Cellist Coo: A master / From FEU audience, Ole!

Vigorous, powerful tones alternated with smooth, gentle, glowing sonorities as cellist Victor Coo played, his eyes closed for most of the time, his face reflecting the emotions elicited by the music: sorrow, anxiety, joy or rapture.

Coo used scores (which he rarely looked at) for the program’s most daunting and challenging selections: Shostakovich’s Sonata for Cello in D Minor, Op. 40 and Rachmaninoff’s own in G Minor, Op. 19.

In the former, a diversity of technical devices conveyed a diversity  of moods, unmetrical rhythms, a vast range of dynamics and indefinite tonality. Complex, bravura and fortissimo passages electrified while long, flowing ones soothed, rendering the interpretation highly intriguing and fascinating. How magnificently Coo demonstrated virtuosity as he rose to the demands of the selection!

This virtuosity applied likewise to the rendition of Rachmaninoff’s Sonata although this was, by far, more tonal and lyrical than Shostakovich’s work.

The Taiwanese accompanying artist, pianist Ya-Hsin Wu, fully complemented Coo’s technical skill and emotional sensitivity, thus proving the power of ideal partnership. Cellist and pianist conveyed seamless, impeccable, glowing ensemble work that prevailed throughout, starting with Schumann’s Adagio and Allegro, and ending with Astor Piazolla’s Grand Tango.

Characterized by flair and spirit, the Grand Tango is not the conventional musical form to which Argentine ballroom contestants dance in a dazzling, ravishing fashion. A composition of abrupt, unpredictable rhythms, compelling charm and grace, Piazzola’s Tango and other innovative works have revolutionized South American ballroom dances. Coo and Wu totally captured the essence and spirit of the new, flamboyant, exciting if undanceable idiom.

Insistent and rousing applause of the F. Santiago Hall audience led to Abelardo’s well-loved Cavatina.

Coo’s latest recital (as well as previous ones) places him alongside our other leading cellists. His instrument seemed rather wanting in volume, but he played with serenity, ease, authority, brio, his tones luminous. All these proclaimed him a master.

Pianist Ya-Hsin Wu deserved the lusty approbation as well for her fluent, fluid, sparkling, unerring and eloquent assistance which spelled, as previously mentioned, the power of an ideal partnership.

To mark RP-Spanish Friendship Day, Clara Ramona and Company danced for Far Eastern University students at the FEU auditorium. The performance mirrored the recent “Sangre Flamenco II” staged in Spotlight without, however, the Yerbagueña consisting of a guitarist and two percussionists.

The performance was interspersed with Clara Ramona’s illuminating “backgrounder” on Spanish dances in general, a demonstration of the mind-boggling rhythms of the castanets, remarks on the evolution of the dances and their fusion with Filipino folk dances. Ramona also explained the meaning of Ole! the Spanish expression for immense pleasure and appreciation. Forthwith, the auditorium reverberated with Oles after each dance.

The show, invigorating and energizing, was dominated by Ramona’s sensuous, seductive grace, suppleness, thunderous taconeos, zapateados and rapid castanet-playing. Dancing with a fan, or a shawl, or with castanets, she magnetized and mesmerized her young, impressionable viewers.

Soloists were the enchanting Olivia Francisco with a tambourine in Gitanilla (Little Gypsy), Timothy John Fabian and Tammy Monsod, each executing the Farruca with verve and precision. The spirited ensemble dancers were Mercedes Soler, Maradee de Guzman, Clarisse de Castro, Danica Lopez, Rose Roig.

Martin Lopez, executive director of the President’s Committee on Culture, initiated the Clara Ramona concert-lecture to widen the students’ knowledge of the Spanish dance. Pairs of FEU students heightened  interest by performing the Sevillanas, a Spanish-RP fusion. They, too, got an ‘ole!’