Portuguese composer Vasco Mendonça regards this portrait album as a letter to himself – written over time and with different chapters that throw light on his long-standing obsessions with drama, ritual and precision mechanism. Group Together, Avoid Speech highlights the string and woodwind principals of the wonderful Gulbenkian Orchestra to create ‘a Baroque concerto grosso on steroids’, while Unanswerable Light is a memorial to a friend and a meditation on fury and loss. The piano concerto Step Right Up is ‘a ritual celebration between the most incredible music box – the orchestra – and the most beautiful sound machine – the piano.’ This is Vasco Mendonça’s Naxos debut recording. Including the world premiere of Mendonça’s new piano concerto Step Right Up, this programme of remarkable orchestral works will raise his profile and deservedly introduce this exciting compositional voice to a wide audience