Russian pianist Gulyak awes with Russian works / Saving Phl organs: A must!

Russian pianist Sofya Gulyak was doubtless on familiar ground when she rendered Russian masterpieces at the CCP Little Theater.

One might hastily assume that the composers, being of the same nationality, would have uniform styles, technical devices, characteristics and even idiosyncracies.

Nothing can be farther from this assumption. Vast differences exist in their styles, approaches to music and beliefs. However, all the compositions demand varying degrees of virtuosity, command, and a wide range of artistic expressiveness. Gulyak reflected both in generous measure, electrifying listeners repeatedly with her brio and bravura. And intense passion.

Further, there was no need whatsoever for her to apologize for being a woman: how her playing demonstrated a man’s power!

Gulyak interpreted Rachmaninoff’s Three Pieces from Op. 3, Etude Tableau, Op. 39 No. 5, Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Scriabin’s Two Poems, Op. 32, Shostakovich’s Prelude and Fugue in D Flat Major, Op. 37 No. 15, and Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 6 in A Major, Op 82.

Profound melancholy and a perpetual feeling of desolation recurred again and again in Rachmaninoff’s pieces, particularly in ‘Prelude’; fire was combined with tenderness in Scriabin Two Poems; dynamic rhythms and chromatic passages were in Shostakovich’s Prelude and Fugue; leaps in melody and disjointed harmonies shone in Prokofiev’s Sonata as also percussiveness and driving, riveting rhythms.

Gulyak dazzled the audience with her incredible dexterity and agility, her strong, nimble fingers covering the entire keyboard in labyrinthine complexities rendered in the fastest tempo.

The recital of works by Russian titans was astonishing, astounding, awesome. The prolonged, hearty applause, got an encore which matched the virtuosity required by certain previous selections; the second encore, in contrast, was a sedate piece of lambent lyricism.

Sofya Gulyak is the best woman pianist I have heard in a long while.

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Herewith is a letter from Leo Renier, received May 11.

We finally possess a document showcasing the sound of the few surviving organs built during the Colonial Period, linking us with the Iberian Organ culture of Spain, Portugal, Latin America and Mexico. We are the only country in Asia with such a heritage.

Forty years after the restoration of the Bamboo Organ in Germany, we are still harvesting its fruits. Philippine organs restored by the Filipino Cealwyn Tagle and his company, the Diego Cera Organ Builders in Talon, Las Piñas. He and Armando Salarza were given scholarships by the sixth Bamboo Organ Festival guest organist Johann Trummer who saw the potential of the Las Piñas Parish, with a yearly festival, a boys’ choir and a piano department for outstanding students learning how to play the bamboo organ. Trummer also wanted to avoid shipping the bamboo organ again to Germany if repair was needed. Cealwyn stayed with organ builders in Austria, and returned in 1994, after five years. Fr. Pedro Galende had him repair the organ of San Agustin, and asked a Spanish organ builder to check the work, only to hear him say he could not have done better.

The restoration of the organs in Manila, Las Piñas, Cebu, Negros Oriental, Bohol, Zamboanga del Norte and Misamis Oriental saved our whole organ heritage.

The recording of the six pipe organs under the Swiss label VDE-GALLO was made possible by Jurg Casserini of the Swiss Embassy and by the Tourism Department and the Diego Cera Organ Builders.

Guy Bovet waived his honorarium, sound engineer Claude Marechaux served for free to fund Filipino organists needed if the instruments are to survive.

The CD box Historical Organs in the Philippines, Guy Bovet as organist, is now available at Fully Booked (Global City), the Ayala Museum, the CCP Gift Shop, San Agustin Museum and the Catholic Book Center. Proceeds are for the training of young Filipino organists. In Las Piñas, we organized in April the first summer course for organists. We are also requesting the Tourism Department to have visiting organists of the Bamboo Organ Festival perform in Bohol so the organs stay in good condition.