Saturday in the park with.....

...francisco and martha and pipo and virgie and cindy and...

IT HAS BECOME QUITE FAMOUS for its Saturday morning market where you can get anything from organic vegetables to whole grain bread to bromeliads and orchids to Ed Quimson’s roast chicken and sometimes even Claude Tayag’s paella negra.

The park in Salcedo Village in Makati, usually gridlocked with business day traffic, becomes the typical town plaza on weekends, with neighbors doing their marketing and friends catching on each other’s life. The Salcedo Saturday market is the place to go, a sosyal palengke where it is chic to haggle and make pisil-pisil–but not too hard please–mangoes and papayas, to make pila for Ineng’s barbecue, to get lettuce and cherry tomatoes for the dinner party that night.

On any given Saturday you’ll find Makati’s ladies of leisure, diplomats and expats doing their marketing, serious gourmands sourcing vegetables and herbs, residents of the myriad condos around the park making usyoso over breakfast or brunch. It’s a very convivial and congenial place to be really, except that parking can get quite nightmarish.

The Barangay Bel-Air ladies who run the market have done an excellent job of it; the trick now is not to become a victim of their success and keep prices and the crowds under control.

Saturday before last the ladies, together with the staff of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, turned the park into a concert venue to host no less than the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO) and the UP Concert Chorus, plus soloists Isay Alvarez and Robert Seña. Organizers did such a good job of spreading the word the venue was packed, with tables and chairs added and added, and then added again. It was a free concert, but you bought chits at the gate with which to buy food.

Via Mare catered... bibingka and puto bumbong, corned beef and lumpiang ubod and even oysters. Unfortunately they did not anticipate so large a turn-out and so ran out of food pretty quickly, and the very few waiters on hand were so frazzled and harrassed. But no matter; many brought their own bottles of wine, and prevailed upon friends who lived in the buildings nearby to bring down glasses, and peanuts and pica pica too, thank you.

But the food and the wine were mere distractions, as the music filtered through the evening air, first a medley of popular Philippine folk songs by the PPO conducted by Maestro Eugene Castillo, leading then to selections from the Sound of Music–"The hills are alive" and "My favorite things" and "Doe a deer"... so familiar were the tunes people were humming and singing merrily along. Abelardo’s "Cavatina" and Velarde’s "Dahil sa Iyo" rounded up the first part.

The award-winning UP Concert Chorus joined the orchestra, with music director Jai Sabas Aracama, for a haunting "Mutya ng Pasig", then burst into vibrant song and dance with "Awitin Mo at Isasayaw Ko" and the playful "Kalesa", then Ryan Cayabyab’s "Hibang sa Awit".

Powerful is a good description for the voices of husband and wife team Isay Alvarez and Robert Seña, whose four numbers–Maalaala Mo Kaya, Limang Dipang Tao, Kahit na Magtiis and Gaano Ko Ikaw Kamahal–were very well applauded.

The finale involving orchestra, chorus and soloists–Leopoldo Solis’ Lagi Kitang Naalaala–had the audience on their feet and shouting "More! More!" Unfortunately that was all folks, and there were no encores.

Because it was a park and not a recital hall, there were acoustic problems, and glitches in the sound system. And because it was an evening in the park with music and not an evening at the concert, people were eating and chatting and moseying around throughout, which under other circumstances would be downright bastos, but this was different. Kids ran around–although others sat on the ground, enthralled–and yes, people did talk on their cellphones, as always.

But it was a really nice way to spend a balmy Saturday evening, among friends–my whole barkada was there–in the park with a canopy of leaves and tivoli lights overhead, and though there was no more bibingka to be had, there was plenty of chismis and catching up to do.

Nene Lichauco, kapitana of Barangay Bel Air and punong abala of both the Saturday market and the concert series called "Salcedo Nights" (the next one is on March 25), and her tireless and indefatigable ladies must be heartily congratulated for this wonderful project. By the way, they are having the PPO over again tonight, this time at the park on Solar Street in Bel Air 3, with visiting Maestro Oscar Yatco conducting. The UP Concert Chorus will again be there, as will violinist Gina Medina. It will be another lovely way to spend a Sunday evening.