Chamber music connoisseurs know that its performance requires virtuoso soloists, but also artists who are open to communication, to be attentive to the other, to feel as in a dance the movement of the couple in order to achieve a fruitful dialogue in which each instrumentalist shows off his soloist passage while the other accompanies, however, at another time it must be himself who seconds and shields so that his partner shines.

This dialogue, if achieved, gives fertile fruit of a high artistic degree that evokes in the mind of the listener - because of this formidable performance - an amazing world that submerges him in ecstasy to an unmentionable feast.

On this cornerstone is founded the history and imprint of the renowned D'Accord Duo, which was composed of more than fifteen years by maestros Vicente Monterrey on clarinet and Marita Rodríguez on piano.

This chamber music formation founded in 2002 is characterized by a demanding repertoire for the clarinet and piano duo, and by the technical and performing virtuosity of its founding members.

At the beginning of 2020 we learned of Maestro Vicente Monterrey's desire to enjoy his retirement after a long, demanding and fruitful professional career. For this reason, in order to continue this project, a new member was needed who would commit to the artistic interests of the duo and found, in the talented young clarinetist Alejandro Calzadilla, the ideal musician to continue the work of Vicente Monterrrey, who graduated under his tutelage this eminent disciple with a gold degree from the University of the Arts of Cuba.

With such interest the Havana public approached to know, live, this new member, last Sunday December 13 at the Cervantes Hall, with the precedent of knowing in previous works of the artistic capacity of Alejandro Calzadilla and of which we wait with eagerness for his new performances, but also we recognize that he has the bar so high due to the triumphal wake left by maestro Monterrey in this group. Without a doubt, Calzadilla left a pleasant impression on the public in this concert and managed to clear up any doubts as to the happy continuity or the possible failure that the group could face.

 

During the meeting, the duo shared the stage with the Z-Saxos quartet directed by maestro Javier Zalba, who premiered with his group several works of his most recent creation, demonstrating his capacity and compositional ingenuity that never ceases to surprise us as in the Pieza Concertante, De repente, Luces y sombras, En una alborada and Caminando por el malecón habanero.

Meanwhile, D'accord showed part of the repertoire for his piano and clarinet format, starting with a piece of great spirit and technical difficulty in performance: the Sonata for clarinet and piano by French composer Francis Poulenc.

Then we heard from contemporary Cuban composers Serenade by José María Vitier and Relaxing Habanera by Javier Zalba, the latter as a world premiere.

The audition was completed by the Suite Grooves by American composer Philip Parker and a tribute to the remarkable Cuban composer and pianist Ernesto Lecuona on the 125th anniversary of his birth with the performance of the pieces La Comparsa and Gitanerías.

With the desire to know more details about this program, how Calzadilla managed to integrate the duo definitively and the relations that exist between D'Accord and the maestro Javier Zalba, we spoke exclusively with the maestro Marita Rodríguez.

The fortune of sharing with a teacher

For the experienced pianist Marita Rodríguez to share -usually since 2002-, the stage with maestro Vicente Monterrey was a tremendous fortune that allowed her to consolidate as a performer in an extraordinary and demanding repertoire.

It was a very important moment in my professional and personal career," he adds, "I learned a lot from him and had the opportunity to perform all the repertoire available for this type of chamber music training.

At the age of retirement, Maestro Monterrey has decided to enjoy that moment after a full professional career in which he has made our concert halls shine with his art as a soloist, member of chamber groups and the Alicia Alonso Symphony Orchestra of the Great Theater of Havana.

At the same time, he has done an extraordinary job as a pedagogue, forming with his sap and experience many clarinetists who today are a reference in their instrument in recognized orchestras around the world.

"As everyone knows," explains Marita Rodríguez, "the maestro shared the work of the D'Accord and the Duo Cáliz with guitarist Luis Manuel Molina, who was an older ensemble and, as is logical and consistent with his professional ethics, maintains his work with the latter."

In addition, the pianist does not exclude the future possibility that at some point -in an occasional project-, a new collaboration between both will be propitiated.

 

A new member for the duo

The decision to select the young clarinetist Alejandro Calzadilla to be the new member of the D'Accord Duo was fundamentally sustained by the favorable impression his career as an independent soloist has made, also in his performances with the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra or integrating different chamber groups.

"I had already played with him -the Cuban maestro reminds us-, when he had decided to give concerts with this clarinet and piano repertoire, and we worked a lot on occasional gatherings or on space moments like the Clarinet Festival."

His training under the watchful eye of maestro Vicente Monterrey was also cardinal, a fact that favored his relationship with Marita and has allowed both to become acquainted in a short period of time.

"We have integrated very well because the communication between both is very good and that has allowed the duo to renew their repertoire with more contemporary works, but always maintaining the great classics that usually play this type of grouping."

The interviewee confesses to us that she has full confidence in the young musician because of his solid training and considers that they will give the public a great performance as a group.

A new and different vision

Commenting on the program of the concert that integrated works from the classical repertoire for clarinet and piano and contemporary works, the artist explained:

"The new vision of the D'Accord Duo is to venture into a more contemporary and updated repertoire. Our desire is to have a newer performance, not only assuming current works, but also revisiting the classics written for this type of group with a newer and different vision; from that perspective we will be inserting them in the coming concerts."
 
The premiere of a beautiful piece

During the Sunday audition we heard several premieres, but specifically the D'Accord Duo was involved in Maestro Javier Zalba's Relaxing habanera, in which a harmonious atmosphere was woven from the traditional and charming genre of the habanera.

"Maestro Zalba composed this small piece, in the sense that it is minimalist, but it is an extremely beautiful work, with some very beautiful themes with the rhythm of the habanera in the bass of the left hand of the piano and, in the center, it has a cadence for solo clarinet"- says Marita Rodríguez.

The artist also points out that the work was a gift from the composer to the D'Accord Duo to greet the new member, but since they shared the stage with Maestro Zalba, they decided that the author himself would assume its premiere from the clarinet.

"It's very pleasant to work with him, one gets into his way of writing, and it's very easy for me to communicate with the idea he wants to express," says the Cuban pianist.

Tribute to Ernesto Lecuona

Another interesting moment of the program was the tribute to the Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona, which was curatorially placed as an intermission.

"We made a version for clarinet and piano of La comparsa and maestro Javier Zalba made an arrangement of Gitanerías for saxophone quartet to which our duo joined. It was a tribute to the 125th anniversary of the birth of Ernesto Lecuona, the most famous Cuban composer, and we didn't want to miss this significant date."

Fruitful collaborations

"Maestro Zalba and I," says pianist Marita Rodríguez, "have had a very important professional relationship, since I have played with him many times in terms of the clarinet and piano repertoire, and specifically we have performed contemporary Cuban music by maestros Jorge López Marín, Guido López-Gavilán and Zalba himself.’’

The performer brings to mind the premiere she made with Vicente Monterrey of the popular work Canción para un clarinetista, which Maestro Zalba dedicated especially to the Cuban clarinetist.

About those complicities, she says that the communication between Javier Zalba and the D'Accord Duo has been very good and has deepened over the years, since it was born from the friendship between Monterrey and Zalba at school:

"I must warn you that there is a brotherhood between both artists based on mutual respect and admiration. In addition, he has substantially collaborated with the Clarinet Festival project by writing quartets and sextets, actively participating with his works and this has brought us closer together."