Chamber Music a la cubana Comes to Washington D.C.

by Luis Rumbaut

The group was founded in 1993, making themselves known at home for two years before venturing to Italy, Mexico, Sweden, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Canada, and Spain. Their members, however, are hardly newcomers to the world of music, and especially in the case of their conductor, Zenaida Castro Romeu. Born to a family of performers and composers spanning several generations, she learned to play the piano from her mother. After graduating in piano she pursued degrees in choral and orchestral conducting, obtaining both in 1983. Later she conducted a variety of organizations, including Cuba's National Symphony Orchestra, the Cuban National Choir, and choirs in Spain, Nicaragua, Sweden, and Germany. Along the way she found time to teach at the Cuban Institute of Art, host a popular TV show in Havana, and write soundtracks for movies and TV.

Under her direction, seven outstanding musicians (3 violins, 2 violas, cello, and double bass) prompt audiences to comment on their ability to blend passion with technique-in particular, first violinist Lázara Martínez Boada. A sampling of their repertoire includes Elgar's Serenata, Mozart's Adagio and Fugue in C Minor, Variations on a Theme of Pablo Milanés by Andrés Allen, Astor Piazzolla's Death of An Angel, Danza Loca by Dominican composer Rafael Landestoy, works by Albéniz and by Cuban composers Leo Brouwer, Ernesto Lecuona, José María Vittier, and Beatriz Corona, and the exuberant Camerata en Guaguancó by Guido López Gavilán.

For many listeners in the U.S., Cuban music oscillates within a spectrum that ranges from mambo to conga, from son to bolero, occasionally being confused with salsa. Seldom, however, is Cuban music imagined in classical terms, or in terms of a music that, while in the classical European form, assimilates the popular rhythms of the island. The Camerata Romeu follows a tradition that marks Cuban composers, from Amadeo Roldán to Ernesto Lecuona to the contemporary Leo Brouwer: the incorporation of folk elements, both African and Spanish in origin, into their compositions. Brouwer's Estudios for classical guitar, for example, bring African polyrythms into the study of the classical guitar, overlapping the 3-2 clave and the 4/4 signature.

So it is with the Camerata en Guaguancó, one of the more vivacious pieces performed by the ensemble. The guaguancó is one of the three kinds of rumba, along with the yambú and the columbia. As played by the Camerata, the same strings that produce the sweet sounds of Pachelbel substitute here for the three drums of the rumba, two of which lay down the signature rhythms of the guaguancó while the third-the quinto, with the highest pitch-improvises over and around them.

It is not easy in the U.S. to be exposed to the music of Cuba, a mere 90 miles distant but a blockade away. Periodically, however, breakthroughs turn into revelations: Irakere, the all-out jazz band commanded by pianist Chucho Valdéz; the a capella group Vocal Sampling with the uncanny ability to reproduce the sound and timbre of instruments; Isaac Delgado, the new salsero on the scene; the world-class jazz pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, who now in turn hears the footsteps of the young jazz pianist Iván "Melón" González following close behind him; and a host of other performers, unknown or only recently known in the United States. Cuban rap, anyone? It's there, too.

The performers who play this music make do without replacement strings, with outdated equipment, with instruments that are less than adequate, as is the case also with the Camerata. Rubén González, the nonagenarian pianist featured on the Grammy-winning Buena Vista Social Club, lost his piano years ago to wood-boring insects. But still they play, and surprise.

The Camerata Romeu is part of this current of musical production, constantly renewed, always inventive. Like Cuba itself, its members and their music are a blend of European, African, and American influences. Hear them, enjoy them, and imagine the impossible.