Jamil Chade: João Carlos Martins receives a standing ovation at his 'farewell' at Carnegie Hall

Martins turned Friday's program into a retrospective of his life. Considered one of the greatest interpreters of Johann Sebastian Bach, the Brazilian began with the German's Orchestral Suite No. 3.

During the rehearsal, days before, he had surprised the musicians by adopting a unique interpretation of the Baroque master. He asked for energy, dedication and elegance. He also demanded that each note have meaning, even breaking dogma. In front of the three thousand people who filled the venue, the orchestra responded.

Martins then transported the revolution of the composer who serves as a dictionary of Western music to Brazil, with Heitor Villa Lobos. The first part was also concluded with a "conversation" between Villa-Lobos and Bach, in his Bachianas number 7. A symbolic gesture carefully chosen by Martins to insist on the need for dialogue.

But it was in the second part that Martins transformed the hall into an oratorio, receiving a standing ovation on at least two occasions, even before the end. Still recovering from cancer, he had been instructed by doctors not to play, and only to conduct. In fact, the conductor himself confirmed that there was a risk that the concert would be cancelled.

However, doctors' advice was ignored. During the interval, he placed his hands in buckets of hot water in the dressing room to relax his muscles and ensure that, despite his illness, he could complete the concert.

With humor, he warned before that if this was his farewell, everything would depend on how that concert would unfold.