money in Portugal is not well divided. Instead of sending scholarship holders abroad they should bring half a dozen masters here. Maybe then, in ten years time, we wouldn't be so far away... Yesterday (at the award ceremony) I talked about basic education! It is all in the basic education! This is what allows the development of a people. Then there are the opportunists! Those who only look for subsidies...

AT- And from Spain? Are we far away?

SC- Without a doubt. The Spaniards have revealed themselves above all in the field of voices, and they are one of the best. Maybe the best European school...

AT- Do you think that if the right comes back to power, culture in Portugal will win?

SC- The democratic movements in Portugal, after the 25th of April, had valid conceptions. The proof is that today there are many more concerts, festivals, etc. If the right comes back to power it will be the same or similar. The problem is the mentality and the lack of basic education. Musical education is fundamental and children have to be obliged to study music with the same seriousness and discipline with which they study mathematics and history in order to be able to distinguish between Stockausen and Rameau. What the old Portuguese girls know is the "goofy" sonata by "Bitoven". Nothing else! One day I was at the house of one of these fine old ladies and she said to her niece: "my dear, play the goffy sonata for the teacher to hear".

AT- Don't you think that everything is absurdly concentrated in Lisbon?

SC- I totally agree. It's the mentality! This Foundation (Gulbenkian) was a Solomon's mine that suddenly appeared here and the people who govern it like to appear in concerts but they don't seriously worry about cultural diffusion. There is no such concern. An artist comes here, he should give 6 or 7 recitals in different cities. But no, he plays here at the foundation and leaves. Fundamentally, the way things are organized is wrong. It is not with the coming of big orchestras to Lisbon, to which millions of escudos (former portuguese currency) are paid every year, that the Portuguese will be culturally educated.

AT- In these piano festivals contemporary works are neglected...

SC- That's a lie! The competitors were obliged to bring a piece by a contemporary composer. You weren't in the competition from the beginning, were you?

AT- No.

SC- Well that was a pity!

AT- The publicity was almost non-existent. I heard about it by chance...

SC- It's amazing how the Portuguese press boycotts an event like this...

AT- Would you to organize the next edition, let's say, for example in Trás-os-Montes?

SC- I would only do it because my grandfather is from Trás-os-Montes. Vianna da Motta was born and taught in Lisbon. In Oporto they already have a piano competition, I was the one who validated it internationally as a member of the World Federation of Piano Competitions. It is a competition without much international projection... In these things Portugal is still in the prehistory.

AT- What advice would you give the Minister of Education?

SC- I spoke to him yesterday. I already told him what I think.

AT- Is there something like a "Lusitanian soul" that drives the Portuguese towards soccer, fado and Fátima, while keeping them away from the "great culture"?

SC- Don't forget that we all have Arab blood. The heat creates mental and physical laziness that diminishes our capacities... People from the South want everything fast and easy... It seems that this year's book fair had few people. The Portuguese don't read.

AT- Did you choose a relatively young jury because you believe they can be more immune to the great pressures that are known to exist in these international contests?

SC- More immune... I would say less corrupted! They are young and not yet as settled as the old ones.

AT- It seemed to me that the Russian contestant...

SC- I completely agree! In any other contest he wouldn't have made it past the first elimination round.

AT- But to me he seemed to have a solid technique. That Scriabin sonata yesterday...

SC- Which Portuguese pianist doesn't shine with Lopes Graca's works? For Russians, playing Scriabin is born with them. Any 9 years old child would play like that competitor.

AT- Who nevertheless seemed to me to have a more solid technique than the 5th place finisher...

SC- Don't say that! Did you hear him play the Chopin studies? He didn't deserve to get past the first round. I'm not going to give you a lesson now but the touché of the contestant to which you refer has nothing to do with the lack of it that the Russian contestant revealed and who came in 6th place!

AT- I haven't heard him in the Chopin studies but in fact in the piano concerto he seemed to have been too percussive for a composer like Chopin who uses big lines in "legatto".

SC- This contestant can make a splash with Stravinsky. Never with the classics.

AT- Stravinsky who is a great composer...

SC- No. The great composer of the twentieth century, the one who "opened the doors" is Schoenberg!

AT- Stravinsky too. In other aspects.

[at Vianna da Motta International Competition, Lisbon, 2001. Sequeira Costa, who studied with Vianna da Motta, was the founder and the President of that competition]