Michel'angelo Lambertini y la novedad de los conciertos historicos con instrumentos antiguos en Lisboa (1906): Arqueologia musical y cosmopolitismo

It was in the context of the Chamber Music Society, established in 1899 by Michel'angelo Lambertini (1862-1920) and a group of enthusiastic amateurs, that the first «historical concerts» dedicated to the baroque and classical repertoire performed on period instruments took place in Lisbon. Despite the interest in early music demonstrated by personalities such as the Countess of Proença-a-Velha, and shared by figures such as the dilettante musician António Lamas, organizer of the 1906 concerts with Lambertini, this was a pioneering initiative in Portugal, and it assumed special importance due to its alignment with currents of the same type in the Europe of the time. The main model of inspiration was the Société des Instruments Anciens, which gave its first concerts in 1895, after some of its members had performed at the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1889. Two instrumentalists from this group -Louis Van Waefelghem (viola d'amore) and Georges Papin (viola da gamba)- travelled to Lisbon to play in the historical concerts, together with the Portuguese musicians António Lamas (second viola d'amore), Hernâni Braga (harpsichord) and Berthe Daupias (singer). The repertoire comprised pieces by Rameau, Couperin, Locatelli, Caix d'Hervelois, Bach, Gluck, Haydn and Mozart. This article analyzes the process and the criteria that gave rise to the historical concerts of 1906, resulting from the cosmopolitan mentality of Lambertini and his colleagues, as well as its reception in the press and the particularities of the Portuguese case, without losing sight of other initiatives in the Iberian and international contexts. It focuses on the perspective of revival of the sound dimension of an archaeological past. In the case of Lisbon, this first phase of the movement precedes the affirmation of a national identity through Portuguese early music.