Three brothers and four strings.

• Author: Modi, Sorab
• Position: Mexican classical musicians, Saul Bitran, Aron Bitran, Alvaro Bitran

Musicality may run in families; virtuosity runs rarer. So, the musical accomplishments of three brothers from Mexico who form the basis of the Cuarteto Latinoamericano are remarkable indeed. Made up of the Bitran brothers--Saul and Aron on violins, Alvaro on cello--and Javier Montiel on viola, the Cuarteto has built up an enviable international reputation over its seventeen-year existence. The group's concert appearances and recordings have been praised for excellence of ensemble and deeply felt interpretations of the masterworks of chamber music literature. Accolades have come both for "their clean playing, energy, and freshness" (Paris's Le Monde de la Musique) and their "imaginative music and sensitive, brilliant performances" (Washington Post).

The group's unwritten manifesto is the propagation of chamber works written by Latin Americans. According to Saul, "the earliest string quartet music of a Latin American composer we have discovered till now, is a work by a Mexican, Ricardo Castro, from around 1882. It is very much in the European tradition... like Puccini or Verdi." The real beginning of a distinctly Latin American school developed thanks to Brazilian master Heitor Villa-Lobos. His first quartet dates to 1916, and all his seventeen quartets are being recorded by the Cuarteto for the Dorian label.

To the music they play the foursome brings a sensitive imagination and refinement that is steeped in the musical dialect of the countries of the Southern Hemisphere. However, the Cuarteto members feel that if the group is to take its place among the recognized ensembles, it must establish its credentials performing mainstream repertoire as well. So, as a challenge to themselves and the audience, the Cuarteto may play a Villa-Lobos or Ginastera string quartet with, say, a Haydn or Borodin or Mozart. According to Saul, playing the divergent works together on the same program proves the group's musical vision. Their concert appearances give the audience the opportunity to gain an awareness of music it is likely to hear but rarely.

"If you look at musical history in the Americas in general," Saul says, "you will see there is a lag of approximately one century, until the twentieth century. Everything was lagging behind Europe. So church music still had a strong hold in the nineteenth century here, while in Europe music had been liberated .... Then we had opera, with long tours by many European companies. These normally ended at the Colon...