Mozart y Mambo

Sarah Willis (horn)

Sarah Willis is a tireless ambassador for her instrument, the French horn, which she champions around the world. A horn player with the famous Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra since 2001, she launched what was soon to become a famous TV programme, ‘Sarah’s Music’, for Deutsche Welle in 2014, interviewing personalities ranging from Gustavo Dudamel to Wynton Marsalis. The award- winning programme presents music with warmth and in all its diversity.

Sarah’s other passion was born when she arrived in Cuba to give a horn masterclass. The music and the musicians she met there had a huge impact on her. Since then she has returned regularly and founded the Havana Horns, an ensemble of Cuban horn players who were featured in a ‘Sarah’s Music’ episode.

With ‘Mozart y Mambo', Sarah has created an album combining the music of one of the most famous classical music composers, W. A. Mozart and traditional Cuban music. "Mozart would have been a good Cuban" she was told in Havana, and this is what inspired her to create this project. With the Havana Lyceum Orchestra and its exuberant conductor José Antonio Méndez Padrón, she presents works for French horn and orchestra by W. A. Mozart (the Concerto No. 3 K. 447 and the Concert Rondo K. 371) alongside a 'Rondo alla Mambo' (inspired by the Concerto No. 3 K. 447) a ‘Sarahnade Mambo’, a Cuban ‘Eine Kleine Nachtmusik’, and other treats. A number of well-known local musicians take part in this recording, which also pays tribute to Cuban repertoire with two songs including ‘Dos Gardenias’, made famous by Ibrahim Ferrer and the Buena Vista Social Club.

Carrillo: Dos gardenias
Mozart: Fragment in E flat major, K370b
Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 3 in E flat major, K447
Mozart: Rondo for Horn & Orchestra in E flat major, K371
Olivero, E: Sarahnade mambo
Pérez Prado: Qué rico mambo
Prieto, Y L: Rondo alla Mambo
Simons, Moises: El manicero (The Peanut-Seller)

26th July 2020

Arming herself with bags of flair and a passion for the country and its music, British horn player Sarah Willis has joined forces with young Cuban colleagues to make an exuberant disc...the way this Berlin Philharmonic star player yokes her own classical tradition to the improvisatory skills of the Cuban musicians is exploratory and honest.

24th July 2020

The uncertainty for me stems neither from the musicianship (on a high level) nor the stylistic cross-pollination. It lies with the horn, which can’t help sounding like a suave European intruder in the land of maracas and bongos. Still, the album is always fun, and part of the purchase price goes into an Instruments for Cuba fund to help to supply the country’s musicians with the tools they deserve.