2023-08-17 05:59:33
Marco Mezquida is a versatile pianist and composer who draws from multiple styles when creating and performing. With this open spirit, the proposal made by the Schubertiade to offer a recital reinterpreting works by Schubert seduced him. The result will be announced on Saturday, at nine o’clock in the evening, in the vicarage of Vilabertran.
Between the concerts and trips this summer, however, the Menorcan takes a break to be with his son, the one who inspired his latest work, Letter to Milos.
Erika Baikoff, a new young promise to open the 31st Vilabertran Schubertíada
Despite his youth, he has accumulated a tireless career with very interesting projects. Has the road been as you imagined?
I didn’t expect so much activity, certainly, but it’s also because since I left Menorca at the age of eighteen I felt that I had a lot of energy and a desire to eat the world, like the one who says. And, in a way, it is what I have been doing all these years of activity that has crescendoed, the demand and interest of colleagues and people has increased. Well, this is a very sweet moment because at the age of thirty-six I live fully from music, from doing concerts, from filming around the world, from my records and more personal projects as a creator, and this is a great honor if we see how it is the world. I am very happy to be able to dedicate myself to it.
And with very personal projects.
Every project, every concert, we try to make it as special and beautiful as possible.
Composer, improviser, performer. Any other facets to explore?
These are the ones I have devoted myself to, but more things can be added. The Americans talk about the bandleader to differentiate the people who create projects. And, in a way, I also consider myself there, a person who not only creates, but makes his own cd’s, his own bands, I am the leader of the formations where I share with very powerful people. That’s how you add projects and the list is generous with diverse artists who, among them, wouldn’t play too much like Chicuelo, Andrea Motis or Salvador Sobral, of varied aesthetics or from the world of free improvisation, which I really like, of jazz or the classic, of finding a way to unite them.
What leads him to approach all these styles: the desire to experiment, to enrich himself and fill his music with more colors?
Exactly, you couldn’t say it better. The more experiences one lives and the more you share, the more diverse music and deep moments you add to yourself. It all adds up. I try to make my musical range as rich and dynamic as possible and, at the same time, that everything has my stamp as an artist, as a person who finds his voice in the 21st century.
In his music, the boundaries between styles seem to blur.
Of course, it is my goal, that music is music and that, from there, a restless musician with curiosity and good preparation can play with very diverse music. In this case, with Schubert, or earlier, based on music by Ravel, Beethoven, Bach. They are beautiful challenges that have brought me closer to classical music from modern music. Despite having studied classics from a young age, I did not dedicate myself so much to interpretation in this field. Instead, I have been asked to make my brushstrokes and paintings based on the music of these composers and that is also a great honor because it is Marco reinterpreting.
Let’s talk about the concert he will offer in Vilabertran. He titled it Schubert rediscovered.
It is a proposal from the festival, a challenge and a curiosity that they had, to see how Schubert would sound in my hands. They wanted me to spice them up with some of my revisions from Schubert’s music, whether it’s solo piano or a nod to the Unfinished Symphony and various Lieds, because he was a great songwriter.
What attracts you to Schubert?
His finesse and way of creating melodies and how he ties them with a text. The art of making songs is not an easy thing, you have to have a kind of gift for melody, lyricism and good taste, three things that are very present in Schubert’s world: both good taste in the formal construction, the beauty of the melodies, in the harmonies, how words and music connect. He made more than six hundred songs, what a prolific master of drawing out ideas. In my case, I’ll be on piano alone, the word is not there, but somehow I want to take some of these songs and move them into my territory, reharmonize them, change the rhythm, play, improvise on top of it.
Schubert is a classic. Do you need to keep touching it and claiming it?
Undoubtedly, the great classics are always more modern than some of their contemporaries, because their work has transcended, been enhanced and cared for, discovered and rediscovered and somehow festivals like this pay homage to it every year. It sounds like a cliché, but it’s not, the classics always have new reinterpretations and possibilities, which is why, in a way, they never expire.
This proposal coincides with the presentation of his last album as a trio and as a composer, Letter to Milos.
Yes, we’ve put a lot of energy into it and it’s giving us a lot of joy, it’s very demanding, but people are really enjoying it.
All these style jumps must require concentration.
Yes, and, above all, an ability to change a large repertoire. The truth is, I’m used to it and I really like it. It has arisen like this, as one has more range.
#classics #readings #expire