An Evening of Russian Masters

A pianist friend of mine has been telling me about her close friend, pianist Oliver Salonga. She has told me how good he is and that I should watch him if ever he performs. So when it was announced that Oliver Salonga would be having his solo piano concert entitled An Evening of Russian Masters at the Philamlife Auditorium, I knew that I had to watch it. And when Mr. Ray Sison of ROS Music Center and the principal flutist of the Manila Symphony Orchestra gave me a few free tickets, then it would only mean the end of the world if I failed to watch this performance.

It wasn't the end of the world but a sudden pouring of heavy rain before the concert resulting in heavy traffic that prevented a lot of people from either arriving on time or even making it to the concert at all. All throughout the concert, people arrived in small numbers and indeed a lot weren't able to see the whole concert which was very unfortunate because my friend was right in praising Salonga.

He started by playing a couple of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart pieces: The Twelve Variations on Ah! vous diria je maman, K. 265 and Piano Sonata No. 10 in C Major, K. 330. The performance was indeed how I expected Mozart to be: light, playful and seemingly effortless. It was in direct contrast to the bad weather outside. I am not usually drawn to this happy type of music but I knew that the serious pieces would be coming up next.

And the serious pieces that I like were performed next starting with Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Sonata No. 2 in B Flat Minor, Op. 36. And despite the constant arrival of late comers, I paid them no attention since I was absolutely floored by Salonga's interpretation of the piece. I was amazed on how he was able to switch gears from the Mozart and then to the Rachmaninoff.

During intermission, my friend who told me about Oliver Salonga finally arrived since she was one of the many who got delayed by the bad weather. And I heard some accounts of people deciding to go back to where they came from and not attend the concert at all when they got stuck at traffic.

Going back to the concert, Salonga resumed with Maurice Ravel's Poeme Choreographique: La Valse. And for his last piece, he played Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 7 in B Flat Major, Op. 83. I can't imagine how one could have a solo piano concert with three piano sonatas and other such heavyweight pieces. I was absolutely floored on how he was able to perform the tumultuous last movement of the Prokofiev sonata with such ease.

Despite the less than ideal audience attendance, those present still showered him with very generous applause since he absolutely deserved it. And a lot demanded that he played an encore since they probably missed the earlier parts of the concert. And Salonga did oblige by playing a couple of encores but I completely missed getting the titles of this pieces.

It's been quite a while since I've been to a piano concert and I was glad to be able to have the chance to watch one such concert again. The last ones that I've been to was dominated by music by Chopin and this night was completely devoid of Chopin. I love Chopin but it was nice to have a change of pace once in a while. The concert was entitled An Evening of Russian Masters but there were only two pieces by Russians. Earlier programme lists featured more Russian works but changes were made so only two were left.

It was indeed a masterful performance by Salonga and I am still in awe of how he played those heavyweight pieces. I am now hoping that he performs again and probably play a piano concerto by a Russian composer soon. By then, it will be another evening of Russian masters once again.

Thank you once again to Mr. Ray Sison for the tickets to this concert!

Pianist Oliver Salonga

PREDIS Young Artists Recital Series Giancarlo Gonzales & Joseph Brian Cimafranca

To escape the scorching summer heat in Metro Manila, I went to catch the third and final day of the PREDIS (Philippine Research for Developing Instrumental Soloists) Young Artists Recital Series at St. Cecilia’s Hall, St. Scholastica’s College. On this day, the featured soloists were cellist Giancarlo Gonzales and violinist Joseph Brian Cimafranca. Unfortunately, as I’ve said before, I missed the second day of this recital series that featured violinist Sara Maria Gonzales and cellist Gerry Graham Gonzales due to a convention that had to attend to that day.

These two artists boast a nice set of achievements between them. Gonzales was the 2008 First Prize winner of the National Music Competitions for Young Artists (NAMCYA) Cello Category. And he was also a delegate of the Asian Youth Orchestra back in 2007 and 2008. Cimafranca on the other hand is a 2002 and 2005 Prize Winner of the NAMCYA Violin Category. And he was a delegate for the Southeast Asian Youth Orchestra and also the concertmaster.

The first recital of that day featured Giancarlo Gonzales and he played a familiar piece to start the show: Habanera Filipina No. 2 by Ernesto Vallejo. He was accompanied on the piano by Mary Anne Espina. I’ve heard this piece before played on the violin but Gonzales is a cellist so this piece was transcribed for his instrument. And it felt a bit odd hearing this piece in much a lower pitch more suited to the range of the cello. But he played it with enough command needed for this show piece.

The next piece was Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Cello Sonata in G Minor, Op. 19. Again, Espina accompanied Gonzales with this piece and I admit that I had my attention more on the pianist since she had a difficult piece to play. And like the previous PREDIS recital of Rey Casey Concepcion that I was able to see, Gonzales didn’t play like he was in a junior recital at all.

After an intermission, the recital resumed with Gonzales playing the Cello Concerto No. 2 in D Major, Hob. VIIb/2 by Joseph Haydn. For this piece, he was accompanied by the Manila Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Arturo Molina. I’ve said before that Haydn pieces are a bit too happy for my taste but for this recital, it was okay since there was the Rachmaninoff piece to balance it with. Obviously, the highlight of the recital for me was the Cello Sonata.

Cellist Giancarlo Gonzales

After an hour or so, it was the turn of violinist Joseph Brian Cimafranca to have his graduation recital. He had Greg Zuniega accompanying him on the piano and the recital started with the Violin Sonata No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47 by Ludwig van Beethoven. I admit that despite being familiar with a handful of Beethoven piano pieces, I am not familiar with most of his work for other instruments. Again, it’s embarrassing to say that I can’t remember much about this performance except that he was the one who looked the most nervous compared to the previous two recitalists that I’ve seen.

But he settled when he played the next piece which was Mutya ng Pasig (arranged by Kabayao) composed by Nicanor Abelardo. He no longer looked nervous which made me feel more relaxed and I really enjoyed this piece which wasn’t really a technically demanding piece but was able to tug into my emotions.

And if I felt that fireworks were needed to show impeccable mastery of technique, Cimafranca supplied them in abundance when he played Theme Original Varié, Op. 15 by Henryk Wieniawski. Oh dear, I found myself holding my breath when I began to imagine how on earth one plays some of the passages of that piece. I enjoyed this piece and so did the other members of the audience.

The second half of the recital as expected was a work accompanied by an orchestra. And it’s no longer a surprise that the Manila Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arturo Molina joined Cimafranca for the performance of Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto Op. 14. I admit that except for the wildly popular Adagio for Strings, I know nothing else of Barber’s work which is quite a shame.

But Cimafranca, carried on the momentum that he had from the first half of the recital and did an excellent job on this piece. It was my first time to hear this and a mark of a good performance of an unfamiliar work is if it made me want to hear a recording of it so that I could be more familiar with it. And he certainly did that.

Overall, I was glad to catch three recitals and regret missing two especially when I heard nice things about the performances that I’ve missed.