Jaume Cabré - Confessions

Adrià Ardèvol had matured quite a lot. Time wasn’t passing in vain. He now knew what poof meant and he had even discovered the meaning of theodicy. Black Eagle, the Arapaho chief, and valiant Sheriff Carson gathered desert dust on the shelf that held Salgari, Karl May, Zane Grey and Jules Verne. But he hadn’t managed to escape his mother’s implacable tutelage. My capacity for obedience had made me a technically good, yet soulless, violinist. Like a second-rate Bernat. Even my shameful flight from my first public recital was eventually accepted by Master Manlleu as a sign of my genius nature. Our relationship didn’t change, except that, from then on, he considered it his right to insult me when he deemed it necessary. Master Manlleu and I never spoke about music. We only spoke about the violin repertoire, and about names like Wieniaswski, Nardini, Viotti, Ernst, Sarasate, Paganini and, above all, Manlleu, Manlleu and Manlleu, and I felt like saying to him but, sir, when will we play real music? But I knew that it would set off a tempest that could cause me real damage. We only spoke of repertoire, of his repertoire. Of hand position. Of feet position. Of what clothes you have to wear when you practise. And whether the foot position could be the Sarasate-Sauret position, the Wieniaswski-Wilhelmj position, the Ysaÿe-Joachim or, only for the chosen few, the Paganini-Manlleu position. And you have to try the Paganini-Manlleu position because I want you to be a chosen one even though, unfortunately, you were unable to be a child prodigy because I arrived in your life too late.

Resuming lessons with Master Manlleu after Adrià’s escape from the recital, with a substantial raise from Mrs Ardèvol, had been extremely difficult because at first they were silent classes, designed to show the offended silence of the genius who strove to convert a boy confused by weak character into a semi-genius. Gradually, the indications and the corrections led him back to his usual loquacity until one day he said bring your Storioni.

‘Why, sir?’

‘I want to play it.’

‘I have to ask my mother for permission.’ Adrià had learned the rules of prudence after so many disasters.

‘She will let you if you tell her that it is my express wish.’

Mother said you’re crazy, what are you thinking; take your Parramon and get going. And Adrià insisted long enough that she said no means no. That was when he let out that it was Master Manlleu’s express wish.

‘You should have said that to begin with,’ she said, serious. Very serious, because mother and son had been at war for a few years and any excuse was a good one, to the point that one day Adrià said when I turn eighteen I’m going to leave home. And she answered: with what money? And he: with my hands; with my inheritance from Father; I don’t know. And she: well, you’d better find out before you leave.

And the next Friday I showed up with the Storioni. More than playing it, the master wanted to compare it. He played Wieniawski’s tarantella with my Storioni; it sounded amazing. And then, with his eyes gleaming, looking for my reaction, he revealed a secret to me: a 1702 Guarnerius that had belonged to Felix Mendelssohn. And he played the same tarantella, which sounded amazing. With a triumphant look on his face he told me that his Guarnerius sounded ten times better than my Storioni. And he gave it back to me smugly.

‘Master Manlleu, I don’t want to be a violinist.’

‘You keep quiet and practise.’

‘No.’

‘What will your adversaries say?’

‘I have no adversaries.’

‘Son,’ he said, sitting in the listening chair. ‘Everyone who is studying violin at a level above you is your adversary. And they will look for a way to sink you.’

And we went back to the vibrato, vibrato trill, and the hunt for harmonics, martelé and tremolo … and I was sadder with each passing day.

‘Mother, I don’t want to be a violinist.’

‘Son: you are a violinist.’

‘I want to give it up.’

Her response was to set up a recital for me in Paris. So I would realise what a spectacular life awaits you as a violinist, Son.

‘At eight years old,’ reflected Master Manlleu, ‘I did my first recital. You’ve had to wait until seventeen. You’ll never be able to catch up to me. But you must try to approach my greatness. And I’ll help you to overcome the trac.’

‘I don’t want to be a violinist. I want to read. And I don’t have trac.’

‘Bernat, I don’t want to be a violinist.’

‘Don’t say that, you’ll make me angry. You play great and with seeming effortlessness. It’s just trac.’

‘I have no problem with playing the violin, but I don’t want to be a violinist. I don’t want to. And I don’t have trac.’

‘Whatever you do, don’t give up your lessons.’

It wasn’t that Bernat was interested in my mental health or my future. It was that Bernat was still following along with my lessons from Manlleu, second-hand. And he was making progress in his technique and, since he didn’t have to deal with Manlleu, he didn’t get bored of it or tire of the instrument or get heartburn. And meanwhile he was studying with Massià, who had been highly recommended by Trullols.

Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Adrià Ardèvol was to realise that his aversion to a career as a soloist had sprung up as the only way to fight against his mother and Master Manlleu. And, when his voice was already beginning to crack because he couldn’t control it, he said Master Manlleu, I want to play music.

‘What?’

‘I want to play Brahms, Bartók, Schumann. I hate Sarasate.’

Master Manlleu was silent for a few weeks, teaching lessons with mere gestures, until one Friday he put a stack of scores, a good six inches high, on top of the piano and said come now, let’s return to the repertoire. It was the only time in his life that Master Manlleu acknowledged that Adrià was right. His father had done it only once, but he’d admitted it. Master Manlleu only said come now, let’s return to the repertoire. And in revenge for having to acknowledge that I was right he wiped the dandruff off his dark trousers and said on the twentieth of next month, in the Debussy theatre in Paris. The Kreutzer , the César Franck, Brahms’s third and just a brilliant performance of some Wieniaswski and Paganini for the encores. Happy now?

The spectre of my trac, because I had massive trac, skilfully disguised by the charming theory that my love for music kept me from etcetera. The spectre of my trac reappeared and Adrià began to sweat.

‘Who will play the piano?’

‘Some accompanist. I’ll find one for you.’

‘No. Someone who … The piano won’t accompany me: it should do what I do.’

‘Nonsense: you are the leader. Yes or no? I will find an acceptable pianist for you. Three rehearsals. And now let’s read. We’ll begin with Brahms.’

And Adrià started to feel that perhaps knowing how to play the violin was a way to figure out life, figure out the mysteries of loneliness, the growing evidence that his desires never match up to his reality, his yearning to discover what he had made happen to his father.

The acceptable pianist was Master Castells, a good pianist, timid, able to hide beneath the keys at Master Manlleu’s slightest bidding. Adrià realised very quickly that he formed part of the vast economic network of Mrs Ardèvol, who was shelling out a fortune for her son to play in Paris, in one of Pleyel’s chamber halls with a seating capacity for one hundred, of which about forty were filled. The musicians travelled alone, to concentrate on their work. Mr Castells and Adrià, in third class. Master Manlleu, in first so he could focus on his multiple roles. The musicians fought insomnia by reading the concerto and Adrià was amused to see Master Castells singing and marking his entrance and he pretended to be playing and singing softly, humouring him; it was a brilliant system to get their entrances properly in sync. That was when the steward had to come in to make the beds and he turned right around thinking that it was a compartment filled with lunatics. When they had passed Lyon, after nightfall, Master Castells confessed that Master Manlleu had him under his thumb and he wanted to ask Adrià for a favour, could he ask Master Manlleu to let them take a walk alone before the concert because … I have to see my sister and Master Manlleu doesn’t want us mixing work and pleasure, you know?