Víctor Mirecki Larramat

Infobox Person
name= Víctor Mirecki Larramat


caption=Víctor Mirecki Larramat, 1908
dead=dead
birth_date=birth date|1847|7|21|mf=y
birth_place=Tarbes, France
death_date=death date and age|1921|4|7|1847|7|21|mf=y
death_place=Madrid, Spain

Víctor Alexander Marie Mirecki Larramat (July 21, 1847 – April 7, 1921) was a Spanish cellist and music teacher of Franco-Polish origin. He was born in Tarbes, France and died in Madrid, Spain.

Introduction

Víctor Mirecki was one of the versatile concert performers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He was a worldly man with a great array of social and cultural relations and was known as an ingenious cellist for his manner of interpreting music and for his work as a chamber musician and teacher. His work with Jesús de Monasterio in the Quartet Society of Madrid ( _es. Sociedad de Quartetos de Madrid) greatly influenced the Spanish music of the era, promoting contemporary European chamber music and allowing the work of emerging geniuses such as Manuel de Falla to spread.

His dedication to teaching in the National School of Music, later known as the Royal Conservatory of Music of Madrid ( _es. Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid), was important in fostering the next generation of innovators in cello techniques. He, along with the Belgian cellist Adrien-François Servais and the French cellist Auguste Franchomme, founded the Spanish school of cellists, whose most notable later students include Augustín Rubio, Juan Ruiz Casaux and Pablo Casals.

Childhood and youth in France

Son of the Polish count Aleksander Mirecki and of Marie Zelinne Larramat, Víctor grew up in a notable musical environment. His father, marshal and hero of the November Uprising against Russia, had taken refuge in France. After a stay in Paris, the count moved to Tarbes, where he taught violin. His three sons, Víctor, Maurice and Françoise, were born there, and they all eventually became dedicated to music. In 1857, at the age of ten, Víctor moved with his family to Bordeaux, where his father taught the violin as a professor of the Conservatory. There he began his studies for a military career in the Lycée.

In April 1862, the cellist Adrien-François Servais and the violinist Henri Vieuxtemps went out to visit Bordeaux and were sheltered in the Mirecki house. Impressed by these masters' performance and ability to interpret, the young Víctor, along with his brother, Maurice, dedicated himself to the violoncello for the next two years, under the supervision of his father. His natural talent was outstanding, and in March 1864, at 17 years of age, he played as a soloist in a public concert at the Bordeaux Conservatory in the presence of Servais. Víctor's success was such that Servais convinced Victor's father to allow him to abandon the military studies and dedicate himself completely to his instrument.

When his studies in Bordeaux ended, he had obtained the first prize and the medal of honor of the Conservatory, and he had also been granted a scholarship to continue his studies in Paris. He began studying at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1865 and became Auguste Franchomme's star pupil. During the course of that year, he visited Halle for the grave of his mentor, Servais. His period of training in Paris concluded as he obtained the award of honor of the Conservatoire de Paris, on August 6, 1868, surpassing his classmate, also a cellist and the future successor of the master Auguste Franchomme, Jules Delsart.

With the help of his father and of his master, he also worked diligently in the orchestras of various Parisian theaters, meeting the great composers and musicians of the era who had to visit Paris; he developed an intimate friendship with Pablo Sarasate, Edouard Lalo, Camille Saint-Saëns and Jules Massenet. On August 6 1868, at the end of his training in Paris, he was given the award of honor of the Conservatoire de Paris.

Life in Spain

Their intentions to settle down himself definitively in Madrid are solved the following year. In order the 1870 Society of Concerts of Madrid summons an opposition to cover vacant seats, and Victor Mirecki obtains with facility the one of violonchelo first, and joins the Madrilenian orchestra the February 11 of 1871. Many of their companions old were known Paris, and demand of their French friendships the possibility of obtaining a renovation of the repertoire with the new originating symphonic music of France and Germany. This work develops with the inestimable cooperation of his intimate Mariano Vázquez Gómez, musical director of the Teatro Real de Madrid, to that would propose like director of the Society in 1876. His consecration as soloist in the Madrilenian musical atmosphere, before the great public, arrives in the summer of 1872, when he interprets in a performance of the orchestra of the Society of Concerts, under the direction of Juan Bautista Dalmau, a Fantasy forced of cello based on the main subject of "Fille du Régiment" of Donizetti, adjustment of his old teacher, Servais . Of this last one also he would interpret, the August 29 of 1874, the fantasy for violonchelo "Memories of Switzerland", with which he achieved a resonant success. His more fruitful period with this orchestra develops under the baton of his friend Mariano Vázquez, but the organization leaves the November 14 of 1884, after the resignation of Vázquez like director. His love to the chamber music makes participate him assiduously, during years 1873 and 1874, with the Filarmonic Society of Madrid in diverse cycles dedicated to this sort, also acting like solist. Animated by Sarasate, a European tour momentarily prepares during 1874, that would take to Lisbon, London and Paris, but the iron gate to the summoned being the opposition to the chair of violonchelo, just created in the National Music School of Madrid. The aid postpones himself for administrative reasons, and this fact allows him to make the projected tour, in which he achieves a clamorous success in the three European capitals: the Portuguese authorities name commander him of the Order of the Conception of Vilaviçosa. His fame in Portugal ends up reaching unusual levels after a musician, and the greater distinction of the kingdom is granted to him to a foreigner, being named horseman of the Order of Christ.

In Madrid, the opposition to the cathedra of violonchelo is celebrated, seat that wins with the unamimity of the court. In this occasion he displays a memory on the history of the education of violonchelo and details his didactic method, that would be the base on which the modern Spanish Cellistic School would be developed and that keeps in the Library of the Royal Superior Conservatory of Music of Madrid. On November 23 1874, there are made their appointment public and on the following day take possession from the cathedra. This fact allows him to synchronize his activities as solist with education and it gives an economic stability him that allows him to consider his life with more clarity.

Work with the Stradivarius collection of Madrid

The Borbon Restoration of 1874 in the person of Alfonso XII opens the doors to him of Palace. Old known king, which this one had listened to him years before in the musical sessions that were celebrated in the Parisian palace of their mother, is interested in his entrance in the Real Chapel, and Victor Mirecki occupies the seat of cello after a deprived examination, that consisted of a small concert of solist before the Court. In the same way he joins the orchestra of the Teatro Real.

But the most important work of the one than is ordered is the care and maintenance of the collection of Stradivarius conserved in the Room of Music of the Royal Palace of Madrid. This group of instruments is the greater group conserved in unit to the present time. In that time, it was constituted by two violins and two cellos, since the viola had been removed by Joseph Bonaparte during the War of Independence and it would not be recovered until 1951 by Juan Ruiz Casaux.

When Victor Mirecki becomes position of the collection, the instruments are had in precarious, bad state kept, put under atmospheres of inadequate humidity and temperature, and with previous repairs that damaged seriously their loudness. Their previous experience with chelo Stradivarius of their old teacher Servais, the lamentable state does more patent to him of the instruments of Palace. After repeated unfruitful requests to the Chaplaincy, he appeals to queen Maria Cristina who, finally, in 1889, allows Mirecki to be transferred with one of the cellos in deplorable state to Paris so that he recovered the mast, the pegbox and the box in the factories of the teacher to luthier Jean Baptiste Collin-Mezin, perhaps the best manufacturer of stringed instruments of the moment. The last restoration of the instruments was dated between years 1770 and 1790 approximately, and soon they had been put under numerous adjustments that had made them lose quality of sound. By his advice, a conservation protocol settled down, establishing that was sharpened and made sound every week, to assure their optimal maintenance and to locate the possible deficiencies that could suffer. At this time, the viola is replaced in the Royal Quintet by a Amati, also of the collection of Palace. In this most important position for the musical patrimony, Mirecki would be happened by his disciple Juan Ruiz Casaux, who would recover the viola and would definitively organize the system of conservation of the collection, unique in the world.

Maturity and musical promotion

After to have obtained the Madrilenian cathedra of cello and his entrance in the Court of Alfonso XII, He begins his stabilization in Madrid. Married with the Maria Luisa Bach, daughter of the antique dealer of the Court, their Madrilenian residences of the Seat of East and after Recoletos street become step forced for many foreign musicians of pass by Madrid, and for great part of the Madrilenian musical atmosphere. Intimate friend of Tomas Breton, Pablo Sarasate and Jesus de Monasterio, joins the Society of Quartets of Madrid, directed at this last one, in substitution of Ramón Rodríguez Castellanos, and he dedicates to his passion by the camera music, contributing his knowledge and contacts with the French musical atmosphere. His debut with the group is 5 December 1875. The relation with Monasterio becomes very narrow, since both they are companions in the Madrid Conservatory, and the great violinist dedicates to him in 1874 his "Melodía for violin or violonchelo and released piano" (March 1 of 1875) with the title of "Romance para violonchelo". After many requests of the public, the Society of Quartets begins to program works for cello and piano, as of the season 1881–1882, in which acts with the pianistas Juan Maria Guelbenzu and André Chevallier. In 1883 he takes part as soloist in the great musical event of the year, the inauguration of Sala Zozaya, 16 April, with a clamorous success. In 1887 he receives a call of his brother Maurice from Paris, where it had been left the chair of cello vacant to the death of Auguste Franchomme, and the direction of the Paris Conservatory had decided to offer the seat to him without opposition. Mirecki resigns to that position not to leave his positions in Madrid, and, mainly, by the value that he gives to the didactic work and of musical promotion that is making. The French authorities, in compensation to his work, name him Beautiful Official of the French Academy of Arts, section of Musical Art -in which he enters 14 July 1889-, and, the following year, horseman him of the Legion of Honor. During these years, the Spanish Court also overwhelms to him with the greater honors: commander of number of the Order of Charles III and Saint Fernando and horseman of the Order of Isabella the Catholic. He collaborates actively in the series of camera music organized by the Ateneo de Madrid, of which he is number partner. These sessions begin on January 23 1903 and they are extended for more than two years. In 1904, after the severe crisis that had undergone the Society of Concerts of Madrid, he is one of the teachers founders of the Madrid Symphony Orchestra, that makes its first concert February 7 of that year in the Teatro Real. Talking about to his work like publishing solist and, in the occasion of its death, "Yearbook of the Royal Conservatory" (1920) comments: “The soloist performance of Mr. Mirecki as was of the greater importance, contributing in the Society of Quartets of Madrid to the vulgarization of the camera music, in whose sort as much it was distinguished together with the Ex. Mr. Jesus de Monasterio”.

Mirecki and Manuel de Falla

His life in the last decade of the nineteenth and first of twentieth century is marked by the disease, a pulmonary ailment that forces to him to be transferred assiduously to the bath of Panticosa to rest. They are difficult times in the family, with the mental disease of his wife whom it has to be disabled person, but his house always is full of musicians, old friends and young music promises. Among them he honors a young Andalusian who studies with his friend Jose Trago and whom he had obtained in 1899 the piano prize: Manuel de Falla. Of the same age that his sons, Falla is a habitual one in the social gatherings of the Mirecki in the years of its stay in Madrid. Mirecki introduces to the young composer in the Ateneo de Madrid, where it would release several of his works. In 1906 Mirecki unfruitfully promotes the opening of "La vida breve", but one is with the opposition of many of his companions, reason why, on 1907 advises to the composer, next to Joaquin Turina, to transfer to Paris, where would have more possibilities of artistic development. Having the news of his bad economic situation, Mirecki requires in order year to him to make a tour, along with Antonio Fernandez Arbos, by Oviedo, León and Bilbao, that are made in the first months of 1908. Mirecki gets worse of its disease and it is forced to return to Madrid. Recovered from the disease, he returns to raise to Falla new concerts, but his stay in Paris makes impossible. So Mirecki writes to his disciple Luis Amato, cellist in the Opera of Paris and Conservatory professor, who receives and aid to Falla in his Parisian life. Once released "La vida breve" in Paris (1914) and with great success, the score of the opera writes to Falla asking him to transact its opening in Madrid again, but he does not obtain it. Also, He recommends Falla to Alfred E. Hill, the famous London collector of Stradivarius, so that he facilitates his stay to Falla in the English capital at the end of 1914. Already in Spain, like shareholder of the Ritz Hotel of Madrid, he facilitates the opening to him of several works, among others, the orquestal version of " El amor brujo" (1916).

The Spanish Cellistic School

The work more lasting than develops Mirecki is the educational one. With more than forty years at titular of cello cathedra in the Madrid Conservatory, the main Spanish violonchelistas of the time were disciples his. The formation of the students was based on a classic method, insisting on the possibilities of the movement of the arc to obtain greater sonorities, according to the techniques of the Belgian Adrien François Servais. According to "La Critica" (1890), talking about to his cellistic technique: “Mirecki gave more to its part finished expression by means of a mechanism whose pulsation indicates the great studies that has done in so difficult instrument”. Also, the "Ilustración Musical Hispano-Americana:" “He is elegant in saying without it has never gone to those effects of execution, always of badly taste, by means of which it is so easy to obtain an applause: the sound that makes appear of its instrument is admirable, like produced by that arc without equal praised by own and strange”. Finally, the "Yearbook of the Royal Conservatory" (1921), in the occasion of its death, comments: “Eminent professor and admirable artist, true priest of education, have made during near fifty years! an enormous work. The numerous phalange of great cellists, between which some celebrities stand out, is his work”. In the elenco of his disciples appear names like Luis Sarmiento, Luis Amato, Alfredo Garrocha, Julia Terzi, Pablo Casals, Jose González, his son Rafael Mirecki, and, emphasizing between all of them, Juan Ruiz Casaux, student preferred, married with his daughter Maria Teresa, and who would happen to him in his positions in Palace and the Conservatory.

Bibliography

*“Víctor de Mirecki”, en "La Ilustración Musical Hispano-americana", año VIII, n.º 170, 15 de febrero de 1895.
*AGUADO, Ester: "La Sociedad de Cuartetos de Madrid (1863-1894). Estudio sobre el origen, organización, desarrollo del repertorio y su aceptación pública", Madrid, 2001.
*BELTRANDO-PATIER, Marie-Claire: "Historia de la música. La música occidental desde la Edad Media hasta nuestros días," Espasa-Calpe, Madrid, 1996, p. 702
*HILL, W. Henry; HILL, Arthur F. y HILL, Alfred E.: "Antonio Stradivari, his life and work (1644-1737)," Londres, 1902.
*PINO, Rafael del: “Víctor de Mirecki: de los salones de París al Palacio Real”, en "La Opinión de Granada", 2 de abril de 2006, p. 36.
*SOBRINO, Ramón: “Víctor Mirecki Larramal (sic)” en CASARES, Emilio (dir. y coord.), "Diccionario de la música española e hispanoamericana", vol. VII, p. 613. Sociedad General de Autores y Editores. Madrid, 1999-2002.
*PINO, Rafael del: “Víctor de Mirecki: de los salones de París al Palacio Real”, en "La Opinión de Granada", 2 de abril de 2006, p. 36.
*VILLAR, Rogelio: "La música y los músicos españoles contemporáneos", Madrid, s.n.