Compact Discoveries Program 7: "Ernesto Lecuona: The Cuban Gershwin"
Virtually everyone 60 years or older has heard of the piano piece "Malague?a," but not one out of 100 could name the composer. Well, it's by Ernesto Lecuona. The Cuban composer, like his contemporary, George Gershwin, wrote popular music and tried his hand successfully at longer forms. Thanks to the Swedish company, BIS, several volumes of "Ernesto Lecuona: the Complete Piano Music," are now available. Fred Flaxman presents highlights from these albums as well as an historical release on RCA Victor which features the composer playing his own compositions.
Complete script, including playlist, is available here and at www.compactdiscoveries.com. Hide full description
Compact Discoveries Program 7: "Ernesto Lecuona: The Cuban Gershwin"
Virtually everyone 60 years or older has heard of the piano piece "Malague?a," but not one out of 100 could name the composer. Well, it's by Ernesto Lecuona. The Cuban composer, like his contemporary, George Gershwin, wrote popular music and tried his hand successfully at longer forms. Thanks to the Swedish company, BIS, several volumes of "Ernesto Lecuona: the Complete Piano Music," are now available. Fred Flaxman presents highlights from these albums as well as an historical release on RCA Victor which features the composer playing his own compositions.
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Posted on July 11, 2006 at 12:02 PM | Permalink
Review of Compact Discoveries 7: The Cuban Gershwin
The music was lovely, very enjoyable to hear. The tone of the commentary was quite detached, a well-modulated radio voice reading a script. I didn't get any sense that he was excited about the composer, looking forward to hearing the pieces, or anticipating the opportunity to share the music with the audience so they would be excited, too.
I would have found the show more informative with a few more basic facts, such as the composition dates. It might have been interesting to know more about the circumstances of the recordings by the composer.
But the bulk of the program was music, and the commentary certainly didn't detract from it.