Horacio Lavandera: a pianist between Beethoven and Riquelme

Horacio Lavandera is

and courteous, although he may not get his characteristically long, gabled hair cut once a month.

Without a press agent for a 38-year-old artist of his level –an internationally acclaimed pianist–, all the information prior to

him via text messages, where he always addressed the interviewer with a “Dear Mr. ”.

When, when the time came for the interview, he realized that he and the journalist had been close in years,

naturally

replaced

Then, in post-production,

except for a final "do you want", a product of his years living in Madrid.

But days after the closing, checking data, the familiarity returned, this time Argentineized.

Even in other extremely talented people, some requirements would pass for signs of divismo, but in Lavandera they are mere and slight eccentricities that complement the character.

Let's not forget that a fundamental musician on the contemporary scene such as Karlheinz Stockhausen told him: “Your talent was given by God”.

a Friday at nine in the morning, surely depending on his study schedules.

His idea is to take the photos indoors.

No problem, the journalist lives nearby, and the photographer in Barracas, and both arrive on time.

One is in Cerrito, the other in Libertad, but the lack of intelligence ends up being resolved.

However, they are not allowed access anywhere in the theater by invoking the name of Lavandera, who has not yet arrived.

Naively, the interviewer thought that the musician had a

Colón

Classic and modern.

He loves classical and contemporary music, rock and folklore.

Photo: Andrés D'Elia

The afternoon before the meeting, the pianist, composer and director had requested as a favor that the magazine send him "

" at 8:30 am to take it and then return it to

.

He also informed that he would take a suitcase with “different concert outfits” for the photographic production (the photos would finally be taken, through Lavandera's telephone call, in the showroom of the Breyer piano house in Villa Urquiza).

Five hours later, he asked for an additional favor: that on the way to Colón they could stop by Palermo to look for his girlfriend María Luisa, a Conicet photographer.

Granted without hesitation.

9:42, Lavandera announces her arrival by message.

She gets out of the car with María Luisa,

.

She, carrying the suitcase with the aforementioned outfits;

he, with a folder with half a dozen A4 sheets that bring a press kit with an impressive resume (but which could use a polish).

Life changing deaths

 The first A4 sheet is the schedule of concerts already committed for this year and the next.

This started with

, but the year has been divided between cities in Argentina and Europe (Munich, Madrid, Manchester and others).

But for 2024,

and Canada, including a return to Carnegie Hall in New York, a place where Daniel Barenboim, Martha Argerich, Astor Piazzolla, Mercedes Sosa have also performed (once, with Charly García as a guest) and Fito Paez.

The interview takes place in the reception hall at the entrance to Cerrito, similar to any office building on that avenue.

Laundress, still wearing a chinstrap, speaks in a slow, calm tone.

cannot be avoided.

The drummer and percussionist José María Lavandera, soloist in the Buenos Aires Tango Orchestra since its inception in 1980, left a deep mark of pain on him and will be a recurring theme during the conversation.

Discreet formality.

Gala, but long hair, always.

His father not only encouraged his interest in music as a child, but also organized his career: "Now I am my own manager."

A month later, his grandfather, also called Horacio, passed away: “Except for the last few years when he couldn't travel, he accompanied me to all my concerts as well: the two of them were very close all my life;

so suddenly I was left without both of them, without my grandfather or my father.

Now I am with María Luisa, my mother Lidia, my sister María José, my grandmother Norma:

”.

Since my father passed away, I am now my own representative.

And except for the last few years when he couldn't travel, my grandfather accompanied me to all my concerts: the two of them were very close all my life.

Horacio Lavandera, pianist

Norma shares a love of opera with her grandson.

“I try to see my grandmother very often since my grandfather passed away,” she says.

“I think we have already seen together at least ten complete operas by Verdi, Mozart, Donizetti, Strauss.

We turned the living room of her house into our box at the Teatro Colón ”.

Milestone: In 2001, at the age of 17, at La Scala in Milan, during the Umberto Micheli piano competition.

A separate paragraph, how he considers his place in a family that has a long history: “Like many immigrants, my grandfather Horacio did not know any of his grandparents and he commented that his father had hardly spoken to him.

They only lived to work and be able to get ahead.

I think he wanted to live something new with his grandchildren, to form a united family and to be able to enjoy recreation time with those closest to him.

But to get to that there was a lot of suffering that always stressed to me that we should not forget.

They took us to the movies a lot when we were little, especially one on Corrientes street, called Los Ángeles.

I saw the Disney movies because of them."

Going out with the grandparents to the movies balanced their lack of television, reduced to some anime of the time, like

or

.

“My parents made access to television very restrictive, with very scheduled hours.

I didn't even watch The Simpsons, for example.

Generally, I did a lot of workshops and activities, in addition to going to

”, he recalls.

My parents made very restrictive access to television, with very scheduled hours.

I didn't even watch The Simpsons, for example.

Horacio Lavandera, pianist

in love with music

Always on the paternal side, women and men formed a

since his great-great-grandfather, who was a band director in Spain and would be here at the Teatro Avenida.

“For some reason, around 1910, he came to Argentina.

And little by little his children came, my grandparents, all professional musicians."

The boy Horacio's first interest was in the double bass, through

that his father put on.

 “My first images are of (double bassist) John Patitucci with (drummer) Dave Weckl, and seeing Patitucci enjoying himself so much, I said,

Well, in the '80s, the incursion of machines was a before and after for musicians.

So, in my family they said: 'It's good that he's interested in the double bass or the trombone, but better the piano, where, if he's going to dedicate himself to music, he'll be able to master everything that is electronic.'

So that's why

Marta Freigido.

Obviously I was fascinated by the piano, but at the age of 7 I had no idea that I could play a Beethoven concerto”.

Rock.

With Ciro y Los Persas, performing "So Alone" at Luna Park.

He still retains a particle of a child's amazement at all that he has achieved and will achieve, fascinated with that staple that for many of us is music.

but I only have twenty-four”, he laments when he expresses his desire to write different articles, especially one dedicated to Gustav Mahler's pianola rolls.

Speaking of time, how much is there to play for study and

?

“For me it was never divided.

Each sound for me (pause) may even have its own story within the plan that I can be putting together, be it a composition of mine or an interpretation, based on

, ”he says, invoking the composer of the Century XX John Cage, who wrote –yes, he wrote– 4'33'', a work that consists of total silence.

"Simply adding sound to that silence that is there is already a creative act, a spiritual union."

applauded.

In 2014, playing with the Camerata Bariloche.

pandemic revolution

Lavandera is in the process of

.

During the pandemic, he began to upload a lot of home recordings to

, where he learned through Internet tutorials (“I am very grateful to all these Latin American brothers”) to

playing and then to assemble the different shots.

“Part of those recordings are made with a lot of pain.

My father was dying, he had terminal cancer.

Well, music is also what helps me get over the pain.

.

He came to listen until I did the Goldberg (Bach) Variations, and the Diabelli (Beethoven) Variations, one per day on Instagram.

Those are the greatest works for piano, as well as Mendelssohn's Serious Variations."

Some of those recordings on YouTube are made with a lot of pain.

My father was dying, he had terminal cancer.

Music is also what helps me overcome pain.

Horacio Lavandera, pianist

The fugue is the highest form of counterpoint and Lavandera is so versed in the matter that he applies it to the most unexpected materials.

On YouTube he has uploaded everything from performances in concert halls around the world and Argentina to performances

.

“I am becoming a youtuber:

”, He smiles.

"It's a round trip with people, which does me very well."

Cultured music and pop music

On the one hand, he can be seen and heard playing a

such as Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Boulez, Piazzolla or George Gershwin.

At the entrance of his second home: the Teatro Colón.

On the other,

(prelude and fugues with various motifs), Coldplay, and fugues or variations of music for anime, video games, Nirvana, Rage Against The Machine or Limp Bizkit.

Two Argentine rock hits also appear in his repertoire (

and

), the bolerazo

, some tangos;

and he even managed to turn

the

from La Mosca

Also, when he confesses that he listens in total privacy, there are surprises.

“In special moments I also choose to listen to the song of a Mapuche or a coya recorded in the middle of the field, with their quenas, trutrukas and sacred instruments,” he says.

In special moments I also choose to listen to the song of a Mapuche or a coya recorded in the middle of the field, with their quenas, trutrukas and sacred instruments.

Horacio Lavandera, pianist

Among his many ideas is

He explains: "Many times you work in the opposite way, like the Argentine Waldo de los Ríos, who if it was Mozart's music, would put bass and drums on it, or

," he says in an unfair comparison to the late Waldo, who before becoming a millionaire with it, was an avant-garde folklorist.

For Lavandera there is not enough of the other, which is his project: “Take a theme from popular music and create with it a fugal form as is done in classical music”.

“Actually, this goal of taking pop to the cult began earlier: I did it with

by Los Piojos”, he refers to when in 2019 he performed at a Luna Park by Andrés Ciro, playing an introduction based on the harmonica motif by the song.

What did you feel before an audience so different from yours, full of flags, waved T-shirts and girls on the shoulders of their boyfriends?

“Um, well, it

.

He had never played at Luna Park, which has a lot of bounce and I was able to experiment with sounds;

So that version that he had in mind was due to the rebounds from Luna Park, which had some resonances. ”

In Lavandera's hands, at times it seems that there is no good or bad music, but rather good or badly expressed music.

In 2012, Lavandera gave an audiovisual concert at the Planetarium.

/Photo Mario Quinteros

Since she was 17 years old, Lavandera

, which is a broad umbrella where the first decade of the last century coexists with the present.

Under that mantle, the German Karlheinz Stockhausen developed his work, who in recent years – he died in 2007 – chose Lavandera as his favorite interpreter.

In 2000, Horacio

and told her about his interest in avant-garde music.

and through a pianist, Cristina Marton, she sent me some scores and one of them was by Stockhausen and (another) a study by György Ligeti.

Happy with the gift she had given me, I began to study.

to participate in a contest in Milan that Luciano Berio, among other people, was organizing.

The program had a special interest in Stockhausen's music, so I prepared three of his pieces."

To keep things simple, he ended up playing concerts in Stockhausen.

“He, very excited with my interpretation, me too;

by

how he had

, a very complex work where one has to choose his own route to carry it out, and I had investigated different sounds, I had given it many colors”, he explains.

You've come a long way from the Klavierstück XI complex to the popular march

, lad.

World Cup pulse

“Very handle”, he says that the World Cup fever at the end of the year put him on.

He saw all the matches of the National Team, he even went to celebrate at the Obelisk.

Once again, a memory for his father: “Not only did he transmit to me the love for music, but also

.

I remember going with my grandfather and him to one of Maradona's last games at La Bombonera.

When I played soccer, I was 5 or 8, and when a certain Juan Román Riquelme appeared on TV one afternoon in 1996, I would have been 11 years old, he became my greatest soccer idol.

.

He seemed to own the time when he elegantly took the ball.

, where control of time is essential”.

When I played soccer, I was 5 or 8, and when a certain Juan Román Riquelme appeared on TV one afternoon in 1996, I was 11 years old, he became my greatest soccer idol.

Horacio Lavandera, pianist

Science, folklore and sacrifices

 Horacio would like to resume projects such as Music and Science, where he

: “The great dream would be to be permanently working with scientists and with whatever electronic sound projection is, but many factors are needed.

At that time, I had the support of Lino Barañao, who was the Minister of Science and Technology, and I hope that at some point something of this magnitude will resume."

He also

like Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk for his idiosyncrasies: “It's everything not to do,” Lavandera laughs.

In addition, it seems essential to him to read about the lives of musicians as a way of internalizing the works to be prepared: “I am not one of those people who think that the work must be separated from the human being.

I believe the opposite:

when composing a work.”

He recently took off his mask near the end, extremely enthusiastic about his appearance in Cosquín: on January 21 he presented

, dedicated to the contribution as a composer of Nenette Pepin Fitzpatrick, under the male pseudonym Pablo del Cerro, to the repertoire of her husband, Atahualpa Yupanqui.

He had already uploaded his performances to YouTube.

Lavandera at the Colón in 2011, after a concert with the Buenos Aires Philharmonic.

/ Photo: Luciano Thieberger.

He explains: “The truth is that I can talk about her manuscripts, and how it is structured piano, how the voices are handled within the chords.

They understood each other perfectly.

And this is in these scores.

I think there is a before and after in Atahualpa's work when he meets Nenette ”.

-Have you ever reproached yourself for having to sacrifice something to get to where you are, like “I would have liked to do things that my friends did and I didn't have time…”?

-No, not really.

I had many friends from school;

yesterday I saw one, on Saturday I see another.

I had great parents and a very beautiful family: that's why, now that I think about it, I miss my grandfather a lot, my father... I think it

to Argentina.

They were merchants, they could have stayed in Spain, but they were going to experience all the horrors of the Civil War, and my great-grandfather who made the decision preferred to lose all his money and say in '34: "No, I'm going to Argentina ”.

Four children and starting from scratch.

It's something I appreciate.

Do you feel any responsibility to your family?

-It is that there was a certain continuity on the part of the musicians: a very stable family was formed

For this reason, I have reached this age and I am very proud to have been born in Argentina.

I say it without laps:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:

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