José María Vitier presents new album in Cuba

February 24, 2022

Sheltered in music during months of confinement and uncertainty due to Covid-19, José María Vitier created a new album XXI Bienaventuranzas, presented today by the pianist alongside flautist Niurka González.

The phonogram made up of 21 compositions proposes "from its eclecticism and variety expressive alternatives converging in the same participatory and hope-convening perspective," according to the introductory words of this suite, dedicated to González's interpretive capacity.

Created under the Unicornio label of Producciones Abdala, the record invites in each piece a search for beauty, especially in times marked by physical distances and lack of certainty about tomorrow, which force recourse to art to "break discouragement" and seek essences governed by another tempo.

In a press conference, Vitier evoked the biblical conceptualization of the Beatitudes, conceived as that prayer that arises in the midst of crisis, in difficult moments to carry faith and confidence in the advent of better times.

In that sense, he emphasized that the album was born from a series of musical prayers published from his Facebook profile, which without prior planning gave rise to the album's compositions, and to all the articulation of artistic expressions originated by this: painting, design and documentary.

For her part, González valued the experience as exceptional, which demanded high preparation, hours of rehearsal and teamwork to achieve perfect fit, combined with the mood of each piece.

The audiovisual material created during the rehearsal and recording process was in charge of filmmaker Lester Hamlet, who included interviews with the project's protagonists and other special moments in the material.

The first opportunity to hear a selection of the record live will be on February 27 at Teatro Martí, in this capital, in a concert that will bring the pieces closer, but on that occasion alongside soprano Bárbara Llanes, percussion and bass instrumentalists and the Chamber Orchestra of La Habana.