Brilliant guitar duo / Piano duo concert tour

In our country, classical guitar concerts are few and far between. Last Wednesday, the Duo Astor consisting of brilliant French guitarists Gaelle Chiche and Francisco Bernier gave a full-length performance as part of French Spring, courtesy of the Association Francaise d’Action Artistique.

Both young talents have undergone considerable training, graduating with honors and finishing their advanced studies in the Paris Conservatory only last year.

As they played, Chiche and Bernier took turns announcing the numbers of their widely diverse program ranging from baroque to contemporary. One inevitably presumes most of the works were transcribed for the guitar, among the exceptions being Fantasia by the Spanish Fernando Sor who was himself a guitarist.

The dances of De Falla, for instance, are from the one-act ballet El Sombrero de Tres Picos (The Three-Cornered Hat). One could well have imagined Leonide Massine of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo whirling like a dervish through Danza del Molinero (The Miller’s Dance) to the rebust, frenetic, frenzied strumming of Chiche and Bernier.

Owing to our colonialization by Spain, we have nurtured, through decades, the idea that guitar music or guitar-playing has been dominated by the Spaniards, with the legendary Andres Segovia foremost in our minds.

The guitar, in fact, was invented by the Spaniard Vicente Espinel; it is the most generally known modern representative of the large family which includes the lutes and cithers. The guitar reached other countries of Europe – e.g., France and Italy – through the Moors of Spain.

Actually, much of the concert that evening was very Spanish although one might qualify this by observing that many Spanish composers – e.g., De Falla and Turina – spent many years in Paris where they were influenced by French music, its forms, styles and techniques.

The concert began with the Fantasia by Fernando Sor, continuing with Mario Castelnuovo’s Prelude which was largely based on Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavichord, and a Toccata by a French composer whose name I did not catch. The piece was thunderously applauded for its abrupt rhythms, avant-garde style, and atonalities.

Earlier, the Castor Duo interpreted Turina’s Danzas while conveying the distinctive flavor and ambiance of Seville, ending with the aforementioned dances by De Falla. Two encores ensued, one of them Francisco Terraga’s familiar Recuerdos del Alhambra.

The duo rendered the works with remarkable polish, refinement, clarity and sensitivity – characteristics which differentiate classical guitar playing from the popular, nightclub variety. Melodies, contrapuntal or otherwise, came out with lushness, flowing or intertwining with utmost luminosity regardless of how complex they were or how rapid the rhythmic beats. More often than not, Chiche played the melodic part, with Bernier providing the accompaniment.

The Duo Astor identified themselves as outstanding guitarists possessed of nimble fingers and a strong, unwavering rhythmic sense.

Their rapport throughout and on the last note of every piece was perfect. In De Falla et al., they captured the vitality, fire, power and passion of the Spanish soul.

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During the concert, there was an ongoing interaction betweenn the French guitarists and the Filipinos in the audience – the guitar perhaps being our country’s most familiar instrument, with its stringed sister, the banduria, having come to existence during the Spanish era. Further, composers of the romantic kundiman were then highly influenced by Spanish music.

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International concert pianists and musiceducators Ingrid S. Santamaria and Reynaldo Reyes will start their eighth Asian and Philippine concert tour, the now well-known Romantic Piano Concerto Journey, tomorrow, June 20, ending July 23 with an invitational evening gala featuring the Philippine Philharmonic orchestra under conductor Eugene Castillo. The concert will be presented by Ambassador Alfonso T. Yuchengco, chairman of the Yuchengco Group of Companies, at the Teresa G. Yuchengco Auditorium of the Don Enrique Yuchengco building at De La Salle University, Taft Avenue.

Tomorrow, June 20, the tour begins in Bangkok, Thailand, at the Oriental Hotel. The Philippine Embassy there, headed by Ambassador Antonio V. Rodriguez, will host the event which will be followed by concerts in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, at the Music Conservatory and Renaissance Hotel on June 22 and 23, respectively.

On July 3, a special evening concert will be hosted by Sweden’s Honorary Consul and Mrs. Jose Sala at Maria Luisa Park in Cebu City, with Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide and German Ambassador Herbert D. Jess as guests of honor.

The tour resumes in Manila on July 10; Silang, Cavite on July 11; ending July 23 with the afforementioned scheduled concert at De la Salle University.

Through the years, the Romantic Piano Concerto Journey featuring the works of Beethoven, Schumann, Schubert, Chopin and Rachmaninoff have been heard in more than 90 towns, cities and educational institutions in the Philippines and abroad.