MARIO LAVISTA

‘Few instrumental genres have awoken the most intimate and refined imagination from composers as the string quartet’ - Mario Lavista.

In Latin America those best-known are Carlos Chávez, Lavista’s teacher, Silvestre Revueltas and Manuel Enríquez: and that proud tradition is continued with these six works of Mario Lavista, Mexico’s leading contemporary composer, and compiled in this recording for the first time.

Lavista has been Professor at the Conservatorio Nacional since 1970 and is a member of the prestigious Colegio Nacional, with many international awards and honours to his name. He is also one of the most potent driving forces behind contemporary Mexican music. He founded Quanta, a collective improvisation group, on his return from study overseas; and he is the Chief Editor of one of the most important music journals in Latin America, Pauta, which he founded in 1982.

After his formative years at the Conservatorio Nacional he studied electronic and extended techniques in Paris and Japan, which influenced him profoundly, and these six quartets provide a guided tour to the pre-occupations that have shaped his work: from incorporating these extended techniques and indeterminate aspects to a continuous passion for poetry, an approach to the contrapuntal techniques of the medieval era and Renaissance, and a profound interest for spirituality and religious genres.

These are also definitive interpretations. When El Cuarteto Latinoamericano was formed in 1982 they immediately connected with Lavista, became close friends, and he has written for them ever since.  It is one of the most fruitful artistic collaborations in the history of Mexican music.