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11th Annual Miami International Piano Festival at the Lincoln Theater.


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I just came back from one of the two performances that I intend to attend as part of the 11 th Annual Miami International –Piano Festival. Tonight’s night has a personal sentimental value for me, as it was carried by the Cuban pianist Jorge Luis Prats one of the most talented musicians of his generation from the island and personal piano idol of my childhood, back when I was trying to make it at my town’s local Music Conservatory

This is a little info on Prats:

http://www.cubanow.net/global/loader.php?&...=2&item=257

Anyways, the program was as fallows:

I-Enrique Granados: Goyescas

II-Hector Villalobos: Bachianas

III-Ernesto Lecuona. A selection of pieces

IV-Carlos Farinas: Altagracia (tango)

V-Liszt/Prats Spanish Rhapsody.

Here is the Miami Calendar of the Festival.

http://www.miamipianofest.com/calendar/ds2008.htm#

The Program:

Enrique Granados “Goyescas”showed us Prats portraying an interpreter trying to convey the essence of Spanish Character when captivated by Goya’s paintings. He really did a great job in giving the pieces the echo in musical terms of Goya’s exquisite treatment of colors and striking contrast of moods.

Hector Villalobos “Bachianas” was a Suite with four pieces, all talking about Brasil and its folklore and nature., as a result of the composer’s increasing absorbtion of Brasil’s musical tradition that came from Portuguese, American and African backgrounds.

Then we had the little gems, "Selection of pieces" by Ernesto Lecuona. Ernesto Lecuona is to Cubans is what George Guershwin is for Americans. What a delicacy, intimacy and inner feelings were coming out those fingers. Ernesto Lecuona is a venerated musician that cultivated classical Cuban music, based on its inner historical roots. He eventually left the island after 1959 and was proclaimed defector, Still, by the time I was in the School Conservatory, his music had made a comeback, and has been remastered and rerecorded on the island. Prats played a beautiful piece called “A la Antigua” (Old fashioned), that made me travel far away in time and space…

Then he played Carlos Farinas “Altagracia”. Not my favorite. Farinas (also Cuban) was an innovator with electroacustics mixed with piano, and back then I was even more traditionalist. I guess I still am, because I didn’t care for the contemporary distorted sound of the piece.

And then…Liszt, and his “Spanish Raphsody”. This atmospheric and virtuosistic rhapsody is basically based on two different themes: the La Folia de Espagna and Jota Aragonesa. The work opens with a cadenza, of which the first part is the somber Folia theme. The contrasting second part features the Jota Aragonesa, a brilliant happy waltz-like tune that dates from the 12 th Century. (I know I’ve heard it included in other compositions) The interplay of the two dissimilar themes and dazzling color effects really got my attention, and that of the audience. The house exploded when he did his final strong Finale.

“Encore”,” encore” …we kept screaming…

And he did 2 encores. First, another Cuban composer, Ignacio Cervantes with his piece “Los tres golpes”, (The three knocks), for the delight of those who didn’t know that at a point, the pianist, who is immersed in a complicated routine of Cuban rhythms suddenly stops to knock at the piano, and he does this three times, Then, at the very end, he gave us.the lovely Lecuona’s song “Estas en mi corazon”(You are in my heart), which is a classic love song in Cuba, and put a couple of people to sob. Right there, he gained control of the total of the audience, me included…

Bravo Jorgito!! :blush:

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