LAWRENCE DEL CASALE

• Ernesto Cordero / Lawrence del Casale

"Lawrence Del Casale plays this music admirably, with clean technique and with an ear for bringin out the music's contrasts. Zenobia is an unqualified success"

FANFARE

One of Puerto Rico's outstanding composers, Ernesto Cordero received his musical training both in Puerto Rico and from the Real Conservatorio de Musica in Madrid Spain. He later studied composition in New York with Julian Orbon and in Italy with Roberto Caggiano. Presently, Maestro Cordero continues his duties as Professor of Composition and Guitar at the University of Puerto Rico, a position he has held since 1971.

The music of Ernesto Cordero resides deep in my heart often evolving feelings of nostalgia and longing. I find it difficult not to dream of the island of Puerto Rico as Cordero paints that picture so well with his harmonic language. Whether it is the romantic "Bacetos Sonoras" or the "Vineta Criolla" with its heavy clave rhythm or any one of the songs, there always seems to be a hauntingly romantic quality which permeates the work. As an artist, I tried to present the listener with a program that ties one feeling into another by not grouping all the compositions together by genre. My intent was to create a mosaic of emotions; not a numbered catalogue.

One will immediately notice that the songs on this recording are all evocations of love. It was these songs and the "Preludios primaverales" that first attracted me to the music of Ernesto Cordero. Cordero's marriage of the poem and the guitar are a study in fine compositional technique. Neither instrument dominates the other the other, and the guitar is not merely an accompanying instrument but a voice unto itself. This recording relies on an economy of notes - colorful, yet to the point.



MSR Classics