This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of April 25th, the date on which Portugal freed itself from Salazarism. One of the symbols of that “initial whole and clean day” was the song “E depois do adeus” (And After the Farewell), made famous by Paulo de Carvalho, a composer and performer who is celebrating 60 years of career – ten more than the Carnation Revolution – and, as he himself pointed out in one of his many classics for Portuguese music, “ten years is a long time”.

It is these references that connect us to the meaning of freedom, its cost, and those who risked their lives for it. Names such as Paulo de Carvalho, José Afonso, Adriano Correia de Oliveira, Ary dos Santos, Fausto, Carlos Mendes, Fernando Tordo, anchored the ideal of freedom to values such as the common good, courage, or solidarity. And it is for this reason, in addition to the music, that the concert with which Paulo de Carvalho celebrates his 60th career anniversary – titled “E depois do adeus???” – acquires the dual meaning of recalling the beginning of national liberation and questioning what lies ahead when the artistic references of the struggle disappear. It should be seen as a symbolically special moment.

Supporting this is the fact that Paulo de Carvalho was a musician of great versatility, at a time when revolutionary zeal sometimes, paradoxically, prevented the exploration of an aesthetic freedom capable of looking at music, above all else, as an art of organizing sound material.

By happy coincidence, one of the concerts this month by our Symphony Orchestra is titled “E depois do adeus”, which, corroborating the importance of bidding farewell in a dignified manner to a significant year for Portugal – Theme Country in 2024 at Casa da Música –, underscores the value of memory and the duty of gratitude to those who enriched the artistic and human heritage of this garden by the sea. On the night of April 24th, 1974, Paulo de Carvalho’s voice was the password for the 25th. Fifty years later, Casa da Música ensures that history repeats itself: the same voice, the farewell to 2024, the password for 25.