Tchaikovsky Evening

At long last, I was able to catch a performance from the UP Orchestra after missing everything the UP College of Music had in store for the past couple of months. I knew that I had to go the Abelardo Hall Auditorium when I found out that they'd be having an all Tchaikovsky programme. I really enjoy listening to the works of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and some of my favorite orchestral music were composed by him.

UP Orchestra

The UP Orchestra, under the baton of Prof. Rodney Ambat first played the very popular Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23 with April Dawnena Merced as the featured pianist. I commend Merced for getting through this piece despite some wild moments from the orchestra.

For the second piece, Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 was played. And it had more wild moments but somehow they got it together in the fourth movement. As an encore, they played the entire third movement again.

I was basically stunned on how half baked the orchestra sounded to me. I felt that the Tchaikovsky pieces that they played were too big for them. Although I wasn't able to write about it before, this was actually the same reaction that I had back then during the Just Mozart performance by the UST Symphony Orchestra. I wasn't expecting professional quality performances from both orchestras but what I saw was some notches below from what I expected.

Oh well, the members are still young and still studying, so I hope that they practice well in order for them to get a lot better. I wish that the next time I see them perform, I'd be blown away by their improvement. And the performances that didn't meet my expectations would just be a distant memory.