They share many things, besides music, José Martí and Cuba which are three elements essential for the friendship that unites them. That feeling deeply Cuban brought them together in the Avellaneda hall of the National Theatre. Leo Brouwer gave us musical notes on Thursday after thirty years without doing it in public. Pablo Milanes followed him with those essential in verses by Marti : If you see a mountain of foam .
The scene stunned the audience, who applauded at the novelty and the quality of interpretation of both stars of Cuban music. While Brouwer confessed minutes after the show that Pablo had asked him to accompany him, Milanes onstage offered a sample of his artistic capital commitment since recovering from pancreatitis, which recently made him suspend one of his concerts in Argentina, where he was to present Renaissance, his last phonogram.
Brouwer had written version If you see a mountain of foam and, with his wife, the musicologist, Isabelle Hernandez, he thought this concert titled Love of big city, could not be complete without Pablo Milanes. It was the shortest Festival evening, however arguably one of the most intense.
Paul gave color with his voice, showing still some cold this time a little, but always melodious, these simple verses of the Master that soften a deep national feeling. Accompanied by pianist Miguel Nunez, who heads the group for more than two decades, the author of Yolanda and Para vivir sang nearly a dozen poems, including Yo soy un hombre sincero, El príncipe enano and Mi verso es como un puñal.
Sometimes followed by the vocal quartet Presto and others with a clear connection to the Cuban son from the taste of the congas and bass Edgar Martinez Sergio F. Raveiro, Milanes walked back to the Marti trail, a path that began with Versos sencillos, an album dated 1973.
The night had a special introduction of two pieces written by Leo Brouwer. The first, Es el amor quien ve (1972), brought together an ensemble of virtuosos: flutist Niurka González, pianist Mary of Hayfield Navarro, guitarists Silfredo Perez (Venezuela) and Edelton Gloeden (Brazil), the cellist Alejandro Martinez, violinist Reynier Guerrero and Brazilian soprano Adelia Issa.
Then, a piece for piano and flute of Marti Elegies (2009), invited us to tour the musical reflection of the Apostle’s prose. This time, the duo Ondina (Niurka González and María del Hayfield Navarro) proposed guidelines that journey in which Brouwer played the lucidity of Cuban thinker through sound.
Love of the big city has shown not only the beauty of the poetry of Martí, it has given us the intensity of instrumentalists, singers and composers.
