2003: A year of hits & missed performances

(First of 2 parts)

In the pantheon of ancient Greek deities, the Titan Epimetheus occupied a low niche. His name means hindsight. He could see events only after they had happened. It isn’t much of a gift, is it? You and I can do the same and we are not titanic.

Looking back at the year 2003, I miss many cultural activities that had given me much pleasure in yesteryears. I miss the annual trek to the Las Piñas Bamboo Organ Festival. Was it held at all this year? I miss as much the old Manila Classics series, which presented concerts in nine churches, culminating in the performance of Handel’s Messiah on Christmas Eve at the Malate Church.

I also miss Bankard Performance Arts and Bart Guingona’s TNT series presented by Actor’s Actor Inc., and the evangelical musicals of Trumpets. Lito Casaje’s Dramatis Personae is still slugging it out, but its season has become irregular.

Even the most firmly established theater company in the Philippines, Repertory Philippines, has not quite found its sails after being unmooned from the William J. Shaw Theater. The company drifted to the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium and now seems to have anchored itself at Onstage at Greenbelt 1.

And Lorin Maazel and the New York Philharmonic did not reprise their Asian tour of the previous year.

However, I don’t want to gripe over what we have missed and what we have lost. At a time when we should be thankful that we have not been blasted to bits by terrorist bombs or driven into the loony-bin by wrangling politicians, we should count our blessings.

One company that had not sunk into the quagmire but had doggedly carried on its regular seasons in 2003 was the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra. Its New Year concert brought the spirit of Vienna to Manila with Austrian conductor Ernest Hoetzl and the gay waltzes of Johann Strauss Jr. and other composers. Soprano Rachelle Gerodias and tenor Nolyn Cabahug helped to serve the Alpine brew to make certain that it bubbled like Austrian beer in our tropical clime. The PPO and maestro Ruggero Barbieri ended their 2002-2003 concert season with a magisterial account of Mahler’s Third Symphony, a paean to the brotherhood of man. Alto Agnes Barredo sang the text of the vocal part with deep conviction. The tremendous success of this concert with audience and critics alike called for more of Mahler in the next PPO season.

Maestro Barbieri and the PPO opened their current season with a concert devoted to the music of Rachmaninoff. The second concert featured Aries Caces in a creditable reading of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2, after which maestro Barbieri and the orchestra unleashed an incandescent account of Strauss’ Don Juan and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. The third concert featured Dena Fernandez on the marimba with Paul Creston’s Concertino for Marimba and Orchestra. The presentation concluded with Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess: Symphonic Pictures.

In our imperfect world, we are inclined to agree with the pessimist that perfection is not possible, but a presentation like the homage to Lucrecia "Tita King" Kasilag, bids us pause to ponder our judgment. If a concert came closest to perfection, it had to be Salute to King: A Celebration in Honor of Dr. Lucrecia R. Kasilag, National Artist for Music.

The exuberant extravaganza exceeded the limits of classical ideals and gave in to the Pinoy notion of a grand feast – everything in excess. It served the country’s best performing artists in a musical bacchanalia that included Cecile Licad, Raul Sunico and nine other pianists, six violinists, including Coke Bolipata, six sopranos, the Bayanihan Philippine National Folk Dance Company, Philippine Madrigal Singers, BP Kids, Ateneo Glee Club, CEU Chorale, Coro Tomasino Chorale, HIS Sounds, Mariano Ponce Memorial High School Choir, PMU Chorale, San Beda College Chorale, UP Singing Ambassadors, more solo singers and the PPO under the baton of maestro Chino Toledo. And the sounds they made might well resound at Heaven’s Gate in praise of the Almighty and to honor Tita King.

Another tribute to our National Artists was a show billed as Lagi Kitang Mamahalin, a halu-halo espesyal of a show with all the trimmings of the popular Pinoy dessert. Throw into this grand bowl of a show popular performing singers, dancers and musicians including Regine Velasquez, Roselle Nava, Cal-vin Millado, Lorna Llames, Carlo Oro-sa, JM Rodriguez, Noel Rayos, Arnold Reyes, Tonipet Ga-ba, Eugene Villaluz, Jason Velasquez, Tex Ordoñez, Dexter, Cris Villonco, Franco Laurel, Anna Fegi, Ayen Munji-Laurel, Mark Bautista, Sarah Geronimo, Streamline, Gary Valenciano, Jose Llana, Bituin Escalante, Sheila Francisco, Verni Varga, Jolina Magdangal, Wency Cornejo, Isay Alvarez, Sharon Cuneta, Paolo Santos, members of Tanghalang Pilipino, Ballet Philippines, Bayanihan, the Philippine Madrigal Singers, UP Vocal Ensemble, the PPO Wind Ensemble conducted by Maestro Cecinio Ronquillo, and the PPO conducted by Maestro Chino Toledo. This concoction was directed by Chris Millado with assistance from set designer Salvador Bernal and set designer Dennis Marasigan.

A number of recitals showcased the skills of vocal and instrumental artists.

Soprano Margarita Yulo Gomez possesses tremendous power and sheer beauty of tone with adequate vibrato to add depth of feeling to her music. With Najib Ismael as assisting pianist, she was featured in the Filipino Artists Series. Most impressive among her numbers were three songs from Canteloube’s Chants D’Auvergne, John Canter’s Cantata and Montsalvatge’s Cinco Canciones Negra. This winner of the Rosa Ponselle International Vocal Competition is absolutely fabulous.

Tenor Ronan Ferrer, another singer in the Filipino Artists Series delivered a program that demanded a wide range of emotions from the comic of J. P. Sousa to the tragic of Haydn’s Orfeo and Euridice and Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, all of which he delivered with conviction. The young tenor, who finished his musical studies in Japan, was accompanied by Ismael on the piano.

Pianist Aima Maria Labra-Makk, still another performer in the Filipino Artists Series, chose a repertoire that displayed her gifts – command of technique, intellect, and above all, sheer physical strength. Her readings of Bach-Busoni, Beethoven, Liszt and Bartok drew from her the range of her power. She seemed to have a love-hate affair with the keyboard, caressing or assaulting the ivory with silken or steely fingers such that the effect was simply stupendous.

Soprano Joanna Go and mezzo Grace Chan assisted by pianist Jonathan Coo were presented by the Canadian Embassy in a concert that featured solos and duets by 14 composers form the Baroque era to the contemporary. These singers sang with their hearts as much as with their vocal cords imparting to each number the infectious joy of music.

Pianist Aileen Chanco, a graduate of the Julliard School of Music and a Ronald Reagan Presidential Youth Awardee, was presented by Sinag-Tala and the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra at a concert held at the Philamlife Auditorium. With maestro Rodel Ferdinand Colmenar and the MPO, she gave a creditable performance of Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor. Her account was one in which emotion was held in check by restraint to create a balance between heart and mind.

Pianist Marites Fernandez, who earned her Master of Music in Piano at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, was the soloist in a concert sponsored by the UST Conservatory of Music. With maestro Renato Lucas conducting the UST Symphony Orchestra, she essayed Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C. She surmounted the Russian composer’s tricky score with aplomb, note for note, bar for bar, especially in the final movement where the piano part played tag nimbly like a court jester with the orchestra.

Pianist Cristine Coyiuto, who received her Master of Music from Juilliard and pursued further studies in France and Switzerland, gave a recital that presented pieces by Bach-Busoni, Schumann, Chopin and Prokofiev, which she interpreted with graceful ease but also with authority. Her readings were invested with serene dignity, balance, grace, clarity, restraint and elegance – an astonishing poetess of the piano.

Pianist Aries Caces, Vienna-based artist, gave a recital that featured works by Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn and Liszt. While he served the first three composers respectfully enough, he reserved his kinetic energy for the last. He unleashed pianistic potency on Liszt’s Apres une lecture de Dante and Totentanz with fiendish glee conjuring fearful visions of the Inferno, serving the composer’s brew with a pitchfork held by fingers of iron.

Violinist Junior Sareza, boy wonder extraordinaire gave a concert that showcased his incredible gifts. With pianist J. Greg Zuniega, he essayed tour de force pieces by Vitali, Novacek, Beethoven, Mozart and Filipino composers. With the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra II under the baton of maestro Arturo Molina, he played Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in E-minor with mature conviction. He capped his concert with a dizzying delivery of Sarasate’s Gypsy Air.

Pianist Raul Sunico needed to suspend one’s disbelief by performing the four piano concertos of Rachmaninoff in one evening – an astonishing feat. And play them he did with sense, sensitivity and sensibility never missing nuances in phrasing, always with an ear for gradations in dynamics, the score etched in his mind, jousting with the PPO and the baton of maestro Herminigildo Ranera or romancing Rachmaninoff with them. This concert was a total triumph.

And now this moonlighter-cum-critic-cum-hack would like to give credit where credit is due. And if you should howl, "What gall!," remember that a gutter rat can gaze with awe at the stars.

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Keyboard artist of the year: Dr. Raul Sunico

Classical singer of the year: Rachelle Gerodias

Orchestral conductor of the year: Maestro Ruggero Barbieri

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If Epimetheus could only see the past, Prometheus could see into the future. But could this prognosticator see things to come in our performing arts?

(To be continued)

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For comments, e-mail jessqcruz@hotmail.com.