BIO

Marcelo Bratke 

 “Hints of wildness, yet with elegant construction, subtle rhythmic dislocations and shining piano colors”

The New York Times 

During this last decade of extraordinary achievements and performances Marcelo Bratke, one of Brazil’s pre-eminent pianists, has performed at some of the world’s most renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Salzburg Festival, Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Konzerthaus in Berlin and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, amongst others. 

He started his piano studies at the age of fourteen with Zélia Deri and due to a severe visual impairment he was unable to read scores developing his own method of learning music based at his auditive memory capacity. After ten months of his firs piano lesson he made his debut with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and was awarded with the ‘Revelation Prize” by the São Paulo Critics’ Association. 

Bratke believes music is an important contribution to society and in 2008 he founded  Camerata Brasil, an orchestra formed by young musicians from impoverished areas of Brazilian society, performing with them more than 300 concerts in Brazil, Argentina, Japan, United Kingdom, Serbia, South Korea, Netherlands and in the US where their concert at Carnegie Hall was highly acclaimed by both the public and the critics of The New York Times, New York Post and Concert Net USA.

He stretches the boundaries of the traditional classical music career and had developed special projects in collaboration with the jazz pianist Julian Joseph, the first dancer of the Royal Ballet Thiago Soares, the actor Marco Gambino, the legendary percussionist Naná Vasconcelos and the pop singers Sandy, Fernanda Takai, Dori Caymmi and Milton Nascimento, as well as performances with great conductors such as Alexander Lazarev, Eleazar de Carvalho, João Carlos Martins, Roberto Minczuk; John Neschling and Alvaro Cassuto. His multimedia project with visual artist Mariannita Luzzati entitled Cinemúsica has been performed from Brazilian prisons to major concert halls around the world. Bratke started his Villa-Lobos Project in 2004, which includes the recording of the composer’s complete solo piano works, concerts at the American Continent, Europe and Asia, a weekly radio program presented by him and broadcasted by Rádio Cultura FM and eight documentaries about Villa-Lobos for TV (Arte 1) 

In 2017 Marcelo Bratke received Brazil’s highest cultural honour given by the Brazilian Presidente Michel Temer, the Order of Cultural Merit. 

He studied at the Julliard School of Music in New York and finished his music studies with Hans Joachim Koellreutter in São Paulo. Featured among his many awards are: First Prize at Tradate International Music Competition in Italy, Carlos Gomes Award, Classical Discoveries

Award, Brazil in Germany 2006 Award, 14th Brazilian International Press Award 2011 and Sarajevo Winter Festival Award 2013. His CD Le Groupe des Six was voted by Gramophone Magazine as one of the greatest classical recordings of all time. 

In 2004, after a successful surgery, Marcelo Bratke recovered the vision on his left eye.

 

 Marcelo Bratke 

“Momentos de uma beleza selvagem, ao mesmo tempo construída com elegância, com sutileza nos deslocamentos rítmicos e um colorido pianístico brilhante ”

The New York Times 

Durante esta última década de extraordinárias conquistas e performances, Marcelo Bratke tem se apresentado nas mais prestigiadas salas de concerto do mundo como o Carnegie Hall, o Festival de Salzburg, o Queen Elizabeth Hall, o Konzerthaus de Berlim e o Suntory Hall em Tóquio, entre outras. 

Nascido em São Paulo em 1960, Bratke iniciou seus estudos de piano aos quatorze anos com Zelia Deri e por consequência de uma grave deficiência visual (7% de visão no olho esquerdo e 2% no olho direito) ele não era capaz de ler partituras, desenvolvendo um método próprio para aprender as obras musicais baseado na sua memória auditiva. Um ano mais tarde estreiou ao lado da Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo (OSESP) sob a regência do maestro Eleazar de Carvalho, tornando-se foco de interesse da imprensa e recebendo por esta sua primeira performance pública o Prêmio Revelação da Associação Paulista de Críticos de Arte. Ele foi o único aluno do célebre pianista português Sergio Varella-Cid e passou um ano na Juilliard School of Music de Nova York antes de concluir seus estudos com o compositor e maestro alemão Hans-Joachim Koellreutter em São Paulo.  

Marcelo Bratke realizou seu debut na Europa em 1988 no Festival de Salzburg e se transferiu para Londres onde, em 1991, estreou no Wigmore Hall. Ele também se apresentou em ocasiões especiais para o Presidente do Brasil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso e para a Rainha Silvia da Suécia. 

Bratke é conhecido por seus programas educacionais dedicados a jovens vindos de áreas desprivilegiadas da sociedade brasileira. Em 2004 fundou o programa educacional profissionalizante Camerata Brasil, uma orquestra formada por jovens que não haviam tido a oportunidade de estudar academicamente e com eles realizou aproximadamente 300 concertos no Brasil, Argentina, Japão, Reino Unido, Sérvia, Coréia do Sul, Holanda e Estados Unidos. Suas colaborações incluem projetos em dueto com o pianista britânico de jazz Julian Joseph; com o primeiro bailarino do Royal Ballet de Londres Thiago Soares; o ator italiano Marco Gambino; o percussionista brasileiro Naná Vasconcelos e com os cantores Sandy, Fernanda Takai e Dori Caymmi, bem como performances com maestros como Alexander Lazarev; Eleazar de Carvalho; João Carlos Martins; Roberto Minczuk; John Neschling e Alvaro Cassuto; entre outros. Seu projeto multimídia com a artista visual Mariannita Luzzati, intitulado Cinemúsica, vem sendo apresentado desde em penitenciárias brasileiras até em salas de concerto internacionais. Bratke criou o seu Projeto Villa-Lobos em 2004, uma plataforma desenhada para promover a música do maior compositor brasileiro que inclui a gravação de sua obra integral para piano, concertos internacionais, concertos para crianças, um programa de rádio idealizado e apresentado por Marcelo Bratke e transmitido semanalmente pela Cultura FM de São Paulo e criação de uma série de 8 documentários sobre Villa-Lobos para TV (Arte 1).  

Dentre os prémios que acumulou em sua carreira figuram o Primeiro Prêmio do Concorso Internazionale di Musica Tradate, na Itália, Prêmio Carlos Gomes, Classical Discoveries Award, 14th Brazilian International Press Award 2011, Sarajevo Winter Festival Award 2013, a Ordem do Mérito Cultural 2017 e Prêmio Cidadão São Paulo 2019. Seu CD dedicado ao Le Groupe des Six foi eleito pela revista britânica Gramophone como uma das melhores gravações de música erudita de todos os tempos.

Em 2004, após realizar uma cirurgia de sucesso, Marcelo Bratke teve a visão normalizada em seu olho esquerdo.

 

REVIEWS

“superb limpidity of texture”..” “beautifully rendered”…”

The Sunday Times (UK) 

“hints of wildness, yet with elegant construction, subtle rhythmic dislocations and shining piano colors”…”Mr. Bratke is a fine and flexible pianist, perfectly happy either to play Bach or to plunge into the popular music he set next to it”.

 Bernard Holland The New York Times (USA) 

“Mr. Bratke’s dynamically fluid interpretations struck a careful balance between the music’s singing themes and thick-textured accompaniments”...” He proved a fine ensemble player as well”...” His rapport with his young musicians enlivened the texturally varied “Children’s Rounds”, performed here with an almost jazzy sense of give-and-take, and with unexpected timbres”

 
Allan Kozinn The New York Times (USA)
 

“One of the world’s greatest classical pianists”

 The Daily Mail – Mail On Sunday Review (UK) 

 “A revelation, strong, considered and with a sense of the music’s inner pace and voicing that gave character and presence to even the most austerely contrapuntal moments. Sentimentality can be a problem for players as well, but not for Bratke. He is a gifted recital pianist: poetic, yet never gushing.’ 

The Independent (UK) 

“a finely composed programme”…”clarity of thought and a superb control of gesture”…’Bratke’s dry, clean sound and studied approach delivered the music in fresh and honest way”…”Here the pianist‘s understanding of longer musical arguments was displayed to the full”. 

Belfast Telegraph (UK) 

“American music for two pianos that bucked the trend. Bratke and Roggeri performed a spirited programme that almost had us dancing in the aisles of the Wigmore Hall”

The Spectator (UK) 

“With his clean-cut technique, tonal sensitivity and verve, Marcelo Bratke confirms the very favorable impression created by his previous discs in this present focus on composers in France around 1920”…”a scintillating vehicle for Bratke’s brilliance of articulation. The recorded quality matches his excellence”

Gramophone (UK) 

“Bratke’s delicacy, neat-fingered playing and tonal sensitivity make a strong appeal. He manages to invest those little pieces by Villa-Lobos with real character”

Gramophone (UK) 

“Marcelo Bratke gives exemplary performances of Krenek’s both works, finding plentiful light and shade beneath their austere surfaces. His Berg Sonata and Webern Variations are also beautifully thought out”.  

Gramophone (UK) 

“Bratke plays Nazareth tangos with much sensitivity and feeling for colour”…”His Milhaud pieces are captivating performances”

Gramophone (UK) 

“I was alerted  to Bratke`s musicianship by the most feeling interpretation of the Webern Variations I have yet come across on CD, and he has also made a buoyant disc of Nazareth and Milhaud . Here he fulfills the promise of those earlier recordings, for he invests Villa-Lobos`s often brittle textures with rare power”

CD Review (UK) 

“Marcelo Bratke gives the authentic touch to Brazilian tangos and saudades. The programme is excellently played”

Classic CD (UK) 

“Marcelo Bratke and Marcela Roggeri sound as if they have been playing for a long time. They only looked at each other when they started each piece, not needing to afterwards because they felt the music together. It was an object lesson of true ensemble”…”In Danzon Cubano by Aaron Copland they got its cheeky rhythmic syncopations perfectly”…”It was very well played”

 The Independent (UK) 

“stylish freshness and breezy élan, and in his hands the music has an irresistible charm and swagger that keeps one's feet tapping all along – a feisty dance feast from beginning to end.” 

MusicWeb International 

“Marcelo Bratke is a young Brazilian pianist, with a fine technique and a big career ahead of him.  Watch out for this young man.  We’ll be hearing more of him in the future.”

 MusicWeb International 

“His interpretation proves that Berg’s sonata, situated on the threshold of atonality, and Webern’s twelve-tonal variations are not constructions in a vacuum but highly expressive music.’ 

Phonoforum (Germany) 

“Lets eagerly await comparisons with the truly great. Someone notable is about to make his way.’

   Repertoire (France) 

“An authentic and  valuable artistic creation”...” impeccable”...” they manage to fascinate and provoke  the admiration of the public  with technical virtuosity, subtle touches, a precise  and endless  musical capability”...”fantastic sense of rhythm”...”perfect integration between  Bratke, playing “Tenebroso” by Nazareth marvelously  and Alves with his tambourine from which he extracts the most unusual sounds and with which he produced the most aerial and volatile  colors  and rhythms ”                                                                

  La Nacion (Argentina)  

“popular or classical in a stimulating fusion“...”the recital’s Idea is one of the most original I ever saw”...”spectacular virtuosity ”

 O Estado de São Paulo (Brazil)    

“Musical Party”...”fantasy recital or allegory concert”...”Carnival Trilogy appears as the climax of the  creative path created by Marcelo Bratke since 2000 when he took his first conceptual concert to the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London”...

  Valor Econômico (Brazil) 

Marcelo Bratke at the Wigmore Hall (full review – Musical Opinion – UK) 

If Vienna and Brazil suggested opposite poles of music style, their complementarities gave an original edge to the Twentieth-century program by the Brazilian pianist Marcelo Bratke at the Wigmore Hall on 5 April, given before an enthusiastic audience in the presence of the Brazilian Ambassador and his wife. Bratke`s serious intellectual approach combined with a sure yet fine pianistic touch well suited to the two Second Viennese School with which he bravely began. It was the music`s poetry rather than structure that emerged most strongly in both Webern`s Opus 27 Variations and Schoenberg`s Six Pieces Opus 19, expressive rather than expressionist. Webern`s microcosmic symmetries of motif and interval, abrupt register and dynamic contrasts were supply characterized. Though the almost violent energy of the work was understated this did not detract in Schoenberg Six Pieces, each delicately sculpted and shaded. So too an evocative performance of Alban Berg`s Sonata which emphasized its redolent Romanticism, the surging climaxes articulated in rising sequences of Straussian passion, clearly projected the motives’ logic impregnated with Tristanesque yearning.

 

Of the Brazilian music of the second half, which complemented the dodecaphonists in sheer coloristic and rhythmic exuberance, the highlight was Villa-Lobos`s First Cycle of the Baby`s Family, comprising eight pieces which feast the ear with evocative impressionism echoes Ravel and Debussy in the textures and whole tune and modal harmonies. Here Bratke` was at his best, controlled and yet free in his projection of pedaled glissandi , delicate and driving ostinati in syncopated South American rhythms, and brightly etched melodic lines, often enriched with parallel fourths and fifths . Particularly appealing were the jazzily harmonized Mulatinha , the helter-skelter patterns of O Polichinelo , or the slower Branquinha , and plangent nostalgia of Caboclinha. Bratke`s admirable clarity added scintillating energy to Milhaud`s Saudades do Brazil, six dances whose exuberant polyrhythm and polytonality are full of surprises, as in the remarkable key switches of Corcovado. Here a whirling choreography of the keyboard evinced both humor and poignancy. The Four Brazilian Tangos by Ernesto Nazareth, a Brazilian Strauss-cum-Joplin of the tango concluded on a high note. One could relish the consummate virtuosity and enjoyment of the complex accentual patterns and harmonics hints, the high music-box-like effects of the third piece and chromatic refrains, all evidence of Bratke`s impressive artistry, affirmed in his final encore, Chopin`s A minor Mazurka.

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