Coyiutos: An evening of virtuosic splendor

MANILA, Philippines – The Enchanting Ravel and Rodrigo” at the CCP Little Theater, featuring the mother-and-daughter tandem of pianist Cristine Coyiuto and flutist Caitlin Coyiuto, was an evening to remember.

The concert, with composer and conductor Josefino Chino Toledo leading the Metro Manila Concert Orchestra, was part of the MMCO 15th Crystal Anniversary Concert Season and held for the benefit of the Down Syndrome Association of the Philippines.

The dialogue between Caitlin and the MMCO was enthralling, with a magnificent interplay between the woodwinds and the orchestra especially in the fugatos. Caitlin recently won first prize in the 2015 Brandeis-Wellesley Orchestra Concerto Competition and will be its featured soloist in the coming Spring Concerts.

The audience stirred when the MMCO opened with a crack of slapstick during Ravel’s Concerto in G Major, picturing mechanical creatures marching rhythmically, accompanied by Cristine’s trilling sounds picturing “a world of whimsical wonder and childhood-monster grotesqueness,” followed by a contrasting section where the pianist played a Spanish-tinged melody picturing this time sensual dancers. After a rhapsodic statement from the piano, the cadenza magically pictured “fairies, comets and green skies interrupted by wild grumbles from some mechanical creatures.”

While the first movement was full of brilliant frenzy, Cristine dazzled in the second movement with her beautiful romantic pleading tones interpreting an extended cantilena, repeated romantically by the MMCO with Cristine’s soft accompaniment.

The finale was a moto perpetuo showcasing Cristine’s flawless finger technique, alternating hand passages as well as slow fox-trot rhythms enchanting and mesmerizing the audience, and some “naughty” yet beautiful passages, making the audience smile.

For the encore, Cristine and Caitlin performed Claude Bolling’s Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano: Veloce, wowing the audience with their flawless dexterity and jazz rhythms. For the second encore, mother and daughter premiered the young virtuoso pianist and composer Jourdann Petalver’s composition titled 3011, written especially for Caitlin, and is based on Psalms 30, verse 11: “You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy.”