José Vianna da Motta (modern spelling as 'Viana da Mota') (22 April 18681 June 1948) was a Portuguese

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

, and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

. He was one of the last pupils of

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...

. The José Vianna da Motta Music Competition was founded in 1957 in his honor.

Life

José Vianna da Motta was born on

São Tomé Island São Tomé Island, at , is the largest island of São Tomé and Príncipe and is home in May 2018 to about 193,380 or 96% of the nation's population. The island is divided into six districts of São Tomé and Príncipe, districts. It is located ...

, a Portuguese territory at the time where his father, also a great amateur musician, had opened a pharmacy. Moving with his family to Continental Portugal, he settled in Colares, near Sintra, where he soon showed his unusual skills in music, and in playing and composing works for the piano. In

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

he had lessons from Xaver Scharwenka and Philipp Scharwenka before studying with Franz Liszt at

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), German state of Thuringia, in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt to the west and Jena to the east, southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together w ...

in 1885 and with Hans von Bülow two years later. In the following years he undertook many concert tours all round the world. His professional career began in 1886 and continued uninterruptedly until 1945. He made his first European tour in 1888, accompanying violinist Pablo de Sarasate in Copenhagen and Helsinki and violinist Tivadar Nachéz in Moscow and St. Petersburg.Se
Viana da Mota
by Teresa Cascudo
Camões Public Institute
Motta made his first American tour in 1892, the year he visited New York and where he met

Ferruccio Busoni Ferruccio Busoni (1 April 1866 – 27 July 1924) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. His international career and reputation led him to work closely with many of the leading musicians, artists and literary ...

, and played for the first time in Brazil in 1896, on a tour with the violinist Bernardo Moreira de Sá. He returned several times to South America, having been applauded in his recitals in Buenos Aires, one of the cities where he performed more often in public. Although he was renowned for his virtuosity he was also dedicated to the music of J. S. Bach and

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

- playing all of the latter's 32 piano sonatas in a series of concerts in Lisbon in 1927. He also included lesser known composers in his recitals, playing, for example, works by Charles-Valentin Alkan at the Wigmore Hall in London in 1903. He also made a number of transcriptions of Alkan's pedalier pieces into two hand versions. Vianna da Motta remained close to his fellow virtuoso Busoni, having written the programme notes for Busoni's major series of piano concerto concerts in Berlin. On July 31, 1900, Busoni and Motta gave a concert dedicated to Liszt's works in Weimar. The program included Liszt's transcription of Beethoven's ninth symphony, which they played on two pianos.Cf. the news section of magazine Arte Musical, year 2, nr 39
page 119
(1900, August 15). Vianna da Motta was also a composer in his own right, including orchestral works (one of them a symphony) as well as piano pieces. On 25 October 1906, Motta recorded ten piano rolls for Welte-Mignon including three of his own compositions. He was Director of the Lisbon Conservatory from 1919 to 1938. Amongst his pupils there was the pianist Sequeira Costa. He died in Lisbon in 1948, aged 80.

Compositions

Notes

Sources

*Kenneth Hamilton, ''After the Golden Age: Romantic Pianism and Modern Performance'', Oxford, 2008, * Charles Hopkins. "Vianna da Motta, José." In Grove Music Online.

Oxford Music Online ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and th ...

(subscription only) (accessed February 9, 2010). *Julia MacRae (ed.), '' Wigmore Hall 1901-2001: A Celebration''. London 2001 * Ronald Smith (musician), Smith, Ronald, ''Alkan: The Man, The Music'', London, 2000

External links

* * official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Motta, Jose Viana da 1868 births 1948 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century classical pianists 19th-century Portuguese male musicians 20th-century Portuguese classical composers 20th-century classical pianists Portuguese Romantic composers Portuguese classical pianists Portuguese male classical pianists People from Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe People from São Tomé Pupils of Franz Liszt