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Rolando Villazón and Xavier de Maistre present Serenata Latina, a rich and varied programme of Latin American songs. The album features vocal works heard for the first time with harp accompaniments, including iconic pieces by Carlos Guastavino, Ariel Ramírez and Alberto Ginastera. Together Villazón and de Maistre present a programme embracing everything from Venezuelan and Peruvian dance-songs to art songs by composers such as Alberto Ginastera and Carlos Guastavino. Thanks to its long and turbulent history, Latin America boasts a wealth of musical influences – indigenous, African and European. Its song repertoire is therefore one of the most diverse in the world, rich in melodic, rhythmic and narrative forms unique to the continent. Serenata Latina pays tribute to a repertoire that reflects a two-way exchange between the rural spaces where folk music reigned and the salons and concert halls of urban areas. “This album is a collection of beautiful traditional folk and art songs from my big homeland – when you come from Latin America, all other Latin countries feel like siblings. Its themes vary from nature to love, from grief for the spirits of the dead to the joy of being alive. Throughout, we can admire the art and sensibility of the Latin American composers who drank from the European tradition to create their music but remained rooted in the soil of our rich, colourful, sometimes melancholic yet always resilient culture.” - Rolando Villazón