The ever-startling Coyiuto/PBT's Carmina Burana: A brilliant highlight

Each time Cristine Coyiuto performs, she startles listeners, her outstanding qualities sounding even more marked, and thus more remarkable than when she last played.

Her concert at F. Santiago Hall, strikingly renovated by BDO, underlined this observation as she interpreted Schuman’s Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood), Chopin’s 24 Preludes — both composers marking their bicentennial — and Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes in F Flat Major  and  F Minor.

The highly descriptive “Scenes of Childhood”, meant for mature rather than juvenile delectation, of unequal length and relative simplicity, conveys varied happenings, episodes, memories eliciting similarly diverse thoughts, moods and emotions. Coyiuto’s renderings were smooth and seamless, her delicacy of touch, rich hues, tonal clarity and lyrical treatment kindling dreamlike reveries alternately quiet and spirited, the impressively contrived contrasts arresting and sustaining interest.

Chopin’s Preludes, musicologists aver, are mood pieces, arranged like Bach’s “Well-Tempered Clavichord” in key sequence, although Coyiuto’s own choice did not follow this scheme.

The incomparable originality, imagination, creativity and innovativeness of Chopin — yet to be matched to this day — were fascinatingly demonstrated by the Preludes,  these varying in length and artistic demands, each “a masterly working out of technical problems.”

Their rhythms range from that of the intriguing “Raindrop” Prelude to the turbulent, rampaging one of the B Flat Minor, and the rippling F Major. In substance and content, from the sad, brooding E Minor and solemn C Minor, to the joyful, ecstatic D Minor (allegro appassionato).

It took a pianist like Coyiuto, with her purity of style and sensitivity, as also her emotional and dramatic resources, to recognize and express the unique characteristics of Chopin with such astonishing and moving results.

Although several Preludes were replete with daunting passages for skillful execution, Liszt’s two Etudes best demonstrated Coyiuto’s technical command and mastery which were an excitingly riveting match to Liszt’s showy, bombastic, sensational bravura pieces.

At concert’s end, Coyiuto responded to the standing ovation with three recognizable Chopin pieces integrated as one, and Ernesto Nazareth’s Brazilian tango “Audion.”

* * *

Philippine Ballet Theater’s mixed program consisted of the classic “Paquita” (Act II), “The Beatles Revisited” and “Carmina Burana.” In “Paquita,” a bevy of lithe, young ballerinas danced the standard ballet steps with grace and precision; the danseurs, with élan and ballon. Leads were Bianca Trocino and Lemuel Capa; soloists, Joni Galeste, Maxine Sy, Rafael Artaiz; pas de trois dancers, Mark Pineda, Robby Lacaba, Joni Galeste and Joey Atayde. “The Beatles Revisited,” brisk and bristling as choreographed by Ron Jaynario, deftly fused ballet with modern dance and a bit of acrobatics, the danseurs and ballerinas vigorously reflecting the pounding rhythms. Soloists were Bianca Trocino and Tiffany Mangulabnan. The quartet consisted of Peter San Juan, Mark Pineda, Saeko Hayashi and Lobreza Pimentel.

The brilliant climax was “Carmina Burana” to the ravishing music of Carl Orff and the choreographic masterpiece of David Campos Cantero, with the elegant stage design, by C. Gementiza, costumes by Julie Borromeo and lighting effects of Lito Borromeo creating the desired medieval ambiance of gloom.

Monks and minstrels wearing masks to hide their lust and dark passions, swiftly and clandestinely move about. A knight, kneeling in prayer, is tempted by two women; two knights disrobe two ladies in an erotic scene treated with tasteful discretion.

The twirling, twisting, turning continue to imply repressed passions and sinful desires. The moment of sacrifice comes for the repentant sinners who engage in flagellation.

With Jaynario as artistic director and Anatoly Panasyukov as ballet master, the dancing, miming and posturing express the message of sin and repentance vibrantly and dramatically.

The splendid music of the UST Symphony Orchestra under Herminigildo Ranera, the glorious voices of Noel Azcona and Sung-Hye Sun, the massive Coro Tomasino under Ronan Ferrer were a major contribution. With “Carmina Burana,” PBT asserts itself as a leading dance company.