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.

PPO Signature Series Concert VIII

Finally, the long wait is over and the inaugural concert of Olivier Ochanine, the new music director/principal conductor of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, has arrived. And as expected, I went to the Cultural Center of the Philippines and watched this concert which was the eighth and the last of the 27th concert season.

This concert had a very interesting programme. The first played was Dmitri Shostakovich’s Festive Overture in A Major, Op. 96. I am very familiar with this piece and it does sound like what the title suggests. And it’s a really feel good piece of music. And during the performance, I was a bit thrown off by how slow the brass fanfare was at the beginning. It made me quite anxious for it to finish so the piece could go on to the delightful clarinet solo. The slower fanfare did make the main theme sound a lot livelier in my opinion. By the way, Ochanine told me later on that the fanfare actually has been played a lot faster than how it was supposed to be by others and that was why I thought that his was a lot slower. Nonetheless, it was a nice and exciting start to the concert.

The next piece the orchestra played was Le Cid, Suite for Orchestra by Jules Massenet. I’m not really familiar with this piece but it was quite accessible. And I always get amused on how some French composers managed to write music that is inspired by Spain. The suite featured melodies that are easy to like, familiar rhythms and most important of all, a variety of percussion instruments which never fails to please the audience.

From the unfamiliar to a very familiar one was how the concert progressed. The orchestra then closed the first half of the programme with Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings. As the title suggests, only the strings played in this piece and it’s a very sad tune usually used in funerals/memorials. I am quite puzzled as to why this was the closing piece for the first half since I felt a bit drained during the intermission. This piece is definitely not one to listen to if one wants to get energized. But the audience gave a rather energetic applause after the piece was played.

So I tried to energize myself during the intermission by drinking wine and I knew that I needed a lot of energy since the second half featured a piece that made me exhausted whenever I listen to it actively: Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, Op. 57 by Dmitri Shostakovich. The concert started with a Shostakovich piece that I could just relax and enjoy listening to it and it ended with a piece by the same composer in which listening to it is not a walk in the park. Remarkably, watching it live for the first time didn’t exhaust me at all. It was a very different experience from just listening to a recording of it. And the menacing timpani during the last movement which is my favorite really got my heart pounding.

The audience really welcomed Ochanine when they gave him a nice applause that could’ve rivaled the intensity of the timpani during the last moments of the Shostakovich Symphony. And as expected, Ochanine and the orchestra did a trio of encores. And it’s quite embarassing that I failed to get the titles and the composers of these pieces. All I know is that the first was Edward Elgar's Nimrod from Variations on an Original Theme for orchestra, Op. 36 or Enigma Variations. The second encore was a medley of popular Philippine songs. As always, foreigners who make an effort to learn a Filipino piece instantly endear themselves to the local audience. The final encore was a lively number and unfortunately, that’s the only thing that I could say about this since it was the first time that I heard that piece.

So now that the 27th season is over, I must wait a few months until the next season begins. I already have a copy of what the PPO has lined up and while some pieces are unfamiliar, the ones that I know especially the piano concertos happen to be some of my favorites. I wish Ochanine well in his stint with the PPO and he can count on my support as I continue watching my national orchestra.

Conductor Olivier Ochanine