CD REVIEW – SARAH WILLIS
MOZART y MAMBO CUBAN DANCES
ALPHA 878 [61:03]

Like its predecessor reviewed here in 2020, 'Mozart y Mambo', this release has all the right ingredients for a similar stunning sales success: a French horn played by a star hornist, the masterly Mozart and the exciting music of Cuba. As well as the mambo, other major ballroom dances of Cuban origin include the rhumba, conga, guaracha, samba and cha-cha.

Sarah Willis, who in the 2021 Birthday Honours was awarded the MBE for services to charity and the promotion of classical music, has been described in Gramophone magazine as "a marvellous Mozartian" and plays here the first two of his glorious Horn Concertos, accompanied – as she is throughout the album bar one track – by her beloved Havana Lyceum Orchestra conducted by José Antonio Méndez Padrón (Pepe) in typical sparkling form.

On one of her visits to the republic, Sarah had commissioned the very first Cuban horn concerto – calling on six young talented native composers to each write an original dance for solo horn, strings and percussion inspired by the most famous dance rhythms from across different regions of the country.

The resulting 'Cuban Dances' occupy four minutes short of half the album's total timing. All are to be enjoyed with titles such as Un Bolero para Sarah and Sarahchá. I loved the Mahler-like horn solo at the beginning of Guaguancó Sencillo. An 83-year-old güiro player, Enrique Lazaga, is the guest star on Danzón de la Madianoche. (The Danzón is the national dance of Cuba). Sarah has said that initially it was not easy to perform these pieces on her instrument and she had to first dance to them in order to play them!

There are additional tracks: the first, for Cubans, an emotion inducing traditional, Veinte Años, sung here by Carlos Calunga; the second an equally popular rather catchy El Bodeguero, a classic cha-cha-chá.

A winning fun finish features the seven-strong ensemble (horn, saxophone, piano, bass, cajón & maracas, congas and timbales), charmingly called Sarahbanda, who perform Edgar Olivero’s Pa Pa Pa, inspired by the Papageno/Papagena duet from Mozart’s last opera, 'The Magic Flute'.

The 38-page three language booklet (English, German and Spanish) mostly written by Sarah, with a number of beautiful coloured photos, greatly complements the appeal of the recording made in January and April 2022 at the Oratorio San Filipe Neri, Havana, Cuba.

Some of the proceeds of this CD's sales will again go to buying instruments for young Havana musicians. A third album has been recorded and is something to look forward to for 2023. In a seemingly ever increasing mad, bad world, we all can share in the feeling of joy that emanates from these recordings. Sarah and your musical "familia Cubana", we salute you!

© Peter Burt 2022