Mozart y Mambo concert with classical music, Latin jazz, and high-jinks by Sarah Willis. Maybe the most famous french horn player since Dennis Brain, Willis is a member of the Berlin Philharmoniker. She is not the principal horn player there, nor does she claim to be a horn concert soloist. So why is Sarah famous? Well, she is an exponent of the quantum theory of existence, which allows her to be many different places at the same time. Her true mission appears to be an ambassador for classical music to all peoples in all countries, and she does this with truly world-class use of jet airplanes and Internet social media. (We love her especially because she was a supporter of the Saito Kinen and the Mito Chamber Orchestras, which made some of our treasured recordings from NHK.)
In 2020, it was Cuba that got the Sarah Willis treatment when she recorded a 55 minute CD of classical music and Latin dance tunes at the Oratorio San Felipe Neri in Havana. Here’s the program:
A Mozart Concerto Movement for Horn
A Mozart Rondo for Horn and Orchestra
A complete Mozart Horn Concerto
Dámaso Pérez Prado “Qué Rico el Mambo”
Edgar Olivero “Sarahnade Mambo” (based on Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik)
Joshua Davis and Yuniet Lombida Prieto “Rondo alla Mambo” (based on a Mozart’s Horn Concerto)
Isolina Carrillo “Dos Gardenias”
Moisés Simons “El Manisero “
Stars were Sarah Willis (horn), Harold Madrigal Frías (trumpet), Yuniet Lombida Prieto (saxophone), and Jorge Aragón (piano) with (1) the Havana Lyceum Orchestra conducted by José Antonio Méndez Padrón, (2) the Havana Horns, and (3) The Sarahbanda.
The CD was popular, so now we get the whole thing all over again in HD video directed by Magdalena Zięba-Schwind ! The video also has another 45 minutes of bonus content such as a Cuban flashmob dancing “Rondo alla Mambo.” No musicians or dancers died from heat exhaustion making this title. Subtitles in German. Released in 2021, you get both a DVD and a Blu-ray. The discs have some kind of 5.1 sound. Grade: NA
Here’s a Youtube clip about this seen more than 700,000 times in July 2020:
I don’t have time to worry about prices. But it’s November 2021, and Amazon in the US has this for sale at about twice the price posted by Presto! Alfa gives you a DVD and a Blu-ray. Maybe someone at Amazon doubled the price for that reason?This modest title has been (over)exposed to the market in every mode of playback known now to man. Once the media blitz is over, the street value of used media will probably be a small fraction of today’s prices.
Sarah Willis is the greatest marketing genius since P.T. Barnum. And this with a horn! If you have read this far, take a moment to pray for the people of Cuba. They have suffered enough. Oh, yes, you can buy this from :
