Discovering Venezuela thru a unique ensemble

Once again, as she did last year, the charming and vivacious Venezuelan Ambassador Milena Santana Ramirez marked a significant milestone with a concert, this time at the GSIS Theater, to celebrate the 35th year of RP-Venezuela diplomatic relations.

In her welcome remarks, Her Excellency wittily described typical characteristics of her people, and the ensuing program seemed in effect a reflection, through music, of their heart and soul.

Famed vocalist Cecilia Todd sang after top instrumentalists Huascar Barradas (flute), Jorge Polanco (cuatro or guitar) and Elvis Martinez (double bass) had regaled the audience with their marvelous interpretations of traditional Venezuelan music (which I would call popular classics), conveying the expected warmth, exuberance and vitality of the Latins, yet exuding distinctive nuances in music and style all their own.

Judging by the performance, the listener inevitably concluded that the players had each acquired a mastery of his instrument, combined with the required temperament, sensitivity and artistry. Flutist Barrada provided most of the melodic lines in an exquisitely fluent, seamless and virtuosic manner, with Polanco and Martinez serving as accompanists. But they were much more than that! They likewise displayed awesome wizardry, particularly when each took his turn as soloist. Barradas’s claim that Polanco is Venezuela’s top cuatro player was not an idle one.

The brilliant trio beguiled, fascinated and delighted the audience, while introducing some of Venezuela’s leading popular composers. Two works especially stood out in my mind: The piece with several abrupt pauses which underscored the perfect – and exciting! – rapport among the three instrumentalists; the serenade dedicated by the trio to the ambassador, a beautifully soulful, plaintive song, which could have been one of our own kundimans.

The three players evinced their own admiration and adulation of Cecilia Todd the moment she appeared onstage, cuatro in hand. Any musician will not contradict the assertion that it is an extremely difficult discipline to sing and play the guitar (or piano) at the same time. Yet Cecilia made this dual task look easy as she rendered, in an appealingly and endearingly folksy style songs of love, nature, various reminiscences, enunciating each word with utmost clarity.

Whenever she performed with the trio, they created wonderful, uniquely rich harmonies that ravished the ear. At one point, Barradas brought out the empty case of a cuatro, then used it as a drum – a spontaneous, amusing act which stressed the conviviality existing among the group.

The prolonged, lusty applause was rewarded with an encore before which Secretary Juan Goldnick handed Cecilia a huge bouquet while each instrumentalist received a sampaguita garland. For her part, Ambassador Ramirez was the object of endless compliments from her peers. Doubtless, the highly impressive concert will enhance Venezuela’s diplomatic relations with the Philippines.