Composer: Joseíto Fernández, José Silvestre White Lafitte, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Edgar Olivero
Performer: Sarah Willis, Jonathan Kelly, Wenzel Fuchs, Stefan Schweigert, Harold Madrigal Frías, The Sarahbanda
Orchestra: Havana Lyceum Orchestra
Conductor: José Antonio Méndez Padrón
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Alpha
Catalogue: ALPHA937
Release: 2023
Size: 1.18 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 4 in E flat major, K495
01. I. Allegro maestoso
02. II. Romance. Andante cantabile
03. III. Rondo. Allegro vivace
04. Olivero: Rondo alla Rumba
Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat Major, K. 297b
05. I. Allegro
06. II. Adagio
07. III. Andante con variazioni
08. Lafitte: La Bella Cubana
09. Fernández: Guantanamera
My dream of recording all four of the Mozart horn concertos has been fulfilled at last. Little did I know that this long-held dream would come true in Cuba of all places and with a Cuban orchestra! I have learned so much about Cuban music and how to dance Mozart along the way and, as a result, feel changed as a person and as a musician”, says Sarah Willis.
With this album – subtitled La Bella Cubana – the Mozart y Mambo trilogy is complete. After two critically acclaimed albums, three documentary films, two international tours and fundraising to help support classical musicians in Cuba, Sarah concludes this adventure of a lifetime with the Havana Lyceum Orchestra and their conductor, Jose Antonio Mendez Padron by recording Mozart’s Concerto No. 4 with its famous final Rondo. Also on the album, three of her colleagues from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Jonathan Kelly, Wenzel Fuchs and Stefan Schweigert, join her for more Mozart, performing the Sinfonia Concertante for four solo wind instruments and orchestra. Of course, no Mozart y Mambo album would be complete without the Sarahbanda ensemble, who once again fuse Mozart with Cuban dance rhythms in Rondo alla Rumba. And what better way to say goodbye than with the most famous Cuban song of all time, Guantanamera!
Let the magic of Mozart y Mambo – this music, these musicians, their interpretation, their love for the project and for each other – get you up and dancing one more time!
This is the third and final release in a series of recordings made by Berlin Philharmonic hornist Sarah Willis in Havana, Cuba, mostly during the COVID-19 pandemic. All the albums have, as the title suggests, fused Mozart with Cuban music, and the graphics are festooned with images of Willis riding in some of the classic 1950s American cars that have been preserved in Havana’s rust-free environment (here, a 1955 Buick Roadmaster, perhaps). As before, Willis is backed by the Havana Lyceum Orchestra under conductor José Antonio Méndez Padrón, a youthful group with contagious enthusiasm, and in the Cuban jazz pieces by her own Sarahbanda. All the albums are worthwhile, but this one may be the choice for those wanting to acquire one; the Mozartian and Cuban elements are the most effectively fused here. The three Mozart horn concertos are distributed across the three albums, and here, the finale is matched inventively to a jazz treatment of the same material in Rondo alla Rumba, with the repeated notes of the concerto’s solo part forming the basis for the improvisation. Willis is an adept jazz player, and one senses that the project brought out her talents in this area. She is joined on the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante in B flat major, K. 297b (a disputed work but probably authentic to some degree), by three of her Berlin Philharmonic colleagues. A rousing treatment of the old song Guantanamera ends the trilogy in a rousing mood of celebration. The other releases in the series have sold well, and there is no reason to think that this one will not.