Ernesto Lecuona Piano Works - Cuba España

'The musical equivalent of holiday snaps, with plenty of Spanish soul. Unfailingly engaging, these miniatures are beautifully crafted and full of suggestion. Rodríguez, a pupil of Phyllis Sellick, plays with style, sensitivity and obvious relish, bringing to life just a selection of Lecuona’s large output: he wrote 400 songs, scores for Hollywood films, many piano pieces and a host of orchestral works. This disc is the tip of the iceberg, but there’s nothing cold about it.' International Piano Magazine

Clara Rodríguez’s Lecuona selection is as fine as anyone’s.

I’ve enjoyed a number of Clara Rodríguez’s more recent discs and I’ve enjoyed this one as much. It helps to like Ernesto Lecuona’s good-time music but I can’t imagine anyone, other than a diehard serialist, not liking it, or at least actively objecting to it. If you enjoy the imposing vistas projected in Ante El Escorial, a kind of lightweight Granados, you will be delighted by both the piece and the playing. There is real rhythmic vitality generated in Granada, with its ancillary hints of Debussy, something else that aligns the Cuban Lecuona to earlier Iberian composers such as Granados and Albéniz. Here, too, Flamenco is fused with Lisztian flourish with devilishly exciting results.

The Danaza cubanas are full of verve and colour, and played with considerable digital clarity and stylistic acumen. Elements of the music sound like Cubano Rags, yet others like updated Gottschalk, which is not wholly unsurprisingly since they are nineteenth-century dances. The other two cycles are the Afro-Cuban Dances and Suite Andalucia. The former glitter ebulliently and are marked by teasing rhythms and splendidly hummable tunes. The latter cycle is no less exciting, each movement a monument to a town or landmark and full of colour, and a very personal sense of warmth and immediacy. The movement devoted to the Guadalquivir, for instance, is rich but not over-complex thematically.

'A really delightful disc. I am not that familiar with Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona, but this disc left me wanting to explore his music more; and I see Clara Rodriguez has recorded piano music by several other South American composers. Full of interesting dance rhythms with elements of Debussy and also Joplin. Very original and beautifully played. Well worth purchasing and I will be looking into her other discs as well.'

Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb-International.com, February 2013