{"id":2708,"date":"2023-08-22T18:51:11","date_gmt":"2023-08-22T22:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=2708"},"modified":"2023-08-23T01:18:14","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T05:18:14","slug":"pedro-carbone-1960-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2023\/08\/pedro-carbone-1960-2023.html","title":{"rendered":"Pedro Carbon\u00e9 (1960-2023)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Pedro Carbone plays Iberia: Rondena (4\/12)\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/v85Npd_pB3w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The pianist Pedro Carbon\u00e9 \u2013 who was one of my closest friends \u2013 died last night of a stroke in Alicante, Spain, where he resided. He was a peerless exponent of the formidable piano works of Isaac Albeniz and Manuel de Falla. He was only sixty-three years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pedro was born in Zaragoza. His first important teacher was Pilar Bayona \u2013 in the world of Spanish piano, a consequential name. He recorded the complete Chopin Etudes at a tender age. He later retooled his technique guided by Jean-Bernard Pommier, whom he credited with helping him achieve a deeper, more penetrating tone.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fullness of texture was a Carbon\u00e9 hallmark &#8212; crucial in the dense chordal masses and insanely entangled sonorities charting the summit of the Spanish keyboard literature: Albeniz\u2019s 90-minute&nbsp;<em>Iberia,&nbsp;<\/em>which Pedro expunged of sentimentality and perfume. In Spanish repertoire (not including Granados, for which he did not care), he insisted on a degree of austerity. There was nothing Gallic about his Andalusian style; it projected an immense and stubborn dignity. Compared to the influential&nbsp;<em>Iberias<\/em>&nbsp;of Alicia de Larrocha, compared to the touristic&nbsp;<em>Iberia<\/em>&nbsp;orchestrations of Enrique Arbos, Pedro projected a darker, more dissonant Spain.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pedro enjoyed talking at his concerts \u2013 and, once begun, found it hard to stop. Most memorably, he called Falla\u2019s keyboard concerto (which he performed on the piano, not the alternative harpsichord) \u201can encapsulation of the history of Spanish music\u201d \u2013 and this otherwise inscrutable composition became iconic. The first movement dissects a popular song from medieval Spain. The second is a stark religious epiphany \u2013 the Spain of the Escorial.\u00a0\u00a0The third pays homage to the eighteenth-century harpsichord school of Scarlatti and Soler. The entire exercise partakes of twentieth century modernism. (Pedro explained that Falla skips the nineteenth century \u2013 the century of\u00a0<em>zarzuela<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 because he disdained it.)\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\u00a0<em>Fantasia Betica<\/em>\u00a0for solo piano \u2013 Falla\u2019s final flamenco appropriation \u2013 is another keyboard masterpiece in search of Spain. Pedro here treated flamenco with the same\u00a0extraordinary\u00a0gravitas that Falla attained. In the third movement of Falla\u2019s\u00a0<em>Nights in the Gardens of Spain<\/em>\u00a0Pedro discovered \u201cthe birth of Spanish music.\u201d If you want to know why, you can hear Pedro play and explain everything\u00a0<strong>here<\/strong>\u00a0&#8212; <strong>https:\/\/www.wwfm.org\/webcasts\/2018-12-14\/falla-and-flamenco-on-three-hour-postclassical-friday-night-at-8-pm<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More recently, Pedro was intent on resurrecting the music of Oscar Espla, an original twentieth century voice sidelined by the reactionary aesthetics of Franco\u2019s regime.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pedro was a frequent house-guest in our Manhattan apartment. He was an object of intense affection for my wife and children. He also knew our Golden doodle, Teddy, from puppydom. He was an exemplary eater and refrigerator-raider. And he was my most frequent piano-duet partner. On countless occasions we plunged through the symphonies of Mozart and Beethoven. The biggest racket we ever made came in the first-movement development of Beethoven\u2019s Eighth, whose convulsive energies perfectly suit the keyboard. In the manic intensities of certain Schubert marches, and the same composer\u2019s\u00a0<em>Divertissement a la<\/em>\u00a0<em>hongroise<\/em>, we discerned a tongue-in-cheek hilarity. We memorably discovered that the knitted textures of Schubert\u2019s C major Symphony can generate a wholly satisfying four-hand concert work. Pedro\u2019s authority in Bach \u2013 in four-hand transcriptions of the great organ works, in Victor Babin\u2019s beautiful two-piano versions of the trio sonatas \u2013 was utterly natural; he flawlessly projected polyphonic textures I could only skim. With compatible partners, the piano duet becomes a rare medium for spontaneous intimacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pedro was closely bonded to his mother (who survives him) and to his two sisters and their families. I greatly regret that I had no occasion to meet Lina, the loving companion of his last years. His abiding love for his dog Tobi was both touching and telling.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The pianist Pedro Carbon\u00e9 \u2013 who was one of my closest friends \u2013 died last night of a stroke in Alicante, Spain, where he resided. He was a peerless exponent of the formidable piano works of Isaac Albeniz and Manuel de Falla. He was only sixty-three years old. Pedro was born in Zaragoza. His first [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-HG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2708"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2714,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2708\/revisions\/2714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}