As it happens in birthdays celebrations, surprises are welcome and usually get to the one is being honored, when art and speech melt in the same ideal: melody to crossover the oceans of the imagination and sensitivity.

To get to a 23-year celebration could seem such a short journey in the destiny of Habana Radio Station but its intense cultural and musical proposal unveils a long musical trajectory along Havana and the foundational villages along the country, the hard working future project of the one who named it as the Voice of Cuban Heritage, the Historian of the City, Eusebio Leal Spengler.

A motivation that inspired the creative imaginary of the musician and composer Raul Paz, who, led this time by his affective bound for more than a decade with this radio station, including his former concert celebrating the radio station´s 15th anniversary, will perform an intimate talk about classical music as an opening for what his proposal will be next January 28th at the Martí´s Theater.

After our arrival to the emblematic spot of the Historic Center while the rehearsal was taking place, the musician told us that after being abroad for a while, he held an important meeting with Magda Resik, director of Habana Radio Station with whom he shared school years and enjoyed of the opportunity of having a cinematographic adventure.

Thanks to that meeting the song-writer began to weave his complicity with the radio station, approaching Eusebio’s line of thinking, who was always present in his artistic judgments¨, confessed Raúl Paz, who, seduced by the moment, revealed his enormous empathy for the stations´ program, to which he has been invited in several occasions, sharing mesmerizing moments with the Voice of Cuban Heritage.

¨Habana Radio discovered one of my favorites songs, Madrugada, which will be the one giving a closure to this concert-homage. This is precisely the first composition taking part of my first record Imagínate el año 1998, scarcely known in Cuba.

It was just after the discovery of this song that I was requested by Habana Radio to hold a concert at Basílica Menor San Francisco de Asís using cord instruments along with a quartette as it is written in the musical piece.

That was the beginning of the first concert with my most known songs, but approaching what we call the Mozartnian orchestra in a much classical style.

This idea was precisely the starting point then for a feasible invitation to be concreted as an only one concert for classical music. A fact that was naturally provided by life itself, affirm Raúl Paz, taking into account that he had already graduated from a Conservatory in France, but have not been formally introduced in Havana, so that, it was the propulsive engine along with Magda Resik´s idea, leading him to conquer the scholar spaces at the University of Arts.

The author of several of the most listened songs in the last times in his radial spectrum, acknowledges that the perseverance and contribution of many of his former teachers seeded inside him the spirit of the new graduation act, that would end with the performance of this amazing classical music concert, where Habana Radio, represented by its director, Magda Resik, attended. From that moment on it comes the concrete idea of this concert honoring the Radio Station and its main virtuous figure, Eusebio Leal.

From Mozart to Paz is a concert that the Cuban musician dedicates to Habana Radio Station, a space booked this Friday January 28th at Martí´s Theater, a memorable date when the voice of the Cuban heritage started its first steps in the radial spectrum to a journey through the extraordinary moments of the historic remembrance.

Raul Paz commented us that this concert is kind of a metaphorical journey in time, without the need of taking sides or making divisions and stated: ¨Mozart was a popular artist of his time that used to make music from the heart, that is what this is about, expressing the speech provided by the human soul and to unleash the many provocations music can display in its different styles.

¨The concert will join Mozart but it will also seek for other composers as Schumann and the romantic Germans, impressionism, will hold hands will the French Massenet and Fauré, the Italian opera of Bellini and Tosti. The latter ones would be the connection to the Zarzuela, which is an indisputable part of this culture, to get to a personal presentation of a theme from Raúl´s last record. En casa, will be a musical piece interpreted in classical style, on a duet format performed with Roger Quintana.  Lastly, there will be the song that initiated my discography as an homage to the unique human being that Eusebio Leal is¨.

¨It almost turns out a weird event that a musician dedicated to more popular themes, take the risk of interpreting classic music, but I consider it is necessary, due to it is part of the aim and desire of being acknowledged inside the execution of an artistic formation¨, claimed Raúl Paz.

He recognizes himself as a debtor of the classical music, and with total certainty, affirms: ¨ I stand for the idea that art and music are a single body, if it were not divided that much into concepts and practices, we would have better results in the sense of creation and life itself¨. 

The composer answered to the question about the many pretexts that the historical date brings out with Martí and Eusebio ´s ideal, and the creation of Habana Radio: ¨I consider myself a provocateur, people who know me the most, know that this is the way I am. Therefore, my provocative image of Martí and Eusebio, which are always present in every action I think and develop through music. That is why this concert is an homage to both of them and Habana Radio Station.

We were farewell by a smiley Raúl Paz, with the rush of who knows that time is essential in the creative process, even when the joy of a celebration is coming closer, and meanwhile our collective of Habana Radio seeks through his music, the breath of Leal´s dreams to keep disseminating the exclusivity and beauty of the Cuban heritage.

Source: Habana Radio