The musical form fado takes off from the Portuguese concept of saudade, or "yearning," which dwells on things that are lost: a mother, a sweetheart, home. However, the music of Madredeus, Portugal's most popular group, has always contained an element of hopefulness, a yearning for things still possible.
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On the group's new album, "Movimento," songwriter Pedro Ayres Magalhaes addresses the future with more trepidation than he has in the past. Though there's little of the calculated drama you find in traditional fado, the album describes a philosophical crisis. The narrator of "Anseio (Anxiety)" confesses to "wandering between safe illusions of the truth," and that of "Chimera" worries that waiting can lead to madness. The only way to ward off despair is to keep moving.
As an interpreter, vocalist Teresa Salgueiro (picture) seems better suited to songs about domestic contentment, which was the theme of the group's last album, "O Paraiso." But since 1997, when Madredeus lost cellist Francisco Ribeiro and accordionist Gabriel Gomes and simplified its instrumentation, Salgueiro's vibratoless bell tones have become higher and more constricted, slightly nasal, in fact. Most singers would sound flat and thin effecting such a style, but thanks to Salgueiro's superhuman breath control, she makes it sound like passion contained; passion that's all the more powerful for its potential.
When Madredeus last visited Orchard Hall, Salgueiro held the auditorium spellbound for more than 90 minutes as the quintet re-created "O Paraiso" in its entirety. "Movimento," with its slighter melodies and darker emotions, may prove more difficult to pull off, but those are the challenges of maturity that the middle-aged Magalhaes is grappling with, and which the still young Salgueiro sees approaching in the near distance.