2023-08-24 17:22:47
The pianist Javier Perianes (Nerva, 1978) he is part of the long list of loyal performers at the Vilabertran Schubertíada. This Friday, at 8:30 p.m., Perianes visits the canonical church to offer a concert dedicated to the figure of the great pianist Alicia de Larrocha performing pieces by composers that she loved and played so much as Granados, Debussy, Falla or Albéniz. In this interview, Javier Perianes evokes this special bond he has with the Altempordanese festival and fondly remembers de Larrocha, whom he met personally.
His relationship with this festival stretches over time.
I would say that in the last twenty years, my presence at the Vilabertran Schubertíada has been a constant. We have been developing a relationship of complicity with the programmers, the public. For me it is one of those holy santorum. They are special, unique festivals that have an absolutely enormous philosophy and level of performers, but still retain that philosophy, a bit like a boutique festival. For me it is a real pleasure, an oasis in the middle of so many festivals or massive or crowded programs. It is like a kind of reunion with oneself and a relationship of maximum intimacy both with the music you perform and with the audience that comes and that, I would say, almost makes a pilgrimage to Vilabertran for these concerts that I would consider, in many cases, exquisite and unique
That you say that, who has performed in the best halls in the world, and that you return and return to this church in l’Empordà, makes us think of a certain spiritual component.
Yes, there is a mystique in the church, in what is programmed, in the audience, in the repertoire, in everything there is this mystique. And this year, I think that amplified in the recital that I will offer to dedicate it to a legend of the piano, not Spanish or Catalan but universal, as Alicia de Larrocha was and always will be, one of the great ladies, no, one of great male and female pianists of all world history, recognized in the United States, in Latin America, Europe, Asia. And that this recital is dedicated to his memory, on the centenary of his birth, fills me with pride and satisfaction and, for me, it is an honor and a privilege to be able to pay tribute to him.
I don’t know if he had a chance to meet her?
Yes, I was lucky enough to meet her personally and was fortunate enough to be able to listen to me and give me some very valuable advice. I have not been a pupil or disciple of hers, I have only had the good fortune to have met her in person and heard her play the piano on several occasions. We are talking about a legend of enormous level in all his interpretations and with a very extensive discography and a relationship with the most important orchestras and conductors in the world.
What made her unique?
I remember a documentary I was able to see while I was in the United States and they asked Martha Argerich (Argentine and Swiss pianist) what Alicia de Larrocha had. And she replied that she had everything the rest of us wanted: a sense of rhythm, a beautiful sound, a mind-blowing color, an absolutely spectacular external and internal rhythm and a unique, flexible, poetic, virtuosic breadth of repertoire. I think I echo the words of another great living legend, fortunately, as Argerich is.
He sees her, therefore, as a reference, as a model.
Absolutely, an inescapable reference and a model in terms of his attitude and approach to music. For de Larrocha, music was a kind of priesthood, his way of understanding life. In this 21st century of social networks, he would not feel at all comfortable, at all at ease because, apart from belonging to another generation, he was not only on a practical scale but also spiritually and internally. She was a kind of priestess of the works she performed and that is why, for me, she is an absolutely unattainable role model. No one wants to get close to someone they admire so much but simply to serve as an example of not making certain mistakes that can be made.
When choosing the repertoire for this concert in Vilabertran, what criteria did you follow?
Here I confess that it was more accidental than causal. This repertoire with goyescas de Granados or works by Debussy, Falla and Albéniz, in the first part, I’ve been doing it for the last year in many festivals. I have done it in Australia, Germany, Spain. When I was preparing it, two or three years ago, I confess that I was completely unaware that this year commemorated the birth of Alicia de Larrocha. Many people have commented to me how timely it was to play them goyescas, but the truth is that I didn’t think so. It was a work that he already wanted to do, that he had discussed with Harmonia Mundi, the record company to record it. And when all the concerts come up I find out that many promoters wanted to dedicate concerts to him. It has been done in Barcelona, Seville, Granada and will be done in Santander, in many places. It was a blessed coincidence that, in addition, the program had a lot to do with many works that Alicia de Larrocha had done during her vast career and repertoire. But I also confess that if I had dedicated the program to Brahms, Chopin, Schumann, Schubert, Debussy or Ravel I would also have been right because if you review their record production and repertoire during their eighty-year career, well, they are all the same of present than Granada, Falla, Debussy and Albéniz.
She was a performer who set no limits.
No, and this label of Alicia de Larrocha and Spanish music belongs only to us and not to reality because Albéniz is present with the same assiduity than Mozart, Granados than Beethoven and Falla than Chopin and Schumann.
These composers, however, have something else in common: the setting of Paris at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th.
Yes, where Paris was a bit like the cultural capital of the world. There they shook hands, painters, writers, poets and, of course, how not to link Debussy, Ravel, Falla, Granados with Modigliani, Monet or Manet. We are talking about a cultural explosion that has as its epicenter that Paris.
For Alicia de Larrocha, music was a kind of priesthood, her way of understanding life
They are also united by the evocation of their music.
Each in a different way picks up an influence of that impressionism, perhaps more present in Falla and Albéniz than in the goyescas de Granados, that there is a much more differential component. It is not programmatic music, but there is a mix of inspiration from Goya’s painting. Starting from this evocation or inspiration, yes, in this Paris at the beginning of the century all these inspirations come together, although each composer experiences it differently: Albéniz in a much more textual and literal folklore, Falla more stylized, and the inspiration of Debussy from Spain, a country that curiously reflected him better than anyone and never stepped on him. It doesn’t stop being curious.
Some of Debussy’s pieces, you had recorded on a disc a few years ago.
Yes, I have always had a very good relationship with the music of the French composer (laughs). On that disc I recorded the first notebook of Preludes and the Printsincluding one of the pieces I perform in Vilabertran, The evening in Grenada. i do too the door of wine i The interrupted serenade which have a direct link with Spain.
Also curious that Debussy composed The Wine Gate from a postcard that Falla sent him.
Yes, he sends him a postcard from the gate of the Alhambra in Granada and Debussy sends one of the most Spanish preludes ever written just by seeing a postcard. It is absolutely dazzling.
Are they technically very risky pieces?
No, not particularly. Man, mechanically every piece is a challenge no matter how easy it looks or very difficult it isn’t. But in these pieces there is a lot of color, texture and character, in this case save for three or four minutes that the work lasts perpetual motion of Havana that Debussy puts in the bass. I think this is a more obvious challenge than in other works. Reflecting that atmosphere with a piano.
Could you highlight, as more special, any of the works you will perform?
No, because this is like children, you love them equally, even if they are very different from each other.
Summers must be very effervescent times, full of work.
Yes, we have just arrived from a very interesting, curious and beautiful tour of Australia with the two great orchestras of the country – Melbourne and Sydney – playing Brahms and Beethoven and, in between, I traveled to Argentina which I really enjoyed excitement to participate in the festival organized by Martha Argerich at the Colon Theater in Buenos Aires with Mozart. It has been a very busy summer, as I had previously been with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, at the Granada festival… and now I am concentrating on the Santander festival, the Ravel in San Juan de Luz and, of course, Vilabertran where one returns with devotion every year that I have been able to play here.
Do you remember his debut at the Empordà?
Yes, although not the year. I remember more years ago than I probably should, and fewer than I would like. I have a relationship with Vilabertran that comes from my link with Dr. Jordi Roch and now with Víctor Medem, with whom I share a relationship of complicity as a programmer and with whom I talk about future projects with great confidence to keep this link always open. When I look for a hole in the agenda for Vilabertran I do it with great affection.
This long-term relationship is very interesting for the audience, as it allows them to grasp the evolution of a performer.
For me too because we see each other grow and how the festival is taking on an international dimension. Well, now it’s fully established. For all pianists and lied singers, Vilabertran is a place of reference.
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