Back to José María Vitier with Concerto Por Una Nueva Aurora, 1983

You might recall this Cuban artist from two previous posts, the best one having come in 1987, here.  This one which came 4 years before, is like a combined oratorio / concerto in 5 movements, some sections orchestral, some more like pop with instrumental backing, but never really annoyingly classical, in the way that Deep Purple's concerto was.  (Note that the idiot who completed the database information on discogs made a mess of the movement titles, putting instead artists' names, presumably he couldn't read despite the state education he received in Cuba starting at the age of one week intrauterine, as you can tell from looking at the back scan.  What a surprise the analists who run discogs didn't boot him out as they so often love to do, being hardcore record collectors.  It's even more surprising they didn't hunt him down and feed his body parts to their pet hamsters.)

After his 1987 masterwork, the next release was an OST from 1994 called Strawberry and Chocolate.  So not very appealing despite the title.  I won't go into the usual Cuban tirade since that seems to have royally pissed off some communists last time, and I generally speaking never stray into the issue of individual countries and their possible demerits, e.g., Italy bad, France not as bad, Russia a complete basket case, USA a worldwide joke, China not even mentionable, Finland fantastic leadership with their just wonderful prime minister-- hard to understand why other countries can't copy their example.

The result is quite uneven overall ranging from mediocre songwriting to average composing.  There are at times some inspired passages but they are sometimes drowned out by the overbearing orchestra like a local communist cadre leadership who only allow you one bar of soap on leap years.  The 1987 work with its more seamless integration of the rockier, fusion elements, was more successful for sure, this one almost immature (although the composition demonstrates quite a classical education) in direct comparison.

The introductory movement: