WHEN people talk about Cuban musicians Sergio and José María Vitier, the thought that immediately comes to mind is a verse from a song by Silvio Rodríguez, the composer and trovador who has enchanted generations of Cubans. I refer to the one that affirms: "it is not the same/but it is equal".

What an appropriate image. Sergio (1948) and José María (1954), sons of two great Cuban poets - Cintio Vitier and Fina García Marruz – have filled the musical panorama of the island with pieces whose only similarity is their extreme exquisiteness.

If it was necessary to prove it, recently we have been witnesses to the release of two new albums from the Brothers Vitier, thanks to Spain’s Fundación Autor de la Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (SGAE): Concierto en La Habana, by Sergio, and Pulso de Vida, by José Maria.

The two albums – which we will discuss individually - are filled with beautiful moments and I will just mention now something equally surprising: for this new body of work, Sergio does not pick up the instrument on which he is a virtuoso – the guitar – while José María has recorded an album with just his piano for the very first time.

The album Concierto en La Habana is a beautiful testimony to the music of Sergio Vitier, an album recorded live on March 9, 2008 at the Teatro Amadeo Roldán with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra and Dúo Pro Música (violinist Alfredo Muñoz and pianist María Victoria del Collado).

At the album launch, Sergio commented that the lifespan of one individual is not enough to learn everything there is to know about music, a very mysterious art. "Fragrances, words, dance, they all have references in life, but not music. That only exists in the imagination of human beings, and that’s why it’s so difficult to explain."

"The thing that is constant in all my work," he confirmed, "is that it is directed towards an interior need - although one is always grateful for the applause as nobody is completely free of vanity – and for that reason, I don’t make any commercial concessions whatsoever."

The album, containing nine tracks, begins with two pieces for violin and piano "Marina I" and "II", performed by Dúo Pro Música, "inspired by our insularity." He also highlighted "Bacheana Popular Cubana", "annotating Bachianas de Villa-Lobos, created with a cha cha chá rhythm and paying tribute to Jorrín, but with dramatic intention."

The album had to include some of his compositions for the cinema, in this particular case "Concierto de la Cueva" and "Roble de Olor", both from the film of the latter name, with the Chamber Orchestra. Sergio has a strong link to the Cuban film industry, having written the original score for more than 50 films.

The album ends with "Desprendimientos" and "Líricas, ritmos y canción" (extremely contemporary, in a vanguard language), performed by the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of maestro Enrique Pérez Mesa, which Sergio himself acknowledges as "a rupture in the concert, with another type of music, another kind of language, unconventional, difficult."

The pieces composed for Concierto en La Habana, in diverse formats, reveal Sergio’s extensive knowledge of Cuban rhythms "and the presence of expressive ingredients, exquisitely manipulated, the result of a creative body of work that has lasted for more than 40 years," as Liliam Váquez, production assistant for the album, writes on the sleeve notes.

The name of the new CD-DVD by José María Vitier illuminates it from the very start: Pulso de Vida (Pulse of Life). Without doubt, it summarizes a creative career of sustained intensity, a rich harvest of accumulated artistic veracity.

During the launch, Silvia Rodríguez Rivero, producer of the album and also José María’s wife, warned that there are no sleeve notes on the album because "this is a very solitary album about life and for that reason, it involves all of us." It follows "a spiritual path that began with Misa Cubana a la Virgen de la Caridad de El Cobre and Canciones del Buen Amor, "these are forms of love in all its manifestations and goes in search of our truth."

"We have included personal photos and poems of ours, and also poems by Cintio and Fina, which are also ours," added Silvia.

"As a producer," she explained, "I wanted to give you the piano of our intimacy, of our home, because concerts make other emotions tense, this is an unprejudiced piano."

Just like his brother Sergio, José María reiterated that music is made to be heard, not spoken "it expresses itself alone", but in any case, he said that it is a completely new repertoire, composed specifically for this album, for piano and accompanied only by poetry and audiovisual images.

Referring to his (to date) unpublished poems, the maestro emphasized that he is not aspiring to becoming a poet, given that it would take him time to decide whether or not "publish poetry given the parents that I have."

"Generally-speaking, the 12-track album owes a great deal to traditional trova, which is where I began my training and to which I am constantly returning," he explained. The first track is entitled "Espíritu de trova" (Spirit of Trova), accompanied by one of Cintio’s poems "La trova" and photos, including one of Sindo Garay.

"La vieja estación" (The Old Station) was composed "for a film which was never released", and translates on the DVD into a tribute to his link with cinema.

Like its predecessor Iré Habana (in Yoruba, "blessing to Havana") the Pulso de vida DVD was directed by Jorge Perugorría, who – according to José María – entered into the tempo of the music, "perhaps because we have a similar sense of joy."

The DVD includes an interview with José María by Perugorría on subjects included in art documentaries, plus a photo gallery.

Pulso de vida is to be released next November in Spain, where Vitier will embark on a tour, including dates in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia.