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A quiet month of June lay ahead of me: a
private recital in Paris, for the clients of COLT, generous sponsors of
my new CD “Alma Brasileira”, -- for that I had conceived an
ideal recital programme, mingling the composers, shoulder to shoulder.
Thinking of l’Année du Brésil in France, I started
with Villa -Lobos and followed it with some Debussy; then after a group
of Vianna’s passionate pieces, I dared to couple Brahms with
Nepomuceno -- to think that “Nepô” as he was known,
wrote his ‘Prece’, in Rio de Janeiro, a few years prior to
the time when Brahms wrote his Intermezzi op 118, somewhere in Germany!
-- Ravel with Guarnieri, and finally Chopin with Fernandez; it seemed
only natural to worry simply about tonalities …(To me Music
should be treated with equal respect, main stream repertoire or ethnic
discoveries!) I think it really worked! Many of the Parisian audience
told me so!!
A while ago, through my PA Ivan, I re-met
Janice Melhem Santos, who’s lived in Paris for many a year. She
and I went to the same primary nun’s school, the exclusive Santa
Marcelina, in Rio’s Alto da Boa Vista, ages ago as you imagine!
What a pleasure to find each other; we have since become very good
friends, and the coincidences started to amaze us: not only was she
also born in Bahia and had two daughters like me, but she is also a
most talented artist (in the visual field). Imagine our surprise when
we discovered that, after many tos-and-fros, both that afore-mentioned
private recital of mine and the ‘vernissage’ of a long
planned exhibition of her works, ended up happening on the very same
evening (also her birthday) only at a few hundred meters from each
other, on the same Avenue d’Iéna and at about the same
time.
Result: having ‘lived so
intensely’ those all-important decisions leading up to them, yet
we were ‘prevented’ from attending each other’s gig!!
To wrap up the month, Brahms’
Concerto no 2 was my chosen repertoire for Sintra, Portugal, a
performance with the lovely Gulbenkian Orchestra under its wonderful
principal conductor, my good friend, Larry Foster. Even rehearsing with
Larry is a real joy: here’s someone who knows how to time things
to perfection; never worry about lacking in detailed-work: even where
such a massive piece is concerned, all will be taken care of somewhere,
somehow, and in time for the performance!
I admit I didn’t play my best at that
concert; the rehearsals were just too good; and just before the end
…oops...; but hey: I am human, after all. I am too hard on
myself; but this was only the first of a series: 5 performances at the
end of September, another in November and perhaps one more, sooner than
expected. So, plenty more chances to play my heart out. Truth be told,
I adore playing that work; By the way: the run in thirds in the last
movement is quite simple and that famous octaves-passage in the
“little Scherzo” (in Johannes’ own German sarcasm!):
it’s all about “phrasing”!
Performing all over the place also means
that old friends can surprise you! It was great that the Mendes. old
loyal friends, appeared when I least expected, having left their
contact numbers at home! But then the Santos or
“Prr-L’l”, I mean Luís, were away! Pity.
NB: Hey Radu, you really must play Brahms
2, a piece you have known ‘inside-out’ all your life and
yet, never performed: we, your friends and admirers definitely think
so…
Rachmaninov’s # 3 is a lot harder and more physically demanding: no doubt about it.
What do you all think, out there?
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