Cuarteto Borikén to debut with Puerto Rican classic

Quarteto Borikén (Facebook via Programa Radial Salud, Cultura y Algo Mas.)

By PEGGY ANN BLISS

Special to The STAR

When King Solomon said there was nothing new under the sun, he hardly could have been thinking of Raymond Torres-Santos, one of Puerto Rico’s most versatile and eclectic composers.

But those who attend the next Casals Festival concert will witness not only the prestigious debut of a new (well, almost new) string ensemble but also a recycled 48-year-old composition in its third version.

Actually, the operative word here is “renewal,” and it is the key to most of what will happen at this important concert, tonight at 7 in the Sanromá Room at the Puerto Rico Music Conservatory: The Cuarteto Borikén (Borikén String Quartet), unveiling a teenager’s first string quartet in its third incarnation almost a half-century later, and Torres-Santos’ “First String Quartet,” written when he was just 19 under the watchful eye of Yauco professor and composer Amaury Veray.

At the Casals Festival debut of the Cuarteto Borikén, this ensemble, newly established yet immersed in technique and tradition, will unveil a third version of the piece.

The work, commissioned for the Encounter of Both Worlds between Spain and Puerto Rico at the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture in 1978 by the group Toccata, which its creator continues to revise, bears his signature style of combining Puerto Rican rhythms with classical motifs and structures.

The piece has, like its creator, continued to grow. Originally used as the sound track of the Puerto Rican film “La laguna del tortuguero” by Paco Guell, it has undergone many transformations and new generations of musicians. 

A trio of quartets

Torres-Santos’ work will open the program, followed by a similar paean to the Czech homeland of the great composer Antonin Dvorak known as the “American Quartet,” and the spectacular fireworks of French composer Maurice Ravel, best known for his Spanish-influenced “Bolero” (“String Quartet in F Major”), one of the most recognizable compositions in the Western world.

Dvorak’s 12th string quartet, his 96th composition, was the only other piece he composed on his extended visit to the States in the late 19th century which inspired the beloved “New World Symphony.”

Penned in the small town of Spillville, Iowa, settled by his own Czech brethren, the piece reflects concerns similar to those of the Puerto Rican composer in alternating his milieu between his two homes. It has sounds of native birds, yet reflects Dvorak’s deep homesickness for his native Bohemia, later part of Czechoslovakia.

The Cuarteto Borikén is composed of the exquisite concertmaster fluidity of Omar Velázquez the energetic bowing of second violinist Fermín Segarra Cordero, the nuanced interpretations of cellist Solimar Soto and the important melodic depth of violist Edgardo Rosaly, all longtime PRSO members and a tight-knit group of friends and colleagues.

Torres-Santos’ work, which opens the program, is typical of the wave of “subjective nationalism,” which prevailed in the hemisphere in the last half of the 20th century.

Torres-Santos, who lives in California, is in town for the presentation of his quartet, taking in the many surprises of the festival, he commented to The STAR about the piece this week. He freely admits to influences of Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera, whose use of native themes and rhythms he adapted to Puerto Rican motifs mixed with classical forms.

The rhythm energy owes something to the propulsive string quartets of Ginastera, and the more lyrical introspective passages to North American giant Samuel Barber, while the dissonant elements are influenced by Charles Ives’ “Second String Quartet.” 

As Solomon said, there really is nothing new under the sun.