If There’s Music It Must Be Spring

The third time around, French Spring in Manila 2001 is bigger, better, brighter and certainly more exciting. The line-up of performers and events runs the gamut from jazz to baroque music, from contemporary dance to a free-for-all music fest in the streets.

Centerpiece of the music smorgasbord is the Orchestre de Contrebasses, "a most original and promising approach to modern musical creativity". Composed of six virtuosi, composers and performers, the group blends sound with light: the sensual, seductive notes of the double bass is accentuated by theatrical lighting, while the movements of the musicians and their instruments form a ballet embodying the music itself. The orchestra gave a preview performance at Mandarin Oriental’s Captain’s Bar prior to highlighting French Ambassador Gilles Chouraqui’s opening dinner gala.

The Conservatory of Paris hosts one of the most famous and world-renowned ballet schools in France. The Junior Ballet of the Conservatory groups together the fifth year students in the classical, contemporary and interpretative dance classes at the academy. Their lone Manila performance on June 6 at the CCP Main Theater includes a repertoire of solos and group numbers that showcase the versatility of its young dancers.

Jazz aficionados can renew musical acquaintance with trumpeter Alain Brunet, whose turn at last year’s French Spring was a rousing success. Playing with local group Buhay, Brunet will hold a final jazz session tonight at Freedom Bar in Quezon City.

Relive the grand celebrations of the French royal court with Les Trompettes de Versailles, a powerful and unique trio of two trumpets and one organ playing the ornate melodies of 17th century baroque music. Distinguished organist and composer Georges Bessonnet will play the renowned and newly restored 18th century Spanish Baroquan pipe organ of the San Agustin Church in Intramuros during the concert, to be held on June 7 at 7:30 pm.

Declics, meaning "click", is a program aimed at promoting a new generation of French soloists and chamber music players who have been laureats of international competitions. This year, French Spring brings to Manila Jerome Ducros, a 27-year-old grand prize winner in chamber music and piano when he graduated from the National Superior Conservatory of Music of Paris in 1993. He has gone on to win several other international competitions and is considered one of the greatest pianists of the new generation. On the cello, 19-year-old Gauthier Capuçon was awarded the first prize even before entering the conservatory. This extraordinary duo will play an enchanting evening of sonatas by Debussy, Brahms, Schumann and Rachmaninov on June 16 in Cebu and on June 18 at the RCBC Theater in Makati.

More of chamber music will be presented on June 20 (RCBC Theater), 21 (St. Scholastica’s College) and 22 (Cebu) when violinist Frederic Pelassy performs with young Filipina pianist Luci Magalit of the Camerata dell Arte. Only in his twenties, Pelassy has given hundreds of concerts in four continents and has 17 recordings to his name. Magalit, in turn, graduated summa cum laude from the UP Conservatory of Music.

One of the most successful components of the French Spring is the film festival, which will be held this year from June 8 to 18 at the Shangri-La Plaza Mall. Last year, the film festival attracted over 18,000 viewers. This is the sixth year that Filipino film goers have been treated to French films, a welcome and most appreciated change from the usual Hollywood fare.

Films this year include the award-winning Le Gout des Autres (It Takes All Kinds) by director Agnes Jaoui and the absorbing and intriguing Indochine starring Catherine Deneuve and set against the backdrop of the Communist uprising in Vietnam. Other films starring Deneuve are Place Vendome and Est-Ouest (East-West). A total of eleven very recent films will be on view, three a day for free at the Shangri-La cinema.

A month-long exhibit of French figurative paintings is on at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, featuring six artists whose works are as diverse as they are powerful. The works in peinture [figures] peinture, on-going until June 30, show us "different images of people in a polymorphous approach to reality... original images arising out of individual experience, just as much of their (the artists’) own as that shared with others, just as much with history as with culture," according to curator Philipe Piguet.

French Spring in Manila 2001 climaxes on the evening of June 23 with a rousing repeat of Fete de la Musique, when professional and amateur musicians take to the streets–this time the trendy Nakpil Street in Malate–in their common love for music, performing for anyone who happens by. This year’s performers include Southborder with Bituin Escalante, Rivermaya, Barbie’s Cradle, Razorback, Ugoy-Ugoy, Blue Rats, 7 Shots of Wisdom, Skin, Puro Ritmo, Pinikpikan, The Manila Youth Symphony Orchestra and many more. Concerts are held simultaneously at chosen venues in the area, plus street theater, dance, beat poetry, performance art and a percussion parade.

Revel in the full bloom of French Spring in Manila 2001. Contact the French Spring in Manila hotline at 810-1981.