Roberto Sierra: Cantares, Loíza & Triple Concierto Xalapa Symphony Orchestra & Lanfranco Marcelletti

• Roberto Sierra (b. 1953): Cantares:
• 1 Cantares: I. Hanacpachap cussicuinin 06:11
• 2 Cantares: II. Canto lucumí 05:40
• 3 Cantares: III. Interludio 03:46
• 4 Cantares: IV. Suerte lamentosa 07:41
• Loíza:
• 5 Loíza 10:56
• Triple Concierto for Violin, Cello & Piano:
• 6 Triple Concierto for Violin, Cello & Piano: I. Enérgico 09:32
• 7 Triple Concierto for Violin, Cello & Piano: II. Tiempo de bolero 09:17
• 8 Triple Concierto for Violin, Cello & Piano: III. Veloz, con aire de merengue 09:04
• Total Runtime 01:02:07

Info for Roberto Sierra: Cantares, Loíza & Triple Concierto

Roberto Sierra’s refined compositional voice is subtly combined with contemporary musical techniques and his Puerto Rican heritage in the three works recorded here. Cantares, commissioned by the Cornell University Chorus and Glee Club to celebrate the university’s sesquicentennial anniversary, evokes ancient Peruvian, Aztec and Afro Caribbean voices lost in time. The virtuoso Triple Concierto transforms the popular Caribbean rhythms of salsa, bolero and merengue into complex contemporary expressions, while the polyrhythmic layers of Loíza conjure a Puerto Rican town known for its strong African traditions.

Trio Arbos
Cornell University Corus and Glee Club
Xalapa Symphony Orchestra
Lanfranco Marcelletti, conductor

Roberto Sierra
Puerto Rico-born composer Roberto Sierra is internationally recognized and renowned for his integration of Caribbean music with the Western idioms he acquired during studies in Europe, and this release of recent works follows a whole series of much-admired and highly popular recordings of his music on the Naxos label. The most recent of these, Kandinsky (8.559849), was described as 'a real find' by Gramophone, and as presenting 'mouth-dropping renditions of this music of supreme virtuosity' by Fanfare. Sinfonía No. 3 'La Salsa' (8.559817) was admired by ClassicsToday.com for 'three highly entertaining orchestral works saturated with Latin rhythms and melodic motives', and the Missa Latina (8.559624) was a GRAMMY nominee and summed up as 'a powerful and individual major work performed with exemplary skill and commitment in superb sound' by MusicWeb International. In other words, new recordings of works by Roberto Sierra are always a welcome and much in demand addition to the catalogue.

Lanfranco Marcelletti
Conductor and pianist Lanfranco Marcelletti has been recognised as one of the most important Brazilian artists of his generation. His engagements as a conductor have brought him to numerous countries across Europe, North and South America.

Marcelletti studied orchestral conducting at Yale University, where he was mentored by Eleazar de Carvalho, piano and composition at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst, Vienna, and piano at the Musik Akademie in Zurich. He began his music studies at the Conservatório Pernambucano de Música (Recife, Brazil).

From 2012 to 2020 Marcelletti was music director of the Xalapa Symphony Orchestra in Mexico, where he resides. He served as associate director for the renowned Accademia Rossiniana, at the Rossini Opera Festival, and musical director of the social music project Orquestra Criança Cidadã in his native city, Recife. From 1997 until 2011 he was part of the faculty of Amherst College and the University of Massachusetts in the US. During his time in Xalapa, Marcelletti started the Masters Program in Orchestral Conducting at the Universidad Veracruzana.

Booklet for Roberto Sierra: Cantares, Loíza & Triple Concierto