Ensemble mesmerized by the music of Cuba
Cuba is famous for many kinds of music: salsa, jazz, son, among others.
But classical music? Not so much.
Yet the Houston-based Apollo Chamber Players has drawn inspiration from the island nation for “Cuba Libre!,” a Sunday evening concert at the MATCH.
The Apollo Chamber Players are a classically trained ensemble — a string quartet that can be expanded to include other musicians when necessary. But the ensemble is no less devoted to folk music. Indeed, the influence of folk traditions on classical music is a central theme in the ensemble’s artistic mission.
So it’s no wonder Apollo has taken an interest in Cuba, where musical ideas from Africa, Spain and other places have generated rich, hybrid styles.
“Musical categories are blurred in Cuba,” says violinist and Apollo Chamber Players artistic director Matthew Detrick. “Musicians there identify themselves simply as musicians — and they don’t have strict delineations of different genres. Maybe that’s something that classical musicians in the United States could learn something from.”
For this reason, “classical” music in Cuba is often infused with pop and folk styles. And this will be reflected in Apollo’s Sunday program.
Cuban composer Leo Brouwer’s “Quintet for Guitar and String Quartet” is a rhythmically lively and harmonically sophisticated showpiece. For this work, Apollo’s strings will be joined by Austin guitarist Thomas Echols.
As well, there’s a world premiere on the program — “Imagénes de Cuba” (“Images of Cuba”) by Houston composer Arthur Gottschalk, for string quartet and a Cuban percussion instrument called a chekeré.
This piece was commissioned by Apollo as part of its ongoing 20X2020 project, to create 20 new compositions for the ensemble by the year 2020.
“Imagénes de Cuba” is the product of Gottschalk’s two decades of musical research in Cuba.
“My goal,” says the composer, who teaches at Rice University, “was to interpolate Cuban folk music in this composition. There’s a peanut-vendor’s song in the first movement. In the second movement, the song ‘Guantanamera’ can be heard in fragments. And the third movement, ‘Timba,’ is based on salsa and other popular styles.”
A third piece on the program is “Más Allá de una Verdad” (“Beyond the Truth”), by the Cubanborn and Miami-based composer Maureen Reyes Lavastida. Originally a string orchestra work, it has been re-arranged by the composer for string quartet.
Gottschalk hears many influences in her music — Cuban, American and European.
“Cuban composers haven’t had much contact with the United States,” he points out, “but they’ve had lots of contact with Europe. They’re very much aware of what’s going on culturally at the highest artistic levels.”
Apollo’s “Cuba Libre!” concert comes at a time of expanding cultural relations between the U.S. and Cuba. Yet Detrick insists that Apollo isn’t simply jumping on a bandwagon.
“To be honest,” he says, “we started planning for this program prior to the relaxation of the embargo.”
But now that travel between the two countries is easier, Detrick is considering a tour to Cuba by the Apollo Chamber Players.
“We are looking at some options to go down there,” he says. “And I’m hoping we can work out some kind of collaboration. It’s a wonderful musical culture to explore. It’s right up our alley — and now it’s possible.”