Quartetto Espressivo

I admit that I'm not really familiar with string quartets. I don't listen to recordings of it and I can't recall if I ever watched a live performance before. But since then, I've gotten acquainted with the members of the Quartetto Espressivo composed of Joseph Brian Cimafranca (violin 1), Sara Maria Gonzales (violin 2), Rey Casey Concepcion (viola) and Gerry Graham Gonzales (cello). And when they invited me to come over the GSIS Museum to watch their concert, I did so without any second thoughts.

The weather during that afternoon seemed ominous but the opening piece of the concert, Franz Joseph Haydn's Quartet No. 43 in G Major, Op. 54 No. 1, somewhat provided some cheer to block the thoughts of the threatening rain outside. I'm not a huge fan of Haydn's happy music but I'd take anything to counter the gloomy weather outside.

The next piece they performed was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Adagio and Fugue K. 546. I was very much pleasantly surprised by this piece since the Adagio sounded very dark which I didn't expect from Mozart. I never liked fugues before but the introduction made me like the fugue part that followed it.

The last piece they played was Ludwig van Beethoven's Quartet No. 3, Op. 59 "Razumovsky". I've never heard this piece before as well as the other pieces that they played but this was the one that brought me through many different moods. But the one thing that stood out during this performance was the way that Sara Gonzales' face lit up during the final bars of this piece. It was such a delight seeing her face in triumph as she savored the last moments of the performance. She knew that they performed well and the audience did so too.

For an encore, the quartet played a Cebuano medley and it was then when they appeared to be relaxed and just focused on enjoying playing this encore. This piece was quite fitting since with the exception of Concepcion, the other three members all hail from Cebu.

One thing that I really liked about this concert was the spiels done by Jeffrey Solares who hosted the event. He provided some background information regarding the pieces to be performed which really sparked my interest. And he even commented on an Amorsolo painting that was displayed at the gallery to provide some insight on how western music has been embraced by the Filipino people. And proof of that is the Quartetto Espressivo and the much improved audience attendance at the GSIS Museum that night.

Quartetto Espressivo

Fingerdance

Now, it’s back to the regular entries involving my experiences in watching classical music performances. There have been a few performances that happened over the last few weeks but I wasn’t able to see them. But now, I’m back with an entry about the performance of Gerry Graham Gonzales whose recital during the PREDIS Young Artists Recital Series I also failed to see. Since then, I made it a point to somehow make it up to him and that I did when I caught his latest performance entitled Fingerdance which was held at the GSIS Museum.

As I’ve said before, I’m not that knowledgeable about the cello and I wasn’t jumping for joy when I saw his first pieces for the concert: Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009 by Johann Sebastian Bach and Rondo in C Major by Luigi Boccherini. I admit that these pieces are unfamiliar to me. The same could be said by the third piece which was David Popper’s Gnometanz, Op. 50 No. 2. I felt that he started a bit cold during the Bach but somehow got his pace with the Boccherini and the Popper piece which has a more upbeat tempo. By the way, except for the first piece, Gonzales was accompanied by Jourdann Petalver at the piano.

For the second half of the program, Gerry was joined by Sara Maria Gonzales on the violin for the piece Passacaglia duo for violin and cello by Georg Frideric Handel and Johan Halvorsen. This was followed by Antonin Dvořák’s Rondo in G Minor, Op. 94 and lastly by Peter Tchaikovsky’s Pezzo Capriccioso and accompanying him on the piano was Petalver once again.

I was glad to finally see Gonzales perform but this performance was light weight compared to his recital a month before where he had an orchestra backing him up. The performance in this intimate setting was very relaxed compared to the other performances that I’ve been too. And I guess that things actually got too relaxed that some mistakes were made especially at the Passacaglia. But overall, this is one of the concerts where one just could sit and relax, get away from the summer heat and enjoy a music performance. And a nice bonus is a chance to view the art pieces on display at the museum which I did before the performance started.

Fingerdance is actually a part of the GSIS Museum Thursday Concert Series which is held every second and last Thursday of the month from January to November. Surprisingly, this was my first time to see a concert from this series but this certainly won’t be my last.

Cellist Gerry Graham Gonzales