Spanish, UK ‘invasions’

After brief remarks by Instituto Cervantes director Jose Rodriguez, the Cambra Almodis opened its program “Music and Dance of the (Spanish) Royal Court” at the RCBC auditorium. Violinists Gabriel Graells and Francesca Puche, violist Montse Vallve, cellist Inaki Etxepare and guitarist Juan Carles Martinez rendered Quintets by Boccherini, the Italian composer who made his mark in Spain in the 18th century.

Gentility, elegance and charm — the sine qua non of a royal court — characterized the ensemble’s performance, its brisk, invigorating spirit expressing the tempo, mood and ambience of the movements.

Dancers Carmen Fernandez, Laura Mestres and Ruth Esperanza likewise reflected gentility, elegance and charm. Further, their castanet playing, taconeos and zapateados were subdued and restrained in keeping with the period. Many dances were balletic, ballet having begun in the Italian court of Boccherini’s time, the echappes, battements reaching Spain and other European countries.

Tall, svelte Fernandez moved with lithe, exotic grace, her long arms tracing arcs and angles ending in arresting poses. Garbed in rich, many-layered brocade, the younger ballerinas engaged in a delightful, fascinating dialogue of the castanets. To heighten appeal, they wove in and out of the string ensemble’s semi-circle; once, Fernandez sat with the players, her castanets providing the rhythm.

Throughout, the ballerinas assumed an aristocratic air befitting royalty, daintily dancing to the exhilarating brio of the strings, particularly of violinist Graells.

UK Ambassador Peter Beckingham wittily introduced British violinist Robert Atchison and Ukranian pianist Olga Dudnik to the audience at the British embassy residence, and forthwith, the distinguished duo interpreted Vivaldi’s Sonata Op. 2 in A Major.

Known as the 18th century Paganini, Vivaldi composed his sonata in five movements. Atchison’s reading of the Allegro movements was brisk and virile, contrasting these with the fluid, languid, flowing lines of the Adagio.

His technique was secure, indeed, masterful in the Vivaldi sonata as it was in Beethoven’s Sonata in F Major “The Spring”. The melodies rose loftily in the adagio while the scherzo and allegro movements were marked by pervasive, vibrant thrusts. Dudnik established seamless rapport with the violinist. Elgar’s well-loved, exquisitely lyrical Salud y Amor followed the prolonged applause.

A documentary showed how the Philippine Community Fund cares for Manila’s countless destitute children. Jill Beckingham is deeply involved in the humanitarian project.

“Yo solo quiero caminar” (I only want to go on) by Spanish contemporary choreographer-dancer Alberto Huetos at the CCP Little Theater had this auditory accompaniment:

1) Oriental (Indian?) music; 2) a continuous drone with heavy metallic percussion beats; 3) the continuous onrush of angry waves; 4) the plucking of a single guitar string; 5) solo guitar music; 6) crackling thunder claps produced by a circular disc; 7) traditional guitar music for song and dance.

Huetos danced to the respective rhythms of the foregoing. Head, arms, legs, torso were projected in all directions, leaps, turns, stretching or crossing of arms and legs were sinuous, graceful, Huetos’s pliant, marvelously controlled, disciplined body creating the widest possible vocabulary of movement.

In many instances, the dancing was elemental and earthy, the body lying or rolling on the floor. To catch his breath, Huetos would often stand still or move in measured motion, always commanding attention.