JSSP garden musicale / Tribute to Rodolfo Cornejo / Two Paco Park concerts

The Johann Strauss Society of the Philippines’ garden musicale, held at the residence of Austrian Ambassador Wilhelm and Yan Donko, featured tenors George Yang and Roger Chua, and baritone Jack Salud.

Prior to their performance, JSSP chairman Fortune Ledesma welcomed the guests; president Olga S. Martel and vp Agnes Huibonhua delivered an inspirational message and the closing remarks, respectively. Co-chair Marissa Fenton opened the speeches with an invocation; Ambassador Donko ended them by thanking all those who were making the concert possible.

Young, dynamic emcee RJ Ledesma prefaced the musicale by remarking that the tenors and the baritone would be giving Pavarotti a run for his money. It was of course an over-statement: the late Pavarotti remains unparalleled and untouchable.

Nevertheless, the singers regaled the guests with well-loved arias and familiar semi-classics rendered expressively and often, movingly. Salud’s voice, firm, focused, with a wide range, was impressively powerful in the Toreador aria from Bizet’s Carmen, the popular semi-classic “Amapola” and the aria Il mio tesor intanto from Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

Although Yang’s vocal talent was discovered relatively late, it has proven undiminished, his high notes remaining secure and sustained, his Chinese orientation not affecting the clarity of his diction in the German Dein ist mein ganzes herz (Yours Is My Heart Alone) from Lehar’s operetta “Land of Smiles,” in the Spanish “Granada” by the Mexican Agustin Lara, in the German Standchen by Schubert.

Chua’s powerful voice rose and rang stirringly in La donna e mobile from Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” in Una furtiva lagrima from Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore, and in Schumann’s Du Bist wie eine blume (You are like a flower).

The initial Drinking Song from Verdi’s “Traviata” had the singers joined by the evening’s delightful surprise ­— the soprano Marie-Anne Dominese, a scholar of the Klassical Music Foundation chaired by Yang. She and Yang sang Lippen Schweigen from Lehar’s operetta “Merry Widow,” the pair enchantingly injecting the duet with a brief waltz.

Salud sang to recorded accompaniment which was too loud, but his forceful voice rose superbly above it; the tenors and the soprano had pianist Jude Areopagita as excellent assisting artist. Twice Chua faltered a bit in a high note but Yang explained to me later off stage that the intense heat was throttling their voices.

The trio closed the program with the Neapolitan “O Sole Mio,” responding to the hearty applause by rendering Nessun Dorma from Puccini’s “Turandot.”

Pianist Mary Anne Espina opened the musicale with Mozart’s Sonata in B Flat Major and Widmung (Dedication) by Schumann/Liszt, playing the former with a freshness of tone and the latter with a beauty of feeling.

Paco Park Concerts

Pianist Nick Nangit gave a recital at Paco Park last May 6 but an indisposition prevented me from attending it.

After the local group “Music and Friends” performed at the GSIS Museum, it will sing at Paco Park on May 13 at 6 p.m. Its program “Himig Kahapon at Ngayon” will interpret Filipino composers Abelardo, San Pedro De Leon, Julian Celis Balita, Constancio de Guzman, Ernani Cuenco and Louie Ocampo.

Participants will be husband-and-wife teams Roger and Sol Peñaverde — parents of US-based tenor Roger, Jr. — Benny and Ofelia Santos, Nely Chua, Neddie Simpas, Nene Cristobal, Jose Rabe, Ester Vibal, Jose Oreta, Josie Tamayo, Alice Cua and Lulu Uy, with pianist Julie Mendoza as musical director.

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On May 16 at 6:30 p.m. eminent pianist-composer Rodolfo S. Cornejo (1909-1991) will be honored with a concert at the UP Abelardo Hall consisting of his Third Piano Concerto, his piano, song, ballet and marimba pieces. About 80 performing artists from the UP College of Music will render the works in the tribute which will coincide with the composer’s 102nd birth anniversary.

The free concert is open to the public.

In my younger years, I heard the prolific Cornejo perform on the piano. After he had finished playing, he asked listeners to give him notes on which he would compose a piece. One listener did; quickly, Cornejo wove melodies around the notes, indicating his considerable talent. Not many composers can produce aleatory works with such creativity and spontaneity.