Ernesto Lecuona, the greatest composer the island of Cuba has ever given to the world, was at the height of his fame when his single song "Siempre en mi corazón" – part of the soundtrack of the eponymous film – was in close competition for an Oscar award for best song in 1942. He did not get it, but it mattered little to the author because his zarzuela Maria la O and the song Siboney had been applauded all over the world for more than ten years.
A fruitful composer However, such pieces, famous in their time, are a tiny part of the composer's output born in Guanabacoa, a suburb of Havana, in 1895. The versatile and prolific creator of Malagueña is the author of about 400 songs, 37 orchestral works, eleven movie soundtracks, numerous zarzuelas, ballets, and even an opera. To all this must also be added more than 170 pieces for solo piano.
Ernesto Lecuona (1895 - 1963)
The native music
This last sphere is where Lecuona stands out to this day with vernacular brilliance. Highly valued as an interpreter of Liszt, Chopin, or Gershwin, the Cuban composer brought Afro-Cuban rhythms to the concert hall that were absent from the traditional stages until the end of the 19th century. Following in the footsteps of Ignacio Cervantes and others, Lecuona made it possible for local motifs and rhythms to occupy a space of their own, signaling with his work that Cuba and its music were also beyond the walls of Havana's elegant salons.
"Y la Negra Bailaba!"
The production of piano pieces occupied Lecuona mainly in the 1920s and 1930s. From those years are the eternal Comparsa and the unsurpassable rhythmic gem "¡Y la Negra Bailaba!"
The latter is presented here in a rendition by Cuban maestro Gabriel Urgell Reyes. It begins with two bars in charge of the left hand only, a common feature of many of Lecuona's piano pieces, a hallmark that, in a recital, allowed them to be immediately identified.
