Antônio Guedes Barbosa: o homem e o intérprete

Abstract

Antônio Guedes Barbosa was a naively loyal teenager, with his impulses and desires defined in relation to music, always concerned with producing work with a strong emotional character. Of medium height, with thick hair, ardent sensitivity, and searching eyes, he had an artist's "I don't know what". When I met him, when he was still a child, he was taking theory and solfeggio classes with his mother, professor Glaura Guedes Barbosa, and later at the Antenor Navarro School of Music. He had, by instinct, the secret of simplicity and lightness. Withdrawn, with that introspective look, he hid behind his delicate features a temperament marked for music. He did not have a cheerful individuality, but he seduced with the conviction of the goal he wanted to achieve. Antônio Guedes Barbosa, through study and continued and disciplined effort, gained experience, solidified knowledge, and created a professional reputation, not only in Brazil, but also abroad. In an interview, he emphasizes: "no compensation is more valuable than the feeling of playing pieces by Chopin, Beethoven, Liszt and Villa-Lobos on the piano." The infinite subtleties of his way of interpreting with expressiveness certainly reached the border of sublimation and, consequently, earned him the admiration and recognition of the international musical community.