Hanging on the walls, there are paintings by Cuban painters such as Flora, Lam, Portocarrero, Lara, Fabelo. The room smells of wood, tobacco, and incense. There is a robust table and you may sense the aroma of the coffee coming from the kitchen.
I wait there until Frank Fernández comes. It is 11 in the morning. He warns me his brain does not begin to work before noon, because he usually works late until very early in the morning.
We are in the studio he owns close to 5th Avenue. There has be a piano somewhere, but I can’t see it. For 87 minutes, I manage to talk to one of the most illustrious sons of this Island—a versatile, intense, and universal musician.
A little bit more than twelve months ago, he traveled to the United States for the first time, and Chicago welcomed him with a respectful ovation. Catalan football fan, Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory graduate, he has traveled all over the world next to Beethoven, Liszt, Bach, Chopin, Schumann, Lecuona, Cervantes…
With a discography including over two hundred records, with a similar number of honors and medals, with some 650 works of a variety of genres and formats, Fernández embodies the best of the Cuban contemporary piano panorama.
Why does art have the virtue of breaking the ice among people easier than speeches?
The overload of theoretical speeches on political, social, and economic issues sparks an unbearable rejection; except for those by Eusebio Leal and Fidel Castro that—more than theory—are excellent poetic prose. Repetition not only prevents us from building bridges, but also wears people—especially youngsters—out.
Art is the first and stronger expression of the spirit; it is, as José Martí said about music, “the man escaped from himself.” Art heals hearts and represents a reflection of individuality, of difference. In fact, no matter how badly we want to unite and to be even, no matter how dependent we are or how many similar cultural customs we may share; I am convinced that one of the wonders of the Creation is diversity and each human being is a universe, even though our physiognomic, anthropological, and psychological traits are alike.
But there is also what joins us…
In the midst of that diversity, it is very difficult to convince, to make the crowds see eye to eye with each other. However, there is nothing better than art to unite and communicate. For instance, the soccer business makes more money, gathers more people, and has an incredible agglutinating force. But, unlike sports, artistic culture provides us with a better chance to make individual contributions, in favor or not.
The musical art particularly fills the spirit and transmits emotions as nothing else can do it. It is the most dialectic of all arts, because right after having played a piece, if you play it again, it is going to sound differently.
If the artist is good, he will convince you that his way, his feeling, and his word are good. That is the big threat any political movement, revolution, or system may face before an artistic culture.
Every individual that becomes an intellectual or a distinguished artist is in fact an ideologist. Like it or not. Approved or not. It is not something the artist intends to do, but it happens because there is nothing stronger and more sensitive and valuable than art in the human work. It can make you laugh or cry. It can make you forget.
Why is Frank Fernández an inclusive person?
In the few 72 years that I have lived, I have realized that no material wealth can make you happy. I believe having money is not enough to save the human race. You cannot continue avoiding whole responsibilities. We cannot say we have “certain” obligation to not to throw garbage or to prevent rivers from drying up.
People think, “that is not my problem,” “telling the truth in the press is the journalists’ business”… No. It is not only the journalists’ and newspaper leaders’ concern, but also ours. We ought to tell the truth, and we do not have to wait for a brave reporter to do so, as it is so much requested in Cuba. We all are responsible.
Even you?
I feel guilty of what is happening with the culture. We tend to see the mote in one’s neighbor’s eye, to believe it is someone else’s fault. I hate it when people say, “We have to save the planet.” The planet is going to survive either flooded, on fire, or frozen. We are the ones who will perish—the human race. Our grandchildren are the ones to be saved.
To what extent do you feel responsible for this country?
I have been fully committed to my homeland for a long time. It is my belief that art has no homeland, but artists do. A Chinese can virtuously play Beethoven and, by the same token, a Cuban can play Rachmaninoff or Tchaikovsky; but there is no doubt that, like social beings, we belong to specific places, and I have made every effort possible for the sake of the Cuban culture.
Still, one swallow does not make a summer, and it takes a lot of drops to get a heavy rain. Culture fans, money providers, and people aware of the fact that no country can survive starving to death cannot forget that, together with agriculture, culture must be taken care of. There is no economy without culture. There is no development without culture.
I understand nobody can enjoy a concert with an empty stomach; neither can they have a full stomach and the best transportation means of the world at the expense of selling a piece of their soul.
What is the Cuba of your dreams?
I recently read an article that foresaw a bigger development for 2030. I wished me and many other Cubans, who might not be alive at the time, could see it sooner; yet, I do not want people to empty their brains and souls for that reason.
During the Special Period, I asked what the country with the greatest riches per capita was, and I was told Luxembourg was. I went there then and discovered that, besides being the richer one, it also had the highest percentage of suicides. Why? Because they had gaps in their souls. They had so successfully met their material needs that did not know how to be happy.
I believe that encourages people to meditate on the need to save the culture, in this quest for achieving an economic development that allows both people to be happy and at the same time have their own houses and apartments. If there is a noble, loving, solidary, and altruistic people, that is ours. But that same people cannot forget traditions, the cultural values that make up our national identity.
Why it is said you are of hard character?
Because it must be true. I accept it because when a great many people say it, it must be true. But I do not know anybody who had done a good thing in life without being strong. One thing is being foolhardy and another is being brave, disciplined, spirited. No work can come out from weakness, and we may see it in the batter who stands at the home plate waiting to hit a home run, knowing that a fastball could hit him on the head and kill him.
Strong does not mean harsh. The success of any task cannot be a contest of charms and, when one is strong always confronts weak-willed people who can only achieve something in life tricking ethics, prestige, and respect.
What are a pianist’s thoughts in the midst of a performance? Is the mind only focused on the score?
Actually, in ninety per cent of the cases I am absorbed in the creative process, and when I have a lapse—which I do have—I am a millimeter away from making a mistake, from failing. At that time, you have to strive to keep in the path. It is very difficult and its success highly depends on the public’s help by remaining silent.
There is nothing more flattering for an artist than silence. That helps more than applauses, just like a theater with good acoustics—something we lack in Cuba. We worry the hall is well painted and have a pretty deco. It is about time to think of—every time we repair this kind of facility (it is essential in the case of music)—how it is going to sound. Sometimes we make wonderful and highly expensive things, and only after we finished we care about how the sounds and silence will be heard.
Let’s not forget Beethoven once said silence could be as or even more dramatic than a sound. We have to learn how to listen to silence…that sounds, sings, and helps you get inside your inner self, which is the fastest and strongest way of reaching the others.
What is a teacher for you?
I believe that among the human beings devoted to others, the teacher is in the first levels—if not the first one. He does not only offer a piece of his soul to his pupil, but also looks after his learning and makes sure this student gains some benefit in life from what was learned. It is a living gospel, involving a strong sacrifice. I believe the teacher should earn several times more money than the artist. Usually, when one succeeds, the artist is recognized; but when one fails, the teacher is to be blamed.
And your hands, what are your hands?
In the piano paraphernalia, they are the physical element closest to that miracle that is the creation. But I do not believe one plays with the hands, but with the brain. Until they let me, I will be in the quest for the most diverse and precise sound and silence that allow me to convey the infinite states of mind of the human being.
