THE CUBAN BRIDGE – RAPSODIA CUBANA REVIEW
“I bring you an invitation to be transported to a place and times, where falling in love, brings all of us closer to an artform! … These 5 Cuban Pianists and Composers embrace expansive, openhearted vulnerability, as they had never seen before. These 12 oeuvres are played from the heart by Yamilé and Christos, reason why you can’t help, but connect with them ! ”
[Toni Basanta, The Cuban Bridge – A journey through music, January 2021]
THE ART MUSIC LOUNGE – RAPSODIA CUBANA REVIEW
“Every piece on this amazing album leaps out at you from your speakers like a juggernaut, and each one is fascinating…Is there such a thing as a perfect album? This one surely comes close. Everything about it is charming, engaging and attractive, and there is clearly enough musical variety among these pieces to make it a must-have disc for those who like both Latin classical and pop-jazz music. Maravillosa!”
[Lynn René Bayley, The Art Music Lounge, January 2021]
THE ART MUSIC LOUNGE – PIANO CUBANO REVIEW
“A very good recital…Well worth seeking out.”
[Lynn René Bayley, The Art Music Lounge, January 2021]
REVISTA RITMO – PIANO CUBANO REVIEW
“Cruz Montero manages to thrill under that fusion of dynamic pianism, rooted in romantic virtuosity, the Spanish and gypsy folk rhythms and the infallible melodic sense.”
[Luis Suárez, Ritmo Magazine, October 2018]
AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE – PIANO CUBANO REVIEW
“Cruz Montero plays everything with beauty and grace. A lovely disc—don’t miss it.”
[Tom Moore, American Record Guide, May 2018]
PIANO NEWS – PIANO CUBANO REVIEW
“The performance of Yamile Cruz Montero rises in this rhythmically pulsating music completely and unfolds in every piece a vital flow by which one can be carried away with pleasure. Thanks to the audio engineering the play of the Cuban was caught in his whole beguiling sensuousness.”
[Robert Nemecek, Piano News May/ June Issue 2018]
WWW.KLASSIK.COM – PIANO CUBANO REVIEW
“Yamilé Cruz Montero gives listeners an insight into the world of Cuban piano music with passion, rhythmic precision and great feeling. A great solo debut that will hopefully get many more recordings.”
[Uta Swora, www.klassik.com, January 2018]
LATIZON TV – PIANO CUBANO REVIEW
“Piano Cubano” is a true listening pleasure for all lovers of classical music, who want to expand their own musical horizon with an exciting and extremely interesting facet. And at the same time they get to know an aspiring, young piano musician who has just begun to exploit their full musical potential.”
[December 2017]
RECORDS INTERNATIONAL – PIANO CUBANO REVIEW
“Drawing on the genres of son and canción Carlos Fariñas’s Cantero radiates vivid color while the music of Andres Alen Rodríguez blends song, habanera and jazz influences.”
[December 2017]
BR KLASSIK – YAMILE CRUZ MONTERO PLAYS CUBAN MUSIC FOR PIANO
“The pianist convinces not only by her congenial design of Cuban piano poetry, but also by her selection, which presents fascinating works partly on CD for the first time.”
[Michael Schmidt, December 2017]
DAVID’S REVIEW CORNER – PIANO CUBANO REVIEW
“Piano Music from South America over eight decades with three composers born in Cuba and from different stylistic eras, including Ernesto Lecuona’s Suite Andalucia. He became an internationally famous concert pianist, and can be seen as one of the original and the finest composers of Latin-American classical music. Best known for the Suite Andalucia, a score in the shape of six Spanish dances, the finale, a Malaguena, became a ‘pop’ classic with an infectious melody that lodges in the brain and will not go away. On the other hand I guess few would tell you the name of the composer! Around the time that was being written in the 1930’s, Carlos Farinas was born in the Cuban city of Cienfuegos. He was one of the earliest composers to take Spanish influenced material into the avant garde of the twentieth century, his musical education having taken place in North America and Russia. Sones Sencillos was a product of the second half of the century, with jazz finding a place in his musical repertoire, though he looked to that genre only when it brought him attractive rhythms. Finally to Andres Alen Rodriguez—to give him his full name—and to music of our own time in a mode that is a crossover between today’s ‘pop’ culture and the classics, jazz being the constant provider of rhythms, the Variations inspired by a song from the Cuban folk-singer, Silvio Rodriguez. We have become familiar with a more urgent account of Lecuona’s Malaguena, but that apart, you will enjoy the playing of the young Cuban pianist, Yamile Cruz Montero, her dexterity is admirable, and I guess she would make an outstanding jazz pianist. The recording by Bavarian Radio features an odd sounding Steinway piano.”
(David Denton, David’s Review Corner, November 2017)
NEUE MUSIKZEITUNG – PIANO CUBANO REVIEW
The young Cuban Yamilé Cruz Montero living in Munich presents a solo album with composers from her homeland. In the most magical way, she unfolds the spectrum of characters and colors with lucid ease, playing rhythmically as contagiously as naturally in the dance continuity, and proves not only as a brilliant pianist, but also as a refined and in the modulations sensitive, vocal phrasing musician. In addition to Lecuona’s elegantly stylized suite Andalucía, the focus is on the classic modernism of Carlos Fariña, which is captivating with Caribbean rhythms, and a folkloristic variation cycle by contemporary Andrés Alén.
[Christoph Schlüren, November 2017]
THE NEW LISTENER – CUBAN FESTIVITIES
“…Yamilé Cruz Montero is merging as intensely into the organic life of the music as in the case of Schumann or Albéniz, plays with delicate consciousness of form an structure without neglecting the lyrical moment at the same time, entrancing with incredible rhythmic conciseness. She’s just a great musician.”
[Oliver Fraenzke, March 2017]
THE NEW LISTENER – MAGICAL, AUTHENTIC, EMOTIONAL. YAMILÉ CRUZ MONTERO AND CHRISTOS ASONITIS PLAYING CUBAN MUSIC
“… And for Yamilé Cruz Montero there are the best wishes based in really much more than in her definitely enchanting appearance! She represents what we miss very often on stage: a consistently sincere human being and authentic artist without any pretension and surely too human and modest within the “elbow business” of the star cult business of the world of classic music, but touching and authentic in all what she is doing. She definitely has the potential for a virtuoso of distinction and we are remaining curious for all the things that she will find out for us in the future.”
[Lucien-Efflam Queyras de Flonzaley, May 2016]
THE NEW LISTENER – AUS DER WEIBLICHEN PERSPEKTIVE (IN GERMAN LANGUAGE)
“…Eine wahre Entdeckung ist die Pianistin Yamilé Cruz Montero, die durch hochmusikalisches und sehr feinfühliges Klavierspiel beeindruckt. Trotz des leicht schepprigen und nicht ganz lupenrein gestimmten Flügels erschließt sie ungeahnte Nuancen in der Musik. In all den divergierenden Kompositionen und bei dem ganz unterschiedlichen musikalischen Gehalt sucht und forscht sie, um überall das Bestmöglichste entstehen zu lassen. Sogar dem glissandoüberlaufenden Acqua entlockt sie feinste Schattierungen und eine perlige Geschmeidigkeit, die ihresgleichen sucht. Fantastisch ist Cruz Monteros Gespür für Rhythmik, die stechend scharf und trotz immenser Herausforderungen vollkommen präzise ist. Respekt gebührt ihr auch alleine schon für die Tatsache, sich so sehr für Neues und Unbekanntes einzusetzen, eine solche Anzahl an Uraufführungen von hoher Komplexität auf sich zu nehmen für einen Auftritt in kleinem Rahmen…Fantastisch ist Cruz Monteros Gespür für Rhythmik, die stechend scharf und trotz immenser Herausforderungen vollkommen präzise ist”
[Oliver Fraenzke, March 2016]