Wim Mertens returns to Portugal with a new solo tour, in an intimate performance where piano and voice take centre stage. The programme brings together pieces from his latest album, Ma Soeur Masculin, alongside a selection from his extensive solo piano repertoire, offering a journey through the musical universe of one of Europe’s most distinctive composers of recent decades.
With a career spanning more than four decades, the Belgian composer, pianist, and singer has developed a unique musical language, in which the repetitive structures of minimalism intersect with melodies of remarkable lyrical and emotional intensity. His work embraces a wide range of ensembles and expressive possibilities, from the intimacy of solo piano to chamber music and orchestral compositions, while also standing out for its highly distinctive use of the voice.
The creator of iconic works such as Struggle for Pleasure, Often a Bird, Iris, and Close Cover, Wim Mertens also composed the soundtrack for Peter Greenaway’s The Belly of an Architect. In this new tour, he returns to the essence of his musical language, creating a direct encounter with audiences that highlights the melodic richness of his compositions. An opportunity to discover, or revisit, a body of work in which formal refinement coexists with an extraordinary evocative power.