Composer: Mario Lavista
Performer: Cuarteto Latinoamericano
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata
Catalogue: TOCC0106
Release: 2011
Size: 315 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. String Quartet No. 2, “Reflejos de la noche”
String Quartet No. 3, “Musica para mi vecino”
02. I. Largamente, flessibile
03. II. Presto
04. III. Molto allegro
05. IV. Allegro leggiero
06. V. Molto lento, flessibile
07. String Quartet No. 4, “Sinfonias”
String Quartet No. 5, “Siete invenciones”
08. I. Presto
09. II. Moderato
10. III. Andnte con moto
11. IV. Andante tranquillo
12. V. Presto
13. VI. Lento flessibile
14. VII. Molto allegro con brio
15. String Quartet No. 1, “Diacronia”
String Quartet No. 6, “Suite en cinco partes”
16. I. Danza
17. II. Motete
18. III. Canon
19. IV. Coral
20. V. Estudio
The first-ever complete string quartet series of Mexico’s leading contemporary composer Mario Lavista (b. 1943) Professor at the Conservatorio Nacional since 1970 and a a member of the prestigious Colegio Nacional, he has been the recipient of multiple international awards and honours and is also Chief Editor of one of the most important music journals in Latin America, Pauta, which he founded in 1982.
He was a student of Carlo Chávez at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in the 1960s before continuing his studies in Paris in extended and electronic techniques.
On his return to Mexico in 1970 he founded Quanta, a collective improvisation group, going on to work in electronic music in Japan and later in collaboration with other prominent musicans and artists, including the visual artist Arnaldo Coen.
Influences on his music range from these interests in indeterminate aspects and extended techniques to mediaeval and Renaissance music, spirituality and religious genres, and a continuous passion for poetry.
These six string quartets share a powerful sense of atmosphere and colour, and continue the important Mexican contribution to the genre begun by Chávez and Revueltas. The relationship between Lavista and El Cuarteto Latinoamericano, recorded here, is particularly close and one of the most fruitful artistic collaborations in the history of the string quartet in Mexico. They are close friends, and Lavista has written every one of his quartets for the group since they formed in 1982.