“…young Havana pianist Yamile Cruz Montero, a virtuoso of international classical music… an ambassador of Cuban pianism to the world.” – Worldwide Cuban Music“

 

Some of the finest, most stylistically diverse and exciting Cuban piano music can be heard on this recording. Ernesto Lecuona is one of the greatest of all Latin-American composers. „Malagueña“, from the „Suite Andalucía“, is considered the most powerful representation of Spain in Cuban music. Drawing on the Cuban genres of son and cancíon, the music of Carlos Fariñas radiates vivid colours, while that of Andrés Alén Rodríguez blends song, habanera and jazz influences.

WHY PIANO CUBANO?

“It is a piece of the history of my life and of the country where I was born and raised. During my training as a musician, I performed both international classical works and Cuban repertoire. Both were compulsory in music schools in Havana. I chose for my first album works by Lecuona, Fariñas and Alén, composers with whom I have identified during different stages of my development. I currently live outside Cuba and playing Cuban music for me has become a ‘bridge’ over the Atlantic Ocean, the sun that appears in my room when grey days flood the city, a necessity for the soul.” — Yamilé Cruz Montero“

REVIEWS

„Cruz Montero plays everything with beauty and grace. A lovely disc—don’t miss it.“
(Tom Moore, American Record Guide, May 2018)

„Cruz Montero manages to thrill under that fusion of dynamic pianism, rooted in romantic virtuosity, the Spanish and gypsy folk rhythms and the infallible melodic sense.“
(Luis Suárez, Ritmo Magazine)

„The performance of Yamile Cruz Montero rises in this rhythmically pulsating music completely and unfolds in every piece a vital flow by which one can be carried away with pleasure. Thanks to the audio engineering the play of the Cuban was caught in his whole beguiling sensuousness.“
(Robert Nemecek, Piano News Mai/Juni Issue 2018)

„Piano Cubano is a true listening pleasure for all lovers of classical music, who want to expand their own musical horizon with an exciting and extremely interesting facet. And at the same time they get to know an aspiring, young pianist who has just begun to exploit their full musical potential.“
(Latizon TV, January 2018)

„You will enjoy the playing of the young Cuban pianist, Yamile Cruz Montero, her dexterity is admirable, and I guess she would make an outstanding jazz pianist.“
(David Denton, David’s Review Corner, November 2017)

„The young Cuban Yamilé Cruz Montero living in Munich presents a solo album with composers from her homeland. In the most magical way, she unfolds the spectrum of characters and colors with lucid ease, playing rhythmically as contagiously as naturally in the dance continuity, and proves not only as a brilliant pianist, but also as a refined and in the modulations sensitive, vocal phrasing musician , In addition to Lecuona’s elegantly stylized suite Andalucía, the focus is on the classic modernism of Carlos Fariña, which is captivating with Caribbean rhythms, and a folkloristic variation cycle by contemporary Andrés Alén.“
(Christoph Schlüren, Neue Musikzeitung, November, 2017)