Recordings: Kernis’ quartets get their due; Cuban music’s subtler side is revealed; old-time Puccini is unearthed, and more.
Who better to capitalize on the current interest in Cuban music than expatriate Barrueco, whose discography already includes strong performances of Leo Brouwer and Julian Orbon? But if you’re looking for some of the energy and edge of the Buena Vista Social Club, understand that this disc favors the more subtly seductive side of the island’s music, including wonderfully liquid and sly accounts of short works by Ernesto Lecuona, Brouwer, Carlos Farin~as and Enrique Urieta. That Hector Angulo’s nine brief “Cantos Yoruba de Cuba” disappoint seems more the fault of the blandly bowdlerizing composer than the guitarist. For muscle and extended thinking there are the two big works, the Sonata by Jose Ardevol and Brouwer’s characteristic “Rito de los Orishas.”
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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).
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