José Vianna da Motta was one of the greatest pianists of his time, as well as a
conductor, a teacher of international renown, a worthy musicologist and an
important composer in the history of Portuguese music. Born in Africa, São
Tomé & Príncepe, he left for Lisbon while still a child and soon began his
music studies at the National Conservatory of Music. At 13 years of age he
gives his first public concert. The titular King of Portugal, Ferdinand II of
Sax-Coburg-Gotha awarded the young Vianna da Motta a
scholarship in 1882 to study in Berlin to work composition with Philipp
Scharwenka, and piano lessons with Xaver Scharwenka. In 1885 he moves to Weimar
having Franz Liszt as his teacher. In the meantime he receives piano lessons
also from Hans von Buelow. Trough this contact with Buelow, Vianna da Motta
became a highly regarded interpreter and scholar of Beethoven. Vianna da Motta
remained in Berlin until the outbreak of war in 1914, giving frequent concerts
in Europe and the Americas, appearing with such artists as Sarasate,
Ysaÿe, Casals, Amalie
Joachim and Busoni. Busoni dedicated a Mozart
cadenza to him as well his
transcriptions of Bach’s chorale preludes, and Vianna da Motta gave the
premiere of Busoni’s transcriptions of Bach’s Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C
major. Albeniz also dedicated his piano work "La Vega" to him. With Busoni,
Vianna da Motta embarked on a new complete edition of Liszt’s works for
Breitkopf & Härtel. The two artists also collaborated on projects com
memorating Beethoven and in Berlin performed Liszt’s transcription of
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for two pianos.
After the outbreak of the First World ar Vianna da Motta left Germany and
accepted a position as director of the Music Conservatory in Geneva. In 1917 he
returned to Portugal where he was resident for the rest of his life. Upon his
return to Lisbon he became Chief Conductor of the Lisbon Symphony Orchestra. In
this capacity he gave the Portuguese premieres of works such as Brahms’s Third
Symphony, Saint-Saëns’s "Phaéton", Berlioz’s
"Roméo et Juliette" and Debussy’s
"Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune".

As a pianist he was well admired in his interpretations of Bach, Beethoven and
mainly Liszt. He still left a small but important recorded legacy including
works of Busoni, Liszt and Chopin,
as well his own music. As a composer Vianna
da Motta left a considerable output. His best-known work, The Symphony "To the
Fatherland" ("À Pátria") was composed in 1895 and performed in Porto two years
later. Each of its four movements is a musical reflection of poems by Luís de
Camões. His Ballad op. 16, based on two popular Portuguese songs,
composed in 1905, is undoubtedly his most mature piano
work. This work is similar in form to Grieg’s "Ballad in G minor", and it is
interesting to note that in his book "Meister des Klaviers" Walter Niemann
referred Vianna da Mota as "The Portuguese Grieg". Among his several composition
for piano two of them for orchestra are the well known Piano Concert in A major
as the "Fantasia Dramática", this last one a piece of great maturity and
lyricism, where the composer is more comfortable with the physical requirements of the orchestra
and the piano although the vituosic demands of both are still deceptively high.
Vianna da Motta died in Lisbon in 1948. His music lives on the spirit of
Portuguese nation`alism: its importance cannot be better illustrated than when
his folk-dance "Chula" was broadcasted repeatedly on Portuguese Stae Television
during the revolution of 1974, when Portugal became a democratic republic. It
was this work that best illustrated the momentous occasion of the resurgence of
Portuguese national pride.