Victoria de los Ángeles.

For Alicia....

Barcelona

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Alicia de Larrocha (1923-2009)

Who so masterfully played Für Elise, as she also played many other beautiful and more difficult pieces. At this very moment she is probably trying out some piano with Victoria, the two of them discussing tempos, sonorities, musically challenging each other in that unfinished Toldrà or recalling, with both laughter and solemnity, the few but magnificent concerts they offered in tandem (the Hunter College concert has been preserved for posterity) from Literes’ Confiado jilguerillo to Schubert’s Death and the Maiden, and, by way of shaking off the gravity and anguish, they burst into the Trípili or the poisonous Tarantula, whose bite frequently “infected” both them and their devoted audience.

 

Together they made music. Alicia de Larrocha, Victoria’s precise contemporary and approximate geographical neighbour, belonged or belongs (as physical death is an accident, and especially in the case that concerns us here) to that class of artists who are both knowledgeable and responsible, who truly loved music and whose ultimate desire was to do their utmost, in the service of both authors and audiences, so that people would enjoy their art. The truth is that neither of them were ever really interested in the more ostentatious and, to a certain point, legitimate trappings of fame (nowadays more a reality than ever). It was essentially music that interested them. Although it was inevitable that Alicia would meet Victoria and that they would develop an excellent artistic rapport and embark upon a personal friendship that would give rise to many an anecdote, in their discretion they always prized what was essential much more than what was solely anecdotic. And the essence in question was a piano and a voice. Victoria revelled in what some people classed as “her minor songs” (on the ‘solid’ grounds that Seligkeit was perhaps not as difficult and important as Mi chiamano Mimì) when accompanied by pianists of an equal calibre. She was fortunate to have had many such companions (as opposed to mere accompaniers). Alicia, in addition to being a woman, always held a special place for Victoria. And perhaps (sadly so, as they are now both absent and can no longer reply. Why did we not think of asking them before? We think, erroneously, that the great are eternal. And indeed they are, but the great also die and are sentenced to silence) they preferred rehearsals to recordings and live concerts… We are aware, at least, that Victoria (who was known to become serious, reserved and practically mute during the days that preceded performances) was happy, although she would dispute the very last quaver, on rehearsal days, when she would brim with euphoria and energy. The fact of having contributed to making Victoria’s life more beautiful and joyous and to providing the occasional oasis in which Victoria could forget her problems, is doubtless one of Alicia’s many artistic merits (she had so many, in addition to all her medals and distinctions, that it would be  pointless to try and mention them all here) as she regaled happiness to all those who followed her concerts, whether live or recorded. And this is indeed the merit of a “great person” (an expression Victoria discerningly used to describe certain individuals, whether friends or otherwise). There are superlative artists who are even more superlative because they have proved themselves to be human beings people are delighted, not just to have known, but to have as representatives of our species in the expert eyes of the future or the expert eyes of some supreme being that might, as a result, give humankind the benefit of the doubt.

 

But in the meantime, Alicia and Victoria have wandered off with their music, Laughing together, working, talking, but always with their scores either under their arm or set open on their music stands, frowning through their glasses (or maybe now without them) at the sheet music. Thank you, Alicia. We trust you are both having a great time. You deserve to, as much as you both deserve each other.

 

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