The Music of Ernesto Lecuona

Pianist Huberal Herrera

We celebrated this concert on Friday, May 24, 7 PM and it was a great success. Please join us for future events of this sort. (click on the images for full sized pictures.) We would like to thank and acknowledge Phil Martinez for the role he played in organizing this event

Carlos Fariñas, Héctor Angulo, Ernesto Lecuona, Neno González, Félix Guerrero, Hector Villa-Lobos, and Francisco Mignone. He has toured Europe, Asia, Africa, and the United States. As a composer, his oeuvre includes works for chorus, piano, voice and piano, and chamber ensemble. One of the foremost interpreters of the Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona's piano musico, Herrera has investigated, researched, and transcribed Lecuona's works, including the revision of Lecuona's complete collection of piano compositions. This repertory encompasses more than eighty pieces which Herrera has presented as a three-recital series on various occasions. Recently Herrera has served as jury member at national and international piano competitions honoring Ernesto Lecuona.

 

The Program was as follows

I
- Cuatro Piezas Características
Preludio en la Noche
Canto del Guajiro
La Habanera
Mazurca en Glissado

- Cuatro Danzas Cubanas
¿Por qué te vas?
No puedo contigo
Ahí viene el Chino
En tres por cuatro

- Tres Valses
Romántico
Poético
Apasionado

II
- Cuatro Danzas Afrocubanas
Danza Lucumí
Danza de los Ñáñigos
La Comparsa
...Y la Negra bailaba!

- Suite Andalucía
Córdoba
Andaluza
Alhambra
Gitanerias
Guadalquivir
Malagueña


Ernesto Lecuona was the most important musician in Cuban musical life during the first half of the 20th century. Rich compositions, often imbued with Afro-Cuban rhythms, were his unmistakable signature. Born in Guanabacoa, a suburb of Havana, in 1895, Lecuona first established himself as an outstanding pianist, graduating from the National Conservatory with the Gold Medal in performance at the age of seventeen. He went to New York City to give concerts and there, in 1916, made his first public appearance outside Cuba. International success as a pianist occurred seven years later, also in New York, but by then composition had become his primary musical activity. Ernesto Lecuona was a prolific composer, writing in many different forms, including musical reviews, zarzuelas (Spanish opera), cantatas, operettas, and piano pieces. His lyrical songs are his most remembered works. Among Lecuona's many achievements were the founding of the Havana Symphony (with Gonzalo Roig), the Lecuona Cuban Boys Band, and La Orquesta de La Habana. Lecuona wrote numerous film scores in the '30s and '40s for such major studios as MGM, 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers and, in 1942, was nominated ("Always in My Heart") for an Academy Award.

The son of a newspaper editor, Lecuona was taught piano by his older sister, Ernestina. All of his siblings--two sisters and two brothers--were musicians, and he was a child prodigy, debuting at the age of five. He attended the National Conservatory in Havana and received his certificate at the age of 15. He studied with Ravel in Paris briefly, then played recitals in the U.S. His first major composition, "Malaguena," was introduced by Lecuona at the Roxy Theatre in New York in 1927. "Andalucia," published in 1930, was later reintroduced with English lyrics as "The Breeze and I" in 1940.

Following the success of Don Azpiazu's Havana Casino Orchestra, the first major Latin group to perform in the U.S., Lecuona formed the Palau Brothers Cuban Orchestra, and later renamed it the Lecuona Cuban Boys. This group met with great success in the U.S. and Europe before disbanding the band in the mid 1930s and appeared in the early sound film, "Cuban Love Song."

Lecuona wrote in virtually every form, from cantatas to piano pieces, but his songs are by far the best remembers works. BMI lists "The Breeze and I" as a having received over one million airplays. Among his other popular songs are "Dust on the Moon," "Say Si Si," "Jungle Drums," "Always in My Heart," "Siboney," "La Comparsa," and "Maria My Own (Maria la O)."

Lecuona was among the leading composers in early sound films, writing scores for numerous American and Latin American movies, including:

"Under Cuban Skies," MGM (1931)
"Free Soul," MGM (1931)
"Susana Lenox," MGM (1931)
"Pearl Harbor," MGM (unknown year)
"La Cruz y La Espada" (The Cross and The Sword), MGM (unknown year)
"Always in My Heart," Warner Bros. (1942)
Title song was Oscar nominee for Best Song
"One More Tomorrow," Warner Bros. (1946)
"Carnival in Costa Rica," 20th Century Fox (1947)
"Maria La O" (Mexican film, unknown year)
"Adios, Buenos Aires" (Argentine film, unknown year)
"La Ultima Melodia" (Cuban film, unknown year)
Lecuona was named honorary cultural attache to the Cuban embassy in Washington in 1943 in recognition of his work as Cuba's cultural ambassador. He performed only occasionally after that, though. One might say that he anticipated the percussion craze with his 1943 work, "Black Rhapsody," which called for the orchestra to use "una quijada"--the jawbone of an ass.

Lecuona prefered to live in ranches and farms in Cuba, raising small animals and exotic birds in his spare time. A lifelong bachelor, he pursued hobbies ranging from collecting antiques, cigarette lighters, and music boxes, reading Agatha Christie mysteries, following Cuban and American baseball leagues, and playing poker. He left Cuba for good in 1960... He maintained residences in New York City and Tampa and Tallahassee, Florida. He died in the Canary Islands after travelling there to vacation and attend a concert in his honor. He was buried at the Gates of Heaven Cemetery in Long Island (near New York City).