The review begins by recognising the album's contemplative tone - it has 'the serenity of a more delicate, deeper, more intense writing'. Across all the works on the album, 'there are "quieter components of composition, of writing, without sacrificing energy, of stronger dynamics, whenever it has to be, in an extensive game of timbres and textures that impose a more reflective environment, sometimes more nostalgic, sometimes more distressing, and almost always moving.'
On Aleppo, Gonçalves writes 'it is one of the most dramatic [works on the album]'... it is also 'one of the most demanding on the listener, perhaps one of the most beautiful...and one of the most fascinating.'
'Of the five other pieces, three come from the years 2020-21 and the two oldest, O Silêncio e as Pedras [The Silence and the Stones] and Lugares Esquecidos [Forgotten Places], from 2008 and 1998, respectively. The latter, which closes the sequence of 'silences', dates back to the last years of Luís Tinoco's training in London, and "reflects a certain feeling of nostalgia, related to the physical distance of archived images" in the composer's memory. Conceived for a quartet with piano, it somehow anticipates the more serene character of his writing and is exemplarily combined in the set of later works, for the frontality that in itself translates.'
It is great to see a UYMP House Composer getting sustained praise in the media, and nice also to see that the musicians on the recording are rightfully praised as well. Gonçalves points out that all of the performers on the album 'were distinguished in the Young Musicians Award of radio Antena 2 (of which Luís Tinoco is the current artistic director), from the first to the most recent editions, and all, without exception, fit among the best of today.'
We can only agree with the reviewer, and Nicola LeFanu, and say that Luís Tinoco is "one of the leading European composers", with "a fertile imagination, technical mastery and an adventurous ear", capable of conjuring magical sound worlds" for those who hear him..
N.B. The article was originally written in Portuguese, and all quotations are translated.