Óscar da Silva

Óscar da Silva was born on April 21, 1870, in Porto, and began his musical studies in that same city with Miguel Ângelo Pereira, Artur Ferreira, and Félix Moreira de Sá. At 16, he settled in Lisbon and completed his training between the National Conservatory, where he learned piano with Timóteo da Silveira, and the Academy of Amateur Musicians, where he received lessons in Harmony and Counterpoint from Victor Hussla¹ .

In 1891, he launched a career as a pianist and gave several concerts throughout the country, before having the opportunity to travel to Germany and study at the Leipzig Conservatory². When his family’s finances proved unable to support his stay in Germany, the musician obtained sponsorship from Queen D. Amélia and was able to settle in Frankfurt and take private piano lessons with Clara Schumann³. About the experience with this teacher, the pianist would later write:

Clara Schumann’s course was not an ordinary piano course. Sought after from all parts of the world, she only accepted students after hearing them play. And if one’s touch was weak, if one did not possess the necessary qualities for the art, not even a king could make Clara Schumann take him on as a student. She only taught Schumann. It was curious to see the way she gave her lessons. When I was there, there were 4 students, all concert performers. There was no set lesson day. In the first lesson, she would perform a piece for the student to hear, recommending that they interrupt her every time they did not understand the interpretation. And he would stay by her side [listening] to the music and taking notes. When no doubt remained, the student would take his notebook home and go prepare the lessons. Many days passed like this, and only when we thought the piece was well learned would we appear to notify her and so she could schedule the day to perform it. I preferred playing for a thousand people than for Clara Schumann alone, in that large, silent room⁴.

After a European tour in 1894, which took him beyond the already familiar Germany, passing through France, Poland, and Russia, he settled in Porto, where he dedicated himself to composition and teaching, without, however, giving up his activity as a concert performer. Between 1900-1905, he spent a period in Lisbon, during which his opera Dona Mécia was performed at the Coliseu dos Recreios⁵. In 1917, he was appointed piano professor at the Conservatory of Music of Porto, a position he interrupted to tour several continents and to settle in Rio de Janeiro (1924-1951), and to which he returned in 1953⁶. 

A self-proclaimed “spontaneous romantic,” Óscar da Silva demonstrated a particular predilection for the piano repertoire of Frédéric Chopin and Robert Schumann and initially developed a composition style inspired by the language of these and other composers, such as Franz Liszt, to which he would add greater harmonic elaboration in the 1930s. In 1937, he was decorated with the Order of Saint James of the Sword and the Gold Medal of Artistic Merit from the city of Porto⁷.

The pianist passed away on March 6, 1958, in Leça da Palmeira.