Where to Stay for Xurxo Varela, Olavo Barros e Hugo Sanches

Xurxo Varela, Olavo Barros and Hugo Sanches come together for an early-music concert in the Sala de Ensaios of the Teatro Municipal de Vila Real, in northern Portugal, as part of the X Ponto de Guitarra festival. The programme is built around viola da gamba, flute and lute. The concert looks at the music of the salons of Versailles in the time of Louis XIV and Louis XV — the solo and chamber repertoire of the French court, which favoured clarity of articulation, rich ornamentation and an intimate dialogue between the instruments rather than the grand sound of the opera orchestra. It was the setting in which the dance suite and the so-called "French taste" took shape, an aesthetic of subtlety, elegance and delicate expression. The three musicians each bring a long career in historical performance: Xurxo Lois Varela Díaz on viola da gamba, Olavo Tengner Barros on flute and Hugo Soeiro Sanches on lute, all of them teachers and performers active across Portugal and beyond. Our Vila Real apartments sit right in the centre, a comfortable base for an evening out and a quiet night afterwards.