Oliver Salonga, top pianist/ Sala Theater/Today's events

Young pianist Oliver Salonga, winner of many local awards and two international prizes, one of them being the gold medal in South Korea’s 2008 Joenju Competition, gave a recital at the Philamlife Theater before a limited audience, a heavy downpour having stranded music lovers.

Nevertheless, this did not prevent him from asserting himself as one of our top pianists today.

Mozart’s “Twelve Variations” on the popular folk song “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” was fresh, spontaneous and charming as Salonga unraveled Mozart’s endless inventiveness, each variation vastly different yet as richly ornamented as the rest. Indeed, Mozart the musical genius, gave the impression that he could have effortlessly created another 12 variations with as much imagination, the notes again rippling and inter-twining merrily in Salonga’s rendition.

His interpretation of Mozart’s Sonata No. 10 in C Major fully captured its light, airy, playful quality while differentiating the meaning, substance and form of the movements — allegro moderato, andante cantabile and allegretto — from each other.

Rachmaninoff’s Sonata No. 2 in B Flat Minor was suffused with the composer’s typically intense romanticism, this expressed with exquisite lyricism by Salonga. The printed program averred that the composition required a great deal of skill from the performer. This was an understatement: what Salonga conveyed was astonishing, virtuosic skill.

This was likewise evident in Prokofieff’s Sonata No. 7 in B Flat Major. Its disjointed harmonies, alternating from the simple to the complex, its melodic leaps were masterfully delineated by the pianist. The opening movement, allegro inquieto conveyed a strongly martial air; the final movement, Precipitato, began with tremendous, propulsive, overwhelming bass chords that ended in a surprising, delightful, astounding proliferation and profusion of notes.

Earlier, Ravel’s familiar Poem Choreographique: La Valse, originally for orchestra and transcribed for the piano, ravished the ear. Varied, complex harmonic devices disguise and submerge the valse theme. The pianist himself made little attempt to have the valse surface, his prowess giving rein to the curlicues.

In any case, the formidable work, as played by Salonga, was, in its fashion, as devastating as the Russian masterpieces, and as far removed from Mozart’s classic composition.

Throughout the program, Oliver Salonga evoked beautiful tonal colors, demonstrated an artistic temperament, a startling technique combined with expressivity, all of which electrified. To still audience clamor, the pianist came up with the opening movement of Scarlatti’s Sonata in F Minor and the opening movement of Haydn’s Sonata in E Major.

I repeat: despite his youth, Salonga asserted his presence among our top pianists. Colleagues Rudolf Golez, Jonathan Coo and 14-year old Lorenzo Bueno Medel honored him with their presence.

* * *

Sala Theater, as explained by its founder Naty Crame-Rogers, demonstrates that drama can grow in a community at little cost by bringing it into our homes, thus enriching the community through wholesome entertainment, and providing continuing education for the strengthening of Filipino values while supporting our government’s national goals.

Sala theater began in the home of artistic director Crame-Rogers in May 1983 when she launched a workshop for youngsters, integrating this with field work of PNC graduate drama students. The outcome was the Philippine Drama Company and the Aming-tahanan Sala Theater.

Sala Theater gave a theater-dinner presentation on June 11 and 18 of “Leonor”, an excerpt from Severino Montano’s “Love of Leonor Rivers” at The Ilustrado, courtesy of Robert Lane. Arman Ray Ferrer was Rizal; Paula David, Leonor. Director Crame-Rogers portrayed Leonor more than a thousand times within a ten-year run.

All-day exciting activities relating to the Spanish language, Instituto Cervantes./Free public lecture on the music of Intramuros during the Galleon Trade by Cambridge U’s Dr. David Irving, 2-3 p.m., Almacenes Reales, Intramuros./Launch of Leon Ma. Guerrero Anthology, 4-6 p.m., Powerbooks, Greenbelt 4.