Maestro Yatco at BelAir/The Waltz King lives!

The brasses were a revelation. I had never heard such unwaveringly firm, robust tones as I did in the recent Bel-Air Village III Park concert. For the brisk, bracing, zestful overtures – Von Suppe’s Light Cavalry, Offenbach’s Orpheus in Hades and Rossini’s William Tell – conductor Oscar C. Yatco must have honed the skills of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra’s brass players with unrelenting determination.

The woodwinds, likewise, were excellent in the predominantly martial selections whose cavalry and military images shone in full splendor.

The Rossini Overture, like the other two, was infectiously vivid and dramatic, rousing the over-flowing audience from its lethargy as Yatco wielded his baton with fervid vigor.

Came Mascagni’s well-loved, familiar “Intermezzo” from Cavalleria Rusticana, its haunting melody conjuring religious fervor and the searing emotions of the opera’s earlier scenes. The strings gently predominated here, producing flowing, cohesive, exquisitely lambent tones.

The young, fetching marimba soloist Aimee Medina fascinated – indeed, electrified – listeners as her tongs kept evoking Gypsy fire and passion in Ravel’s Tziganne, with Yatco drawing lush colors from the ensemble to enhance the rapturous mood. Bold harmonies, skillful orchestration (typical of Ravel) and energetic rhythm further dazzled the audience.

Medina obliged with another remarkable technical display in Rimsky Korsakov’s breathtakingly rapid “Flight of the Bumblebee”.

Yatco proved himself a true maestro throughout but particularly in Tchaikovsky’s “Pathetique” Symphony, brilliantly conveying its sublimity and grandeur, reaching its tremendous, overpowering climaxes through a nearly despotic baton. To appease the clamor for an encore, Yatco and the PPO played the Rossini Overture again, drawing even lustier applause.

Barangay Capt. Victor T. Gomez, Jr. gave the opening remarks. Nene Lichauco, Women’s Group president and Kagawad Ma. Elena Fernandez Lorayes, Cultural Affairs chair, welcomed the audience.

Johann Strauss is not quite in the league of Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, et al. But as long as the Johann Strauss Society of the Philippines exists, the music of the Waltz King will continue to be heard and highly appreciated here.

With Consul Fortune Ledesma as JSSP president and over-all chairperson of the Vienna New Year Concert, and Helmut Gaisberger as V-P and chairperson, the event was held in the Mandarin ballroom which Mr. Gaisberger transformed into a resplendent hall of a Venetian palace.

Figuratively, Austrian conductor Ernest Hoetzl knew his countryman’s music as well as the palm of his hand, conducting the Manila Symphony Orchestra in lilting waltzes and polkas; e.g., The Gypsy Baron Overture and Elien-A Magyar Polka by Johann Strauss, The Sound of the Spheres Waltz by his brother Josef.

The personable Hoetzl gave enlightening remarks about each piece. In the sparkling, rousingly spirited waltzes, the listeners among them tenor George Yang, had difficulty resisting the temptation to sing in Voices of Spring or, in the case of Eddie Yap and his wife Dellie, to trip the light fantastic in The Blue Danube Waltz.

We were “startled” at the simulation of lightning and thunder as also at the momentary plunging of the hall in total darkness for The Thunder and Lightning Polka, and amused at the gradual disappearance of the orchestral players in Haydn’s Farewell Symphony. The rhythmic plucking of the strings in Pizzicato Polka was intriguing; audience participation (clapping) in The Radetzsky March was hearty.

Fortune welcomed the audience headed by several ambassadors; Austrian Ambassador Herbert Jaeger warmly felicitated the JSSP which was behind the marvelously enticing and entertaining concert. Johnny Litton emceed.