Afro-Cuban Composer & Violinist José White, born Dec. 31, 1835, wrote "La Bella Cubana," played by Fernando Muñoz (5:58) on YouTube

[José Silvestre White (1835-1918), Afro-Cuban violinist and composer. Shown here after he received the 1st prize for violin at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1856. Bibliothèque Nationale de France]

Capricho Latino

Rachel Barton Pine, violin

Etude No. 6, Jose White

Cedille Records CDR 90000 124 (2011)

In its review of Capricho Latino, ClassicalCandor.blogspot.com notes:

“Jose White's Etude No. 6 is more mainstream than most of the other works on the album and strikes a Romantic note in the program.” Craig Zeichner observed in Ariama.com on June 21, 2011: “Pine is one of the great violinists and in a short time has made some of the most consistently excellent recordings available anywhere, this may be one of her very best.” CD Universe classifies the recording as “Post-Romantic.”

Rachel Barton Pine writes in the liner notes:

“Each of White's Six Etudes (1868) is dedicated to a famous violinist: his teacher Alard, Ernesto Camillo Sivori, Henri Vieuxtemps, Henryk Wieniawski, Hubert Leonard, and one Secundino Arango, whose identity has intrigued European and American scholars. Arango, Afro-Cuban, born in Havana at the end of the 18th century and deceased in the same city in the late 1840's, was a violinist, cellist, organist, and composer of both religious music and popular danzones. He was also White's first violin teacher. Fittingly, White's Etude No. 6 is a danzón with a pyrotechnic central section much in the virtuoso Parisian style of the time.”

José Silvestre White is featured at AfriClassical.com, with a Works List by Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma, http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com

Fernando Muñoz plays "La Bella Cubana" by Jose White (5:58)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GGzspkZFzg

Published on Jun 13, 2012 by fernandoviolin1987
Trio Concertante
Fernando Muñoz violin
Dianelys Castillo clarinete
Leonardo Gell piano