Concierto de Aranjuez

When they offered me to play the Concierto de Aranjuez in Japan, it was a challenge for me. I had never played it before – it was new to me. As it often happens to me, I signed the contract and forgot about it. Before one knows it, there was only a month before the debut. I thought I would only manage to learn it if I secluded myself from the outside world

I flew away to Mexico to study it, to the house in Playa del Carmen. I took my kimono, a pair of swimming trunks, the concert score, a stave - in which I had written the names of the notes to be able to decipher it all - and a few recorded versions.

Those were some hard days, but I think back on them with pleasure. Every morning I would grab my speargun and I would walk along the beach for about 5km, to the little bay of X-Caret, which was still virgin back then. It was my beloved fisher’s spot. I would dive for a few hours until I would get the catch of the day, usually a red snapper. Back home I would clean it and fry it. A delicacy.

After lunch, I would sit with my notes and my tape recorder until midnight.

The score would help me localize the notes and the tape recorder would help me understand the timing - the hardest part, because in many passages the classical versions would use tempo rubatos that were not in the score. I dedicated many hours to some passages, listening to them a thousand times over to be able to fit them, because getting the timing right was the most important thing for me at that time.

After a month I got back to Madrid, done!