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

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

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. whe ...

, and composer. He was one of the last pupils of Franz Liszt. 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. It is located 2 km (1¼ miles) north of the equ ...

, 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 Sintra (, ) is a town and municipality in the Greater Lisbon region of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. The population of the municipality in 2011 was 377,835, in an area of . Sintra is one of the most urbanized and densely populat ...

, where he soon showed his unusual skills in music, and in playing and composing works for the piano. In

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

he had lessons from

Xaver Scharwenka Theophil Franz Xaver Scharwenka (6 January 1850 – 8 December 1924) was a German pianist, composer and teacher of Polish descent. He was the brother of Ludwig Philipp Scharwenka (1847–1917), who was also a composer and teacher of music. Life ...

and

Philipp Scharwenka Ludwig Philipp Scharwenka (16 February 1847, in Szamotuły amter Grand Duchy of Posen – 16 July 1917, in Bad Nauheim) was a German-Polish composer and teacher of music. He was the older brother of Xaver Scharwenka. Early training Scharwenka ...

before studying with Franz Liszt at

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

in 1885 and with

Hans von Bülow Freiherr Hans Guido von Bülow (8 January 1830 – 12 February 1894) was a German conductor, virtuoso pianist, and composer of the Romantic era. As one of the most distinguished conductors of the 19th century, his activity was critical for es ...

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, 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 Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...

and

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

- playing all of the latter's 32

piano sonata A piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement ( Scarlatti, Liszt, Scriabin, Medtner, Berg), others with ...

s 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 Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leadi ...

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 The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is a choral symphony, the final complete symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, composed between 1822 and 1824. It was first performed in Vienna on 7 May 1824. The symphony is regarded by many critics and musi ...

, 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 M. Welte & Sons, Freiburg and New York was a manufacturer of orchestrions, organs and reproducing pianos, established in Vöhrenbach by Michael Welte (1807–1880) in 1832. Overview From 1832 until 1932, the firm produced mechanical musi ...

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 José Carlos de Sequeira Costa (18 July 1929 in Luanda, Angola – 21 February 2019 in Olathe, Kansas) was a Portuguese pianist who is especially renowned for his interpretations of the Romantic repertoire. As a child, Sequeira Costa showed e ...

. 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

(subscription only) (accessed February 9, 2010). *Julia MacRae (ed.), ''

1901-2001: A Celebration''. London 2001 * Ronald Smith (musician), Smith, Ronald, ''Alkan: The Man, The Music'', London, 2000

External links

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