On Wednesday 6 December, the Spanish pianist, Eduardo Fernandez, performed Isaac Albéniz’s masterpiece, the Iberia Suite, in its entirety and without intermission in a 90 minute tour-de-force and was rewarded with rapturous applause from the 300-strong audience in the Philharmonie’s SMC.
This recital, organised by the Spanish Embassy to Luxembourg with the kind assistance of Madame Violette Heger-Hedloy was, without doubt, one of the high points of Luxembourg’s musical year and it is therefore regrettable that not more Luxembourg music lovers were able to avail themselves of the opportunity of experiencing one of classical music’s rising stars.
Albeniz’s composition is recognised as one of the most technically demanding and artistically challenging in the repertoire and these complexities were all on display on Wednesday evening. The score moves constantly between worlds – the nostalgia of Spanish folklore melodies and dance rhythms, impressionistic evocations of place and time - to then hurl itself into an agonised confrontation with dissonance as the composer straddles the abyss between 19th century fin-de-siècle and the explosion of early 20th century modernity. The constant changes in tempi and style, speed and volume of sound, the overarching need to maintain a structure and narrative while allowing for a thousand digressions, require immense technical skill and a profound concentration.
These are qualities Eduardo Fernandez has in abundance. But he has more: he has an ability to touch the heart. It is not easy to discern exactly where this lies. It is not just virtuosity, although he is clearly a master of his art. It certainly has to do with his complete engagement with the score’s every twist and turn, a plumbing of the depths of the composer’s intent, to the exclusion of all outward show, as well as the natural humility typical of great artists. It lies perhaps in the extraordinary quality of his touch, particularly in the upper register of the instrument, where the sound he produces has the perlucid clarity, the sculpted roundness and the aching longing of pearls scattered on marble.
