E. Lecuona: "La comparsa", for piano

Apparently, prodigy children are everywhere. People who in 1909 attended the Testar cinema in Havana could see that the musician accompanying the silent movies of the time was a 14-year-old boy. The boy, who was missing only four years to obtain his diploma as a piano performer at the National Conservatory of Havana, including a gold medal, was called Ernesto Lecuona.

A son of a Canarian journalist and Cuban mother, to alleviate the household economy after the untimely death of his father, the future composer was forced to work in the cinema at an early age. In 1907, at age 12, he had already participated with a musical group in the intermissions, between a film and another, as was the custom.

Lecuona, an author of songs, seems to be the obligatory review. Perhaps due to the overwhelming success of the song Siempre en mi corazón (Always in my heart), the main tune of the same name movie, from 1942, an epoch of profuse Lecuona involvement as a composer for the Hollywood cinema. And, certainly, there are also Siboney, Maria la O, Malagueña and many others.

Ernesto Lecuona (1895 - 1963)

But its musical production, of approximately 600 pieces, includes diverse suites for piano, five ballets, music for theater and cinema, pieces for children, and even an opera. And as if that were not enough, as a performer he showed an exceptional talent for playing the music of the European classics and romantics.

Later, Lecuona will gradually move away from this universe and end up paying homage to Afro-Cuban music. That music was almost completely marginalised in Cuban society at the beginning of the twentieth century but finally, it managed to gain access to the concert halls thanks in large part to the sustained effort of the maestro Lecuona.

La Comparsa is one of his most popular compositions and still valid. His first public performance was given in 1912 so it can be assumed that it was composed before the age of 17. Though originally just a song, countless versions of it have been made, starting with Lecuona own version for solo piano.

In this opportunity, we listen to it in a very tasty rendition, as well as free, for piano and orchestra. At the piano, the Cuban maestro Frank Fernández accompanied by the Youth Symphony Orchestra, in Caracas, Venezuela.

Ernesto Lecuona died in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1963.

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