A Trip to Argentina (Second half)

Chronicles of Patagonia

We finished the concert without a hitch at Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires, and moved on to LiaoLiao for our next performance. Three of us were Geza Hosszu-Legocky, a Hungarian violinist, Gregory Haroutounian, aka Greesha, a Russian cellist, and I.

LiaoLiao is a resort hotel in a mysterious location four hours flight from Buenos Aires. It is supposedly the most beautiful place in the world in Patagonia. It is so far away that it is like crossing the continent. We woke Geza up as he hung onto the bed and sheets after over drinking the night before and carried him onto the plane.

We landed at the Bariloche airport in the middle of a desert scattered with cactuses. The land was reddish brown, and the sky was deep blue. The scenery looked like Mexico, and rugged rocky mountains also reminded me of the cowboy world, Colorado. We caught a taxi and after about one hour drive, we looked around and found an enormous lake, which gave us the impression that the mountain road was a part of a peninsula. After passing by western style bungalows like Swiss cottages and towns, we were surrounded by mountains on the winding road. We lost our sense of direction because the lake would appear from different angles. As for me, I am totally lost by just turning around twice.

It was an unfamiliar landscape. We were further south closer to the South Pole and the weather was colder. The temperature was lower than Buenos Aires where it was early spring. According to the driver, the ski lift was operating until the day before. Looking up the mountain over 2,000 meters, the peaks were covered with snow.
Exotic was my first impression of the region. Although I travel all the time, I rarely have time for sight seeing. In most cases I start rehearsal immediately after arrival and then perform. As I have a family with children, I usually depart as late as possible and go home immediately after I finish work. It was a treat to have five days off in the mountains which was much too far to go home. I felt slightly anxious of future evens, but this precious free time was heaven sent. I felt sorry for my children at home but this experience of total freedom was exhilarating for me.
Many thanks for Martha!

When we finally stopped, I thought we had arrived at LiaoLiao, the hotel of my dreams. But the car stopped in front of a building which was everything but a dream hotel. And we weren't stopping for petrol either. The driver was arguing with someone from the hotel-like building.
"There are no rooms available."
After speeding up the sloppy roads, getting car sick, we had arrived at a student hall of residence!
"Isn't this quite different from what we expected?"
"We were told that this is the most beautiful place in the world with an ultra-luxurious resort hotel surrounded by dreamlike mountains and lakes. This is why we came all the way from Buenos Aires five days before the concert!"
It was no use arguing. There was no luxurious hotel for us, period. The driver sincerely apologized, shrugging his shoulders. As we had arrived, there was no use going back. A four hour drive back was out of the question. It was just too exhausting.
Long negotiations followed and finally we settled in. As time went by, we started feeling comfortable in this hall where Spanish was the only spoken language. There is no place like home. The bellboy was considerate although we couldn't communicate with him and the receptionist was cheerful and helpful. She had never sent a fax to Japan.
"I have never done this before. Will it really reach Japan?"
She also told us that "A postcard I sent three years ago has not arrived yet but laundry can be done in half a day"She took me to the neighboring building to show me where the iron and the electric outlet was. She did not do the ironing for me. She just left me there alone. Nonetheless they were very warm people.
After all, these carefree five days was an unprecedented and very valuable experience for me.

Geza is only nineteen. Martha had often spoken about him and I also saw his superlative techniques at Teatro Colon. He came from a so-called Hungarian Gypsy family. He started the violin playing Gypsy music and then trained with Dora Schwarzberg in Vienna with whom expanded his repertoire to classical music. He plays the violin so exquisitely that I feel like giving up the violin entirely because my skills are so much more inferior. Above all, he has excellent taste. He is so sophisticated that it is hard to believe that he is only nineteen. Apparently he was like this since he was fourteen.
Talent makes impossible things possible.
He has a different lifestyle from orthodox musicians. He has no concept of school, waking up early in the morning, or about a career. It is miraculous that he has survived so far. He worried me so many times.
His group called [The Devils] was an extraordinary group. They played Hungarian folk music which was more like a top ranked Gypsy caf? suddenly appearing in Argentina. Every one of the five members had superlative techniques. They had tremendously fast moving fingers and bows, handled cimbalom's drumstick skillfully, and let the contrabass sing. The best part of their performance was the way they sang and drove music. It was so exciting. Hungarians have been known to be musical but they are also known as "Crazy Hungarians"
We parted from [Devils] at Buenos Aires. Geza came with us to the LiaoLiao student hall in order to perform with Martha, who thought highly of his talent, and also to play chamber music with others. He took his precious CDs everywhere. He had CDs of virtuoso violinists and groups like Bell Telephone Orchestra between 1950 and 1970, which are no longer available these days. He also had CDs by late Michael Levine, Hassid, and young Menuhin. He had collected those items from his fans worldwide. He was so proud of his selections that he would be animated by each melody.

Another member, Greesha, a Russian cellist, was born in Moscow, Russia. His father apparently accompanied the late Leonid Kogan, a well-known violinist. Greesha would talk to me about Kogan whom I admired for many years because my father was a great fan of his.
We rented a car to drive to Bariloche several times to enjoy some Argentinean Tango. We would hold our own CD concerts in the car. Gabriela Montero was a pianist who could improvise and was the only person who spoke Spanish. We spend our days totally immersed in musicdays from Latin, Jazz to classics just as if we were students. We were strangers three days ago, but were happy to find some common ground. We practiced in the empty drying room in the hall, which was really a hotel as there was no school nearby. Geza's improvisation was too fast for me but Greesha and I could manage to accompany. It was fun performing together that time passed away so quickly into the night, forgetting our ages as well.

It started snow. We were in the Antarctic Circle. We rushed to buy thick coats as Buenos Aires was in springtime and we were not well prepared for the cold. There were only four of us in the restaurant of the hall. LiaoLiao, the hotel of the dream, was only a five minute walk away.

What was LiaoLiao like?
A Swiss man came here one day and built this resort hotel because the scenery reminded him of his home country. This area is called LaioLiao, which pronounced as [jaojao].
One foot into its premises and you were in paradise. Everything was first class. There were more bell boys and waiters than guests. The atmosphere was rather tense because the hotel staff was determined to take good care of their guests. Even we were once stopped at the gate.

Guests could swim in the heated pool looking over the snowy mountains or enjoy a low-calorie full course meal. The view from an elegant tea room was superb. Tea time, lunch time and happy hour was always full of people, an elitist group with mixed nationalities. Walking, yoga, craft, and culture courses were offered. Jews and the Nazis who escaped to Argentina cohabited here.
We were able to stay at LiaoLiao after few days but we didn't in the end because the hall was much more comfortable and easy going. We could not make too much noise with our instruments either.

The chamber music concert was held here. Many people came from all over the world for the concerts. Martha Argerich performed here for the first time. I guess it couldn't be helped that our hotel reservations went astray.
On the fifth day, Martha arrived after she finished her own festival successfully at Teatro Colon. She looked very happy. She looked around the mountains and exclaimed how beautiful they were. The television station made a big fuss since a famous musician was here. Rehearsals and camera tests were organized but none were on time. Geza suddenly disappeared leaving his violin behind. The Scores did not arrive until late, arousing alarm at all time. Martha waited very patiently.
At last it was time to start our performance. Martha and I were to play Schuman's 1st Sonata..Before we went on to the stage, Martha suddenly said she had stage fright. Even such a genius and a great artist such as she had stage fright at this small venue night in the middle of the mountains. This was for real! It was neither fake or pretention. The more first class one is, the more one strives for. One sets a higher hurdle for the next occasion, and this process continues like an endless game. Heifetz, a very famous violinist, once used a false name, James Hall, because he was fed up of being Heifetz. When you are professional and are climbing up the ladder of fame, the stress and fear intensifies.

This trip came to an end when the concert finished. I believe Martha and I performed well together. Although I had arranged for the tape of the TV program to be sent to me, it has not arrived. Almost three years has passed by now.

The trip to Argentina was approaching to the end. Now we have to face another trip from Argentina to Brussels, Europe, was quite a long way. After the concert, I left to go to Nueken Airport by car in the middle of the night, at 2 a.m. to be exact. This was because there was no convenient connecting flight from Bariloche to Buenos Aries. From Briloche, there was only one flight to Buenos Ares during the day, which was too late to catch a flight to Europe. I rushed to Nueken at midnight to catch the 8 o'clock flight in the morning.
The trip home was not much different from any other journey home, but this was as memorable as the stay in LiaoLiao.
At 2 o'clock midnight, I said my good-byes to everyone, who were virtually falling asleep. This long trip started with a six hour drive, a three hour flight, a six hour wait, a twelve hour flight to Paris, and an hour and a half trip with Thalys to Brussels. Geza and I traveled together as he could not travel alone especially in airplanes. Martha asked me to take care of him.
When we started driving, I noticed it was light. Although it was in the Antarctic Circle, it was well before dawn. I looked around and found that the lake was shining in a sliver reflection from the bright full moon. After Bariloche, we were heading for the mountainous area. There was neither light nor any trace of humans. The desolate mountains were just like those in the world of cowboys. The mountain shapes were also strange. One may name some of the shapes as wolf rock or birds in flight. Then, the bright lake appeared again. Geza, sitting next to me, was frightened by no human trace. I would have been more frightened had there been a sign of human being in such a deserted place. We were also concerned about running out of gasoline as well as the distant wolf calls. The driver was concentrating on driving, watching the road and keeping quite. If he had been unruly everything would have been over. I looked at this strange landscape thinking that this may be my end. Geza finally fell asleep, leaving me, an older woman, with all the anxiety and fear.

At five o'clock in the morning, when I was dozing off, the warm light started coming in. Morning sunshine! The mountains became flatter, and the sun, rising in the horizon, made me feel that I finally came back to civilization. This was the end of this dream-like trip. What a wonderful experience!
Many thanks to Martha!