Reflexiones 2 New Era

August 7, 2024

MICHEL AND MUSIC

THE FIRST MEMORIES I have of Michel and Music are in our apartment on Pestalozzi Street, in Colonia Narvarte, when I was about eight years old. On Sundays, Michel's only day of rest, we would return from the Centro Deportivo Chapultepec, where he had taken me bowling and a steam bath, and light incense in a couple of small bronze containers and play some 78 RPM records of Gregorian chants to that we listened to in absolute silence, without any movement. For Mamita it was further proof of the love she had for Michel – who was then called Miguel Ángel – but for me it was torture because the “no moving” rule meant exactly that. I don't know how long I managed to control my movements: probably a few minutes, but for me it was something equivalent to three or four hours. Many years later, visiting the monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos, to give advice on the deterioration of the columns of the cloister, the Abbot Mayor was very happy to hear this story, given that the Monastery Choir has a global reputation for its exceptional quality. of their Gregorian chants (click to hear the ).

THE SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING COMPETITIONS of the Olympics reminded me these days of the two or three times that Michel and Mamita took me to the Deportivo Chapultepec - where the Olympic diving champion Joaquín Capilla came from - but above all the two or three occasions when we went to see an entertainment program where some young girls gave synchronized swimming presentations. What struck me most about those presentations was the music they played because the selection was exclusively classical music. The memory is such that, for many years, I carried the melodies in my head and when I heard them on a radio program, on a record or at a concert, suddenly I was finally able to identify them. That's how I first heard The Saber Dance by Khachaturian, The Love of Three Oranges by Prokofieff, The Dance of the Hours by Ponchielli and some others. Michel commented on that music when we returned from the nightly swimming show.

X-E-L-A, GOOD MUSIC IN MEXICO was the motto that the announcers repeated on the classical music radio station that accompanied me during my childhood and youth in Mexico, since Michel bought his first car, a gray Dodge in 1950, until I started to drive mine, a green Renault Gordini in 1960. Every time we got in the car, Michel turned on the radio to invariably listen to XELA.

Thus, without realizing it, I acquired a taste for classical music over the years. That was where I started listening to Ernest Ansermet and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande; Arthur Rubinstein; Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Orchestra; Antal Dorati and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and to so many others who later became an unavoidable part of my life. Of course, chatting was not allowed while the music was playing . For me, it was a part of the trip to listen to music; the melodies became engraved in my memory over the years.

“SEÑO LOLITA” WAS MY FIRST PIANO TEACHER. She had her academy at home - behind Madame Tron's School - on Patricio Sainz Street, where I walked every Tuesday to take my class. There I discovered the Hammon Method, Schumann and its tedious exercises and, later, Beethoven, when I started playing Für Elise. Mamita played the piano because her mother, my grandmother, Mama Pepita, also played it. She told me that her father, Il Nonno Giuseppe, wanted her and her sister, Tía Rorra, to have the best piano teacher in Oaxaca. When Il Nonno found out that the teacher had a full schedule - and that his first class was at seven in the morning - he convinced him to give her daughters class at six in the morning! With this tremendous background, Michel decreed that I could also get up at six in the morning and practice my piano lessons at home every day, except on weekends.

I started my classes when I was eight years old and when I was ten I gave my first recital. I continued my classes with her until I was 14 when Maestro Eduardo Pallares recommended to Michel that I take classes with Pablo Castellanos, who was the best piano teacher in Mexico.

MICHEL BOUGHT THE FIRST HIFI EQUIPMENT when we moved to the apartment on Calle de Amatlán. I had a classmate, Manuel Maldonado, who played the piano very well and was a music lover. Chatting with Michel, he recommended a hi-fi system, which began to appear on the market in 1957 with long-playing records (LPs) and Michel took me to buy the equipment. Thus he acquired equipment with a speaker (stereophonic recordings did not yet exist), a separate amplifier and a turntable, but we did not have records. Michel took the opportunity to buy some so he could use the brand new equipment. Among the records were Beethoven's Third Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Rimsky Korsakov's Spanish Caprice , Tchaikovsky's Italian Caprice , Vivaldi's The Four Seasons , the Piano Works played by Clara Haskil, the Toccata and Fugue in D Major by Bach, Stravinsky's Sacre du Printemps , Rachmaninoff's Second Concerto ; Dvorak's New World Symphony ; Finland by Sibelius; Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart. the Chopin Studies; Liszt 's Campanella and some more. I remember all these records because I listened to them constantly. For a long time they were the only records we had. This selection, made by Michel, shows his eclectic and universal taste for different genres, styles and composers of classical music. Michel was fascinated with his new toy and we listened to the music together (in absolute silence, of course).

MICHEL HAD ACQUIRED A TASTE FOR CLASSICAL MUSIC when his friend and high school classmate, Manuel Alcalá, invited him to a concert at Bellas Artes.

He cultivated his appreciation and, a few years later, when he began to visit Mamita, during their courtship, he had long conversations with his future mother-in-law, to whom he spoke of tú and called her “Chefa” (the diminutive of Josefina that her husband, my grandfather Leo, used to call her) which scandalized Mamita's brothers. Upon discovering that Chefa played the piano, he asked her to teach him how to play. This is how the courtship visits began to transform into piano lessons with his future mother-in-law. Michel's dedication to learning to play the piano was such that, after a few months, he managed to play Paderewski's Minuet in G Opus 14. To hear the Minuet, played by its composer Paderewski click here ( ). Michel had heard the composer play this work in a film and asked Chefa to teach him this piece. For many years Michel would sit at my piano (which was ours) and play the Minuet...

AS AN ASIDE OF OUR SMALL WORLD, the composer and artist Paderewski was a very versatile and important man in the life of Poland at the beginning of the 20th century. His fame as a musician was enormous not only in his country but also in the United States where he gave many concerts, wrote a lot of music and made a lot of money. He bought a ranch, back in 1930, next to Paso Robles (a place well known to Yasemin and Xavier) where he planted Zinfandel vines, which now continue to produce highly appreciated wine. He later distributed his money in various philanthropies especially for music students, including the Curtis School, became Prime Minister of Poland and later appeared in the film playing his own music, where Michel heard the Minuet for the first time.

MAESTRO EDUARDO PALLARES was a mentor to Michel, as was Faustino Estrada, with whom he had a very special relationship of mutual appreciation. Michel met him at the Law School, where the Maestro taught Constitutional Law. They maintained their friendship and years later the Maestro asked Michel to help him in a trial because he realized that he knew a lot about law but did not have at all the litigation skills that Michel exuded. That relationship blossomed over the years and grew with Maestro Pallares' passion for classical music. As he was the President of the Asociación Daniel - the philanthropic group that supported the musical events at Bellas Artes - he had an extraordinary box in that Concert Hall, where he invited Michel with some frequency.

Michel took me, when I was about 12 years old, on some occasions, to the Sala Metropolitana - the other classical music venue in Mexico - to hear, for example, Sergiu Celibidache, a famous conductor of Romanian origin who was director of the Berlin Philharmonic. I remember that Michel once mentioned Ferruccio, a famous child prodigy who was a conductor and who appeared in New York at the age of seven conducting Cavalleria Rusticana, which left me very impressed.

When Michel told Maestro Pallares about my interest in music, he invited me to his box at a concert his Bellas Artes. At the piano, Arthur Rubinstein. The music was Beethoven's Third Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. Since we had the album at home, I listened to the concert several times, at Michel's suggestion, so hearing it live the first time left a deep impact on me that lasts to this day, not only because of the wonderful work but also because of the spectacular presence of Rubinstein, with his full white hair and his unmatched piano hands.

With Michel we attended several concerts invited by Maestro Pallares, who extended his hospitality by hosting us, after the concert, to his house in Parque México, where he had a Steinway grand piano whose bronze frame was signed by Rubinstein, Friedrich Gulda, (whom we saw sign it), Claudio Arrau, Vladimir Horowitz, Sviatoslav Richter and many more.

WITH THE ENTHUSIASTIC SUPPORT OF MICHEL I went to study with Maestro Pablo Castellanos, recommended by Maestro Pallares. Maestro Castellanos lived in an extraordinary colonial-style mansion in the San Gerónimo area, with a huge room with two dovetailed Steinway grand pianos. The Maestro told me that his classes required at least two hours a day, without exception, of practice; and preferably three. I started classes with a lot of enthusiasm, which grew as I realized that playing the piano was interpreting the soul of the composer. Maestro Castellanos taught me the depth of Chopin's studies and little by little I realized that it was not only the technical ability of playing but the spiritual depth that was necessary to be able to reach the levels of execution to which I aspired.

Simultaneously, the Lycée and its academic requirements demanded about four hours a day of study and homework. A terrible reality and an inescapable dilemma.

My anguish was great. Mamita suggested that I chat with Michel. His help in analyzing my ambitions and possibilities; his understanding that what I aspired to was for myself, not to satisfy Mamita and Michel, was fundamental. His help in calming my soul finally led me to the sad and anguishing decision to abandon my serious life dedicated to the piano and dedicate my efforts to the Lycée. As time goes by, I very much regret not having continued to give even an hour to the piano, instead of the radical decision to put aside so many years of efforts.

With Michel, many years later, when we continued listening to classical music (in absolute silence, of course) in his bedroom in Westwood, at the end of the recitals, we commented several times on the extraordinary path taken by him, on his permanent goal of personal improvement in all areas. Michel's interest, dedication and passion for classical music permeated Mamita and me in our souls and transformed us into deep admirers and lovers of eternal music throughout our lives.

In honor of your birthday, Michel.