
An experimental recording in 1924 by Thomas Alva Edison. "La bella Cubana - habanera (1924) "La Bella Cubana ‐ José White (composer) José Silvestre de los Dolores White Lafitte (1835‐1918) was such a fine violinist that they called him 'el Paganini cubano' (the Cuban Paganini). José White, violinist and com‐ poser, was an African‐American Cuban, partly of Haitian background. He was such a fine violinist, that he was compared favorably with his contemporaries Weinawski, Viewtemps, and Ole Bull (a great Norwegian violinist). White was famous in Europe, especially in Paris, and performed in New York and Boston as well on a Stradivarius violin. He was a friend of the famous Afro‐American musician Gottschalk of Louisiana. Despite the prejudices of the times, José White was a student of and then an assistant to the great violin teacher Delphin Alard in the 1860s at the Paris Conservatoire; he also married a French Countess. José White wrote a lot of violin music, including a concerto for violin and the song La Bella Cubana, which became his most famous work and the most popular Cuban song after the National Anthem. The middle section of La Bella Cubana is a Cuban zapateado. From about 1870 to the1970s his concerto was lost. Finally, it was found at the Paris Conser‐ vatoire and was premiered first by Ruggiero Ricci, then by Aaron Rosand with the New York Philharmonic, and then in 1976 by Maestro Luís Haza at Catholic University in Wash‐ ington, DC. Maestro Luís Haza, who heard <b>...</b>
Bella
Cubana
Cuban
Music
Havana
Cuba
Habana
Thomas
Alva
Edison
Lawrence
Tibbett
Гавана
Куба
1958
1959
nostalgia
habanera