“Your talent was given by God,” said the great German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen when he first heard Horacio Lavandera. The young Argentine pianist, with international projection, was born into a family with an extensive musical tradition, his father being the renowned percussionist José María Lavandera, member of the Buenos Aires Tango Orchestra, who died in 2020.
She began taking classes with her great-aunt Marta Freijido, later with the teacher Antonio de Raco and, in Italy, thanks to a recommendation from Martha Argerich, she perfected herself in Siena with the famous Maurizio Pollini. At just 16 years old he won the Umberto Micheli International Piano Competition, held at the Teatro Alla Scala in Milan and began his fruitful career in Europe, Japan and the United States.
Listening to him perform a score on the piano allows us to appreciate that he does not play only with his fingers, but rather gives something of himself, perhaps what some define as his soul, in each performance.
News: What does music mean to you?
Horacio Lavandera: It’s a super deep question. Music, personally, gives me a lot of energy. A lot of strength and a lot of encouragement. When I was a child he would throw away his backpack when he came home from school and I would go to the piano, I didn’t even think about it. It was a way to meet my universe a little. When I heard a Beethoven symphony or an orchestral work or something with electronics like Chick Corea, I imagined a whole world. I had a Salvat encyclopedia with pictures of all the planets and I don’t know why, I linked those sounds with the encyclopedias. He was very young and had no idea who Plato or Pythagoras had been, but he naturally linked them.
News: Has music accompanied you since you were a child?
Washerwoman: Yes, each one had their stories and their very different links with music, but the world of musical work, life as professional musicians, getting ahead, maintaining a family through music was something that was talked about all the time in my house.
News: Did music also help you overcome family losses?
Washerwoman: Yes, of course, without a doubt (categorical). One of the first losses I remember is that of my great-grandmother, who was the wife of Manuel Freijido, a great clarinetist and my grandmother’s father. I barely knew how to read and write and I sang different melodies and the scale just as my father had taught me. So yes, it is a way to bond with loved ones, with memories and overcome strong psychological impacts. In the midst of the pandemic, my father and grandfather died. Music for me was a place of total containment in those moments. You can feel enormous tension or responsibility, but being alone, with my instrument in a room, after receiving news or a strong emotional impact, music is there and the truth is that it helps a lot.
News: Is there good music and bad music?
Washerwoman: (He remains thoughtful for a few moments before answering) I think that I am not able to say what is good and what is bad, absolutely nothing in life. It’s very difficult to answer (smiles). Why would a musical demonstration represent something bad? I never thought about this. There have been so many debates regarding whether such lyrics from such a song could have any influence on anything. First of all, I believe that any act of prohibition in art will have short legs. It will generate a discussion. For example, during the pandemic, I made seven videos of composers banned under Nazism for my broadcast channel. I was interested in making people understand how absurd it is that because of the origin of this or that person you are going to prohibit what he composed. Deep down I believe that no one has the possibility to say this is bad, this is good, this is well done. If it is made with the conviction of exciting, or also of making a person dance or making them have fun, why not? What are the limits? We artists always have to push the limits. It is a function of the freedom that exists in art. Therefore, I don’t think there is bad music. If someone can get emotional, that is their right. Why ban it? Why call it bad?
News: What type of music do you listen to in your privacy?
Washerwoman: I listen to absolutely everything. There is music that attracts me a lot, very avant-garde, which is perhaps what I like to listen to the most. For example, pieces for solo piano, by composers such as the Greek Iannis Xenakis or Stockhausen.
News: Stockhausen stated that your talent was given by God. What do you think of that phrase? Are you a believer?
Washerwoman: No, I am an atheist, but I come from a very Catholic family. I try to study all religions because I love having a perspective on what happens in Asia, in Africa or here with the native peoples. I am not a believing person, but I try to be very spiritual. Obviously when playing works by a composer who has such a mystical basis as Johann Sebastian Bach I try to read the Bible a lot, to be immersed in that whole world. For example, to play a composer like Felix Mendelssohn, who tries to create a syncretism between Judaism and Protestantism, I am also interested in knowing what he thought when composing. I am very attracted to knowing how religion reaches people and how beliefs are manifested through music.
News: What was Stockhausen like?
Washerwoman: He lived religion in a very intense way. I prayed with them before dinner. He was a person of deep faith and I understand that the phrase he said about me is made from a conviction in his heart. He understood that my nature had such a special attachment to his art. We found ourselves at a point in life when he was very old and I was very young, but both united with a great passion to discover and understand music from those interesting places.
News: Can the lives of composers be separated from their works?
Washerwoman: Many say yes. I think quite the opposite. For some reason they are directly linked to the personal sphere and their education. I think you have to go deep and discover, fill yourself with culture and with that contradiction that the human being has that is not perfect, from any point of view. There are times when decisions are made because the refrigerator has to be filled. It is very interesting to go deeper and put together a kind of map, not covering things up, but giving clarity to all aspects of a life. I find it more stimulating as a human being to go and investigate. The human being connects everything. There’s a reason neuroscientists are seeing how every small image we see at any given moment has an impact on our decisions. We are all sensitive people, who act according to stimuli and have to make decisions.
News: How important was the meeting with Martha Argerich in your career?
Washerwoman: Very important, very important. I was 15 years old when my teacher, Antonio de Raco, told me that he was going to organize a meeting so that he could listen to me. The next day I went to the house of Cucucha Castro (María Rosa Oubiña), a friend of both of us, and it was full of guests. There was a horrible piano that wasn’t even tuned. Imagine what it means to me to be sitting next to Martha Argerich, an impressive figure. Since I was born we listened to her records in her house. My life was shaking, but I played Chopin’s second sonata quite well and when I got to the funeral march, since I knew that her father was very ill, I asked her if she wanted me to continue. Then I played reflections in water by Debussy and a sonata by Alban Berg. A few months later I received the news that he had recommended me for a festival in France and the newspaper Le Monde headlined: “The golden hands of a young prodigy.” All of this was thanks to my teacher and Martha’s generosity.
News: What goals or dreams do you have?
Washerwoman: (Think about the answer for a few moments) Humbly, continue doing my music and my concerts, and enjoy a lot with my partner, with Lucila, my girlfriend.
News: Would you like to be an artistic director or programmer of a theater?
Washerwoman: Don’t know. I was doing a tour with the great Argentine soprano Virginia Tola, awarded by Plácido Domingo and the Kings of Norway. We launched ourselves as producers with this personal venture and it was beautiful. We gave seven concerts, called 12 pianists from the interior of the country and ended with the participation of children’s choirs. I have no idea what the bureaucratic world of a theater is like or the rigors that are handled. What I would like is to put together my own orchestra and, together with Virginia, our own opera company.
News: Are your hands secured?
Washerwoman: No! (laughs)
