Leo Brouwer has produced a large output for guitar, many of the works quite popular in his native Cuba as well as abroad. The Preludios epigramaticos is a collection of six widely performed and recorded works. Each carries a subtitle and most are short, the entire collection having a duration of about 12 minutes. The works are uniformly sparsely scored and feature mostly slow tempos. The first piece, Desde que el alba quiso ser alba, toda eres madre, is mesmerizing in its haunting theme and tick-tock rhythm, while the ensuing Tristes hombres si no mueren de amores is stoic and dark. No. 3, Alrededor de tu piel, ato y desato la mia, is ethereal in mood and a bit livelier. The fourth piece, Rié, que todo rié: que todo es madre leve, is bright and has a roving nonchalance in its thematic angularity and chipper manner. The next work, Me cogiste el corazon y hoy precipitas su vuelo, is dark and barren in its sonorities and proceeds at a glacial pace. The last work, Llego con très heridas, deals with love, death, and life, a vast range of subjects for a solo guitar work to cover in a piece lasting about a minute. Here, Brouwer merely presents a hauntingly bleak sound world, again in scaled-down sonorities and a slow tempo.

© Robert Cummings, All Music Guide