Rosas para Lecuona

Enjoy the magic of two sensitive artists with a vast knowledge of the infinite paths of Cuban music.

“Ernesto Lecuona is one of the most internationally acclaimed Cuban musicians and composers. As a performer, he was a virtuoso of the piano with a unique and very personal style.  As a creator he was the most inspired composer with an inexhaustible vein of melody. He wrote pieces that are true jewels of the literature for piano, art songs and musical theater.

Ernesto Lecuona left us songs that will never perish.  Many are included here, such as Siempre en mi Corazón (Always in My Heart – nominated for a best song Oscar in 1942), Noche Azul (Blue Night), Madrigal, Mi Vida Eres Tú (You are My Life) and Canción del amor triste (Song of Sad Love), some of the most exquisite songs ever written.  They are revered as the Olympus of Cuban Art Song for synthesizing the European and Afro-Cuban traditions, always including the three essential elements of the ideal lieder. As Hilario González, the famous composer and researcher from Havana, said in his analysis: “Lecuona’s songs present lyrics of high poetic level, set with flexible fidelity to the melodic curve of the recitation of that text, and with independence and dramatic expressivity in the instrumental part.

In his songs, Lecuona couldn’t resist the bewitching captivation of flowers as an inspirational motif.  We also have here such titles such as Mi amor fue una flor (My Love Was a Flower), Señor Jardinero (Mr. Gardener), Se abrieron las flores (The Flowers Bloom), Juventud (Youth), Rosa la China (Rosa the Chinese), and Dame de tus rosas (Give me Your Roses, also a hit with an English lyric as Two Hearts that Pass in the Night).  This last song opens this record, which is well and aptly titled Rosas para Ernesto Lecuona, a tribute to the composer.  Lecuona’s choice of musical material, his colors and capricious forms recall Mother Nature’s gifts of the fragrance and the ornamental presence of the flowers he loved.

This CD is performed with exquisite taste by two prestigious artists who provide a highly successful and authentic interpretation of this quintessential Hispano-American sound. They present a very attractive and accomplished finished product.  Both interpreters work perfectly together in their approach to these beautiful songs born from the incomparable creative talent of Lecuona, mixed with the fine poetic flights of the most distinguished poets such as Juana de Ibarbourou and Gustavo Sánchez Galarraga, among others.

The Spanish singer Ana María Ruimonte and the Cuban pianist Huberal Herrera weave a fine brocade of sound in every one of the songs they perform. This is the highest accomplishment of chamber work – a fusion of souls and a profound delivery full of the inspiration of the immortal Lecuona. The disk was expertly produced and mixed by the outstanding North American musician Alan Lewine, a composer and bassist from Philadelphia, and recorded in Havana by the very experienced Cuban sound engineer Adalberto “Berty” Hernández.

I invite you to enjoy the magic of two sensitive artists with a vast knowledge of the infinite paths of Cuban music.”

Luis Manuel Molina de Varona, Cuban musician, guitarist, musical director, radio host, July 10, 2017, El Vedado, Havana, Cuba.

“Making this album has been a labor of love. It had been my dream of 40 years to travel to Cuba and immerse myself in the island’s music and culture. This album represents the culmination of three trips there during 2016 and 2017 with the brilliant and beautiful Spanish soprano, Ana María Ruimonte. Among the crumbling façades of Havana, we found much beauty and wonderful people and befriended the sweet Huberal Herrera, the greatest living interpreter of the beautiful and heartrending music of Ernesto Lecuona, arguably Cuba’s greatest composer. And we found a fine modern studio in PMRecords with the latest technology and an engineer, Adalberto “Berty” Hernandez, with a great ear. Such a wonderful opportunity to record this fantastic performance with an occasional nip from a small bottle of Habana Club to help me through the sometimes long sessions! I am grateful for the friendship and assistance of many people in Cuba without whom we could not have realized this project. It has been an honor to work with these exceptional artists and to present this music to you.”

Alan Lewine, producer, bassist and composer.

“Lecuona, born in Cuba, was a musician in love with Spain, where he developed a great part of his artistic life. The title of this album alludes to the fragrance and the ornamental importance of his adorable flowers, and the content includes some of the best- and less-known arias and songs. This CD shows us the work of a composer who, far beyond his hits Siboney and Malagueña, enters in an ample variety of styles permitting to enjoy his creative capacity, his talent, his communicability and furthermore, the sensitivity and intensity as a way to transmit the essence of melodies, for all publics. Among them, Siempre en mi Corazón is a highlight, and it was nominated for the Oscar to the best song in 1942. Ana María Ruimonte, a Spanish soprano living in the US – where she created a spectacle about the Spanish Baroque presented in 2014 during the Year of Murillo – ably employs her good qualities and entirely polished and well-timbered voice, while she caresses the lyrics and melodies with the impeccable reading of the Cuban pianist Huberal Herrera, who has earned most all available Cuban music awards, including the 2009 Honor Cubadisco Award, and who is renowned worldwide as one of the best interpreters of Lecuona.”

Josep. M. Puigjaner, OPERA ACTUAL, number 214, June 2018.

“Rosas para Lecuona is an excellent selection of the work of the great Cuban composer and pianist Ernesto Lecuona. The soprano Ana María Ruimonte gives all her voice in the project, performing the better-known lyrical pieces of the composer with complete technical control, showing her musical and vocal capacities, in both tessituras of soprano and mezzosoprano. Huberal Herrera, who accompanies her, is a huge researcher of the work of Lecuona, and performs the repertoire loyally. Herrera has in the past dedicated three recordings to the piano music of the maestro. Lecuona composed in different styles, including in his works an ample cultural content, while combine his Afrocuban origin with Spanish and American popular music. Among his huge number of instrumental works, songs and zarzuelas, these are highlights because of the unique musical style and the poetic beauty of the lyrics. Ruimonte and Herrera conform an excellent duo and render a commemoration to the great Cuban composer by performing his songs including Dame de tus rosas, Rosa la china, La señora Luna and María la O.

In Dame de tus rosas we hear an evocative piece, slow and melancholy, accompanied by soft chords in the piano with a beautiful bolero melody.

In María la O, which is the title song of a zarzuela, the piano carries a marked melody and a danceable rhythm while we perceive the African roots of the composer. It is a painteresque piece that invites us to go with it.

Huberal Herrera performs brilliantly the Malagueña that the maestro Lecuona had composed for the suite Andalucía for piano, and it is very beautiful music that sounds like a mix of Andalusian, castizo and oriental.

Rosa la china is other great classic piece of the composer that Ruimonte and Herrera performs with great sensitivity and drama. The high notes of the piece highlight the soprano’s excellent control of her voice. The piece combines the singing with small sections with recited verse.

Finally, Rosas para Lecuona balances a repertoire between the cultivated and the popular and that prooves the great sensitivity of the composer and his poetic and musical capacity.”

Ana R. Colmenarejo. Melómano. Number 243, July-August 2018, vol. XXIII.

Ana María Ruimonte has performed in concert with the pianist Huberal Herrera at the Fine Arts Museum, Museum of Music and National Library in Havana, at the Museum of Music in Santiago de Cuba, at the Instituto Cervantes in New York, at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, at An Die Music in Baltimore, at the radio CMBF and TV in Havana and Radio Revolución in Santiago de Cuba. In 2017, she presented the CD in Madrid in concert with the pianist Alberto Joya, appearing in Radio Gestiona.

She performed with the maestro Huberal at the TV in Cienfuegos in January 2020.

“It has an exquisite presentation, the recording sounds great, the mix is fantastic, the maestro Herrera is incommensurable, and your voice and feeling, both precious. Everything is said about Lecuona now. Congratulations me.”

Julio Sánchez Andrade, professor of percussion at the Conservatory of Music in Oviedo, Spain.

“Your CD: very beautiful. It is very well done. The recording is great. Well, that is secondary. The main thing is that you sing very beautifully and the work of Huberal is magnificent. The piano sounds very good, the disc is really nice and I congratulate you for the selection of the songs of Lecuona – it is fantastic. I didn’t know some of them and there are two or three which are especially gorgeous. Very gorgeous songs.”

Aurelio de la Vega, composer and professor emeritus of composition at the University of California Northridge in Los Angeles.

“First of all, let me say that I was profoundly moved by your wonderful recording Rosas para Lecuona.  Your unique and beautiful voice with the accompaniment by Huberal Herrera is truly wonderful.  Hearing the songs really brought me back to my childhood when I used to hear my father (who was a wonderful pianist) play most of these songs by ear.  As you know, on my cd I play” Siempre en Mi Corazon” as Lecuona played it on his 1954 NYC RCA recordings.  It is so wonderful to hear how the original ideas were put together for voice and piano.  Another of the songs that I am very fond of is Rosa la China.  How wonderful to hear it for voice and piano as everything else on the album.  Huberal does a great job accompanying you on these songs.  I love when he plays the materials of the songs by himself how rich and beautiful his harmonies are.  Down the road I will see if I can track down his recordings of all of Lecuona’s works that he did approximately 22 years ago.  So, again, let me say, Ana Maria, that I was deeply moved by your album. Again congratulations for this marvelous CD ”Rosas para Lecuona”.  Bellisimo  !!!!”

Antonio Iturrioz. American Pianist.

“Ana Maria Ruimonte’s languorously delivered Latin provision flowers forth like honey to the ear – Juventud is built on deeply personal notions that ultimately exact an almost spiritual response.”

The AKADEMIA, August 2018 WINNER – BEST SONG LATIN