Cuban-Born Pianist Surveys Cuban Piano Music

courtesy of Naxos of America

Pianist Antonio Iturrioz was born in Havana, Cuba, but moved to the United States at the age of seven. He gave his first solo recital about two years later and then made his orchestra debut when he was fifteen. His selection was Franz Liszt’s first piano concerto in E-flat major.

His more recent efforts have been organized around the influences of Cuba on the classical piano repertoire. The results of those efforts have been compiled into a CD album entitled Gottschalk and Cuba. As might be expected, the “program” for this album begins with Louis Moreau Gottschalk, who visited Cuba in 1854 at the beginning of a series of trips to both Central and South America. Havana saw the premiere of the first movement of Gottschalk’s first symphony, given the subtitle “La nuit des tropiques” (night of the tropics), which was performed in the winter of 1859; and the second movement was completed about fourteen months later. The premiere performance of the entire symphony involved an orchestra of over 600 players, inspired by performances that had been organized by Hector Berlioz.

The piece was subsequently arranged for two pianos and published Arthur Napoleão dos Santos, one of Gottschalk’s Brazilian students.  Iturrioz’ album begins with a two-hand version with his own transcription of the second movement, an Allegro moderato given the title “Fiesta Criolla.” I must confess that my awareness of this composition has previously been limited to the original version, which I know primarily through the recording that Maurice Abravanel made with the Utah Symphony Orchestra. I am not sure of the size of the resources he brought to the recording sessions; but I am pretty sure that Abravanel was among the first (if not the first) to record Gustav Mahler’s eighth symphony (known as the “Symphony of a Thousand”) with an American ensemble, making 600 players seem comparatively like a walk in the park!

I should also confess that, with the exception of Ernesto Lecuona, the names of all the other composers on Gottschalk and Cuba were unfamiliar to me (just as were the three Lecuona selections included on the album). Nevertheless, I was struck by the impact of Gottschalk’s presence in Cuba through “memorial” compositions dedicated to him composed by Manuel Saumell and Nicolas Ruiz Espadero (the latter being the source of a world premiere recording). I was also surprised to learn that Lecuona had a sister, Ernestina Lecuona y Casada, whose “Amor Lejano” was another world premiere recording on the album.

Beyond those few examples, however, I feel as if I am very much still on a “learning curve” when it comes to music composed in Cuba. As a result, I expect that I shall wish to revisit this album several times to build up more familiarity. Music in Cuba clearly involved far more than jazz clubs that attracted the likes of Americans such as Dizzy Gillespie; and the Cuban legacy certainly did not gain anything from Fidel Castro, who never seemed to try to hide his general disinterest in music.