Friends & Family Continued
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| This apparent lack of activity was in reality a repose in a nearly satanic working habit. Even when health and age suggested otherwise, Antonio was never t peace with idleness and took many more commitments that he could safely manage. First and foremost was teaching and practice, the latter performed in solitude in unusually large rooms, he with the cello and the bow and hours of scales and arpeggios. The repetitiveness of these seemingly useless exercises prompted a cleaning lady to question the essence of his art. She one day commented "I can't understand how this guy can make any money playing always the same, boring song!". It was indeed rare to hear some "real music". His practice habits are well known to his students who were subjected to comparable levels of abuse. The results are evident to most. |
| Besides of the large rooms devoted to cello practice, there was another more austere musical corner devoted to "conducting". Indeed he practiced and rehearsed constantly and most of his son's musical education derives from a direct exposure to arcane music (Webern's Passacaglia comes to mind), to tear teasers (Kindertotenlieder, with Fischer-Dieskau at RAI in Milano, ca. 1970), full-blown weirdorama (at least as it concerns to his son's early and unfinished musical education; e.g., Ligeti's Ramifications). Dreams never realized also went by in the little, asymmetric room in Piazza Erculea. The project of transcribing Messian's slow movement form the Quartetto per la fine dei tempi for cello and strings never got accomplished, and also some collaborations with Kurtag dead-ended. The record player used was of dubious quality, again comes to mind the cleaning lady ("with all the money he has, why can't he buy something more modern?"), the whole "home theatre" consisting of a pre-WWII radio and wiring connected to a turntable. The records came out after each round of "playing" as boxers after a 15 round gloveless match. |
| On occasion, cello "music" was heard, usually with terrific help from top players. It is hard to forget the "practice" of Brahms Double concerto with a very young Uto Ughi, same piece but with Grumiaux, Jorg Demus at the piano, a brief appearance of Shostakovich in Zagreb (1964), etc. Nobody was allowed to first-hand witness these events, but courtesy of a weird architectonic design an opening between the large music room and the dining room allowed for eavesdropping and an occasional peek. |
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